Coyotes...

[L0rraine]

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Our collie is a great protector as well, but I'm guessing he probably doesn't provide the same sense of security that yours does. And, ours is in the garage at night -- though my husband and neighbor really think we should leave the garage door partly open so he can chase things away in the middle of the night. I worry that, as much as he would try, he'd be out of his league if actually had to ever take on more than one coyote.

During the day he patrols the fence line, sits or lies on our grassy knoll and watches intently, and routinely checks on the other animals. My husband, who grew up in Scotland with border collies, says this is the first of my rough collies who really seems to believe he has a job to do and looks convincing as he's doing it.

 

[Bossroo]

In Central Cal. ,My neighbor had a LGD x Rottwieler X that weighed in at 110lbs. to guard his flock of sheep. One night he took off after a coyote... the next day the neighbor found his head and hide after a pack of coyotes got to him. His border collies just run and hide then tremble in their dog house when they hear a pack that come to snack on lamb. I lost 2, 2-3 year old Boxers 90 and 95 lbs of solid muscle to packs several years ago.

 

[L0rraine]

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Yep this is my fear, which is why my collie is still in at night. Until a few nights ago, the coyotes hadn't breached our fence line, so our collie has been more of a deterrent, 'sound the alarm' kind of a dog during the daylight hours (and we do have coyotes in the vicinity day and night - one took a neighbor's sheep at 11:30 am right under her kitchen window). He charges the fence pretty seriously and ferociously when he knows they are out in the field. But I did see a coyote come to the fence once and try to playfully entice him to chase him (which is a game they play to lure unsuspecting dogs out where the pack is). Fortunately no one has told him yet that other "Lassies" can leap four foot fences when "Timmy's down the well".

When he's indoors at night and starts barking we can generally trust that there is a predator somewhere in the vicinity and so, depending on how 'serious' he sounds, I'll get my flashlight and make the rounds.

 

[Red Maple Farms]

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That is why the LGD is behind an electric poultry fence. Coyotes are on the other side.

This winter she gets an LGD puppy to trian.

 

[Bossroo]

Yea ! In the mornings I used to chain my Boxers in the mornings to let them do their business when I needed to go to work earlier than normal. On this particular morning, a coyote came right up to my dogs and started a fight with one of the dogs, the other lunged in and broke his chain then they had a short running fight down the driveway, followed by a running fight down the road and out into a large barley field. My dog continued the chase untill they got to the pack ... no more dog as he was mauled and chewed up. He died just as I got to the scene. My other dog suffered a similar fate a year later. Coyote came up and started a fight, then they had a running fight along our creek, untill they reached the pack, where he was chewed up .

 

[chickboss]

Red Maple Farms ~ How do you raise a LGD? Don't you have to raise them differently than a normal pet dog? I don't know anything about it, but I like the idea. I don't worry so much about the coyotes out here attacking a LGD, but the M. Lions are a whole other story. I'd like to buy my flocks some extra freedom in the day time though. Will they protect against other dogs as well? If this is a little extensive for this thread, feel free to PM me any info that you don't mind sharing.
Thks.

 

[Red Maple Farms]

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Start here:

http://www.bountifulfarm.com/lgd_seminar.htm

http://www.lgd.org

 

[L0rraine]

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Oh what fun, and in many cases the 'resident' dog is an awesome trainer. I realize it's a long ways away, but you'll have to post pictures.

 

[Sweetfolly]

I've never really worried about coyotes. I see them around, they're yapping away at the back of the property every night (I kind of like the sound, actually), but they've never bothered the birds. I just have 4' welded wire fencing, and solid plywood nighttime pens, no electric fencing and no LGD (although, we do have 4 dogs on the property, but they're all housepets).

I've never worried much about owls either. My birds are all locked up tight in their pens for the night before the owls come out. My runs are built in the woods, under the oak trees, so between the dense branches overhead and the flight netting, I've never had a problem with hawks - in fact, there's a gorgeous Cooper's Hawk that nests along or driveway every spring!

We have the ultimate predator roaming around here right now: a cougar that just took a 2-year-old heifer at a farm about a half-hour away from us, and attacked a sheep and a horse. If a cougar decides that it wants to eat your birds or your sheep or your LGD (!), there's no stopping it. Luckily, with all the bigger game in the area, I don't think my birds are at much risk from the cougar - it's a little spooky taking the dogs out for the evening walk every night though!

There's also been a bobcat in the area lately - we usually have a teeming feral cat population here, but this year I haven't seen a single stray or feral cat - just rumors of bobcat sightings (do you suppose the bobcat killed all the cats?

). I haven't seen it yet, but the neighbor saw it early one morning, we found a rabbit carcass that we're pretty sure the bobcat is responsible for, and I've found the bobcat tracks in the driveway.

The bobcat worries me. I've been letting the ducks out a little later in the morning, and putting them back inside a little earlier in the evening. The cougar worries me too - but not for the birds, for myself and the dogs!

 

[aprophet]

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a bobcat when it eats something it will half bury a part of it for later the ones we have here the track is aprox 3 1/2 -5 " across it is a really round track