Best Dog Breed to Double as Both Housepet and Chicken Guard?

[PeepersMama]

Even though poodles were trained as duck retrievers, mine is super protective of my chickens. He loves to sit outside of their run and watch them. He follows them around when they are loose and will cuddle with them when they come to him. He was freaking out, crying, scratching, and barking at the door when my two little girls were taken from their coop this weekend. We thought he was being obnoxious, but now we realize he was trying to save them.

Maybe it's not the breed as much as the temperament of the individual dog.

Couldn't agree more

 

[Scott214]

Here he is now and his name is buddy. He is still under a year old but is around 70-80 pounds so he is big. But that’s him as a puppy and has the signature wavy ears and fluff from the Pyrenees. He’s such a wonderful dog and I’m grateful to have him protect and love us!

 

[flappychicken]

ok so we have a Fiest/Rat terrier/Jack russell..Thingy...

And we have not had a problem with her chasing, hurting or being aggressive at all towards the chickens! Even though her breed's are notorious for hunting small game. So this means (What my family thinks) is they are good for training! So maybe ask questions about that? Also look up all herding dog's. There's lots of varieties.

Well sorry I could not help more GOOD LUCK

HAVEAGOODONE!!!

 

[PeepersMama]

Here he is now and his name is buddy. He is still under a year old but is around 70-80 pounds so he is big. But that’s him as a puppy and has the signature wavy ears and fluff from the Pyrenees. He’s such a wonderful dog and I’m grateful to have him protect and love us!

He's gorgeous! I wouldn't have thought he was even remotely Pyr until I saw the puppy picture. His eyes look JUST like my girl's.

 

[Scott214]

He also has the extra dual claw on his back legs. Now that it is winter he’s getting so much more fluffy it’s kinda almost like having a golden retriever in the warm months and a Pyrenees in the cold months.

 

[jenniebee]

Wow, this thread has come a long way and you've gotten some great advice!

I want to confirm you can have both, a dog that's a good family pet and a good working dog. My dogs sleep in the house, next to my bed. Last night my dog woke me up at 4:00am. At this hour it usually means the dog has to go out and pee, but the dog wouldn't go out. You need to learn to read your dogs (as well as them learning the things you train them to do). I know my dog would not wake me in the night for no reason. I know my dog would not refuse to go out given the opportunity. I need to know/learn what my dog is telling me, and it takes a minute to process at 4:00am sometimes, but what my dog is really telling me is that the coyotes are here. My dog is working even in the middle of the night while sleeping next to my bed. She alerted me the coyotes were here. I can go turn on outside lights and look at windows and check the chickens. Dogs are smart. Do not ignore them when they are trying to tell you something.

You also asked about training. The basic training is the same. The techniques are the same. You are training your dog to "ignore" things that are exciting. This could be running kids, cars, the trash, the food on your dinner table, and the CHICKENS. You are teaching calming behaviors and ignoring stimulus. Encourage being calm throughout the day, even when there is no exciting stimulus. Its easier for dogs to learn to be calm when there's nothing around to excite them, then you can slowly start adding distractions for them to ignore. Lot's of sitting and staying and laying down and petting and treats and talking in a soothing voice. If you are calm your dog will read this and understand that there's nothing to be worked up about. We did lots of sitting next to the chicken coop (chickens locked behind a fence, could be seen and heard by the dog), and being calm. I'd just sit there in the lounge chair daily and make my dog sit next to me and pet her and tell her how good she was. Whenever she would get up/get excited by the chickens I'd make her come back to me and sit next to me (but you need to teach come and sit first, without chickens around). Once she could be calm around chickens I moved to giving her a job to do and pairing it with a command. Now in the morning instead of just asking the dog if she wants to "go out" I ask her if she wants to "check the chickens" and together we go straight from the front door to the chicken coop. She now associates this phrase with going to the coop and I can tell her to do it and she will go to the coop without me. When we are at the coop together we "check the chickens" and we walk a full lap around the coop and run. This is all very exciting for my dog and she is automatically rewarded by eating chicken food and chicken poop that has come through the fence (dogs love it, I can't stop it, it reinforces the positive behavior of circling the coop so I just go with it). After doing all this with me repeatedly, she knows to go "check the chickens" on her own, I can just send her out the front door and she runs out and does a lap around the coop. She will sound the alarm if anything is amiss and I don't even have to go outside.

I hope some of this helps and you can see the training steps and transitions. You'll get there and it will be rewarding for both you, the chickens, and the dog! Good luck.

What kind of dog is she?

 

[ReoChicks]

We have a Kangal, which is a Turkish livestock guardian. They are meant to apprentice under their parents for the first year as they do in Turkey. It doesnt seem to work that way here in Australia and it was very hard to train our girl at 4 months old when we got her. She is better than our other dog who recieved the same training but is not a livestock guardian breed BUT, she is not as good as a companion dog. I recommend getting a companion dog that is not a hunting breed and putting a lot of work into socializing it with the chickens and teaching it what you expect of it because guardian breeds are not great companion breeds. We adore her but we will never get another Kangal.
FYI, please dont buy a Kangal if you dont have a HUGE property.

 

[jvls1942]

for many years we had Maremmas.
great family dogs. I never had to shut the
chicken coop doors. never lost a chicken
from in the coop. we have all the wild life that is available from living very rural and only a couple hundred yards from a river.
the dogs don't have to actually "herd" the chickens. just their presence is enough.
my dogs preferred to stay outside, although they came in every day for Beggen Strips. they never were rambunctious in the house like many large dogs I have seen.
they did not warm up to strangers .
although they were not vicious. just kept their distance.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

This thread was started in 2017.

But since it's been resurrected I'm going to put in my two cent's worth. Shelties. Aka Shetland Sheepdog, also incorrectly called miniature Collies, miniature Lassies, etc. My Gracie is no more, but for 13 years she was both: companion to me and Keeper of the Flock. Because of her, my chickens could free range. We have 10 acres in SE Missouri at the end of a dirt road, and there are coyotes and other predators about. Gracie once ran off three coyotes by herself. But I don't believe she was actively protecting the chickens. More likely she was defending her territory. She usually lay on the top step of either the front or back steps, surveying her domain and barking at intruders - mostly the squirrels who were doing their best to harvest our black walnuts, pecans or mulberries. She took this job seriously! I don't believe she ever considered herself a protector of chickens. She honestly couldn't care less about the chickens. But! This was HER territory, and woe betide the fool who breached its borders! Now, we who have both chickens and dogs are aware of one thing about dogs: they really like the little chicken "nuggets" that come out of the back ends of chickens and I'm not talking about eggs. So dogs follow chickens, if you get my drift. And dogs then leave their own not-so-little scent-laden packets in the areas where chickens wander, little piles that tell curious coyotes and other predators "this flock is supervised and guarded by an alert dog." And would-be predators go, "Maaan! Guess I'll go hunting elsewhere." So the dog effectively "protects" the chickens, and possibly, or probably, isn't even aware that's what she's doing. A word of caution, though ... okay, two words. Shelties have a tendency to be, well.. vocal, especially the females. And they're quite hairy. But they're charming, funny, loyal and beautiful!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Sammy, my other Sheltie.