German Shepherds and chickens - good combo?

[OccamsTazer]

Might be good for the dog

 

[joebryant]

I'd trust a well-bred German shepherd to learn and obey anything. I think a well-bred one could be taught to protect chicks. Some lines of the breed are so overbred they can't learn anything though.

I have two Welsh pembroke corgis. They're super-smart. They were introduced to my first chicks as soon as they hatched. They knew then that they were part of the family. Now that the chicks are grown, the two dogs are bigger chickens than the chickens. They even stay out of the silkies' way.

 

[happytxchick]

We want them to protect the chickens from the dogs down the road...they run wild and aren't fed/tended to enough by their owners and we've had problems with them eating our chickens. Need some defense.

 

[EggGrl]

A good Shepherd is hard to find! I have a herding breed which is also a guarding breed (Briard). She was not raised with chickens, but was raised with cats and in general...raised with manners. She will chase the chickens around the yard if I let her get bored out there. So she is not left out in the yard for long while the chickens are out of the pen. Though she will chase, she will not harm the birds.

She has learned very quickly to help me herd the birds back to the pen if I need to put them away during the day. This can be a handy use for that herding instinct.

Start with a puppy, and teach it to leave the chickens alone. This means introducing the dog to the birds while on leash and rewarding the pup for being calm and keeping the attention on you.

As for protecting the birds, my dog can hear or smell critters that enter the area. She has woken me up a few times at 4am with a frantic bark. Every time, she either nabs the critter (mostly racoons), or scares them away (mostly dogs). My neighbors cannot keep birds because they killed, but I've not lost one yet in 4 years.

I would recommend looking into a Belgian Shepherd or one of the less common breeds. The common breeds are over bred and subject to way too many health and temperament problems.

 

[Miltonchix]

I have a female Shepherd. She had to be taught the chickens are "MINE".
ANYTHING that is "MINE" is to be left alone!! Once she figured that out she has been fine with my chickens. Helps put them in the coop at night...........NEVER aggresive towards them.
She figured out those candy (to her) nuggets the chickens leave are really good eat.

I cannot break her of that bad habit. She LOVES chicken poop! and rabbit.....and cat...and ........she's just a "s**t eatin' dog".

 

[Tweeza]

We have a GS that we rescued March '08. He was 1 1/2 yrs and we think he was raised in an apartment. We got chicks in Sept. We did have to teach him that they were not to be touched when we let them free-range. I have never seen him chase the chickens but my daughter and husband says he sometimes does. He quietly herds the ducks. His purpose in life is to protect the flock.

Quote:
I do agree with Joe and we might have just been lucky with our rescued GS. He's free-ranged with the hens for 7 mo. now without any problems. Several weeks with the almost 2 mo. old ducklings.

There are a few other good breeds. Check out this link.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2600580

 

[happytxchick]

Thanks for all of the input, everyone!

 

[Irishrooster]

I would get a Border Collie I have 2 and they protect the chickens from everything they have chased coyotes and foxes away and they could learn to herd them.

 

[wombat]

We have a German Shepherd Dog, and he is great with the chickens. He never chases them, and helps put them in at night.

However, backyard breeding has done a lot to ruin the "working line" German Shepherd Dog. It's really hard to know what you're going to end up with, unless you've got a good breeder. On top of that, all dogs are individuals. Best you can hope for is to be working with your dog's breeding, not against it (i.e. tending dogs will tend, retrievers want to retrieve, etc.).

Many German Shepherd Dogs have very high prey drive; if yours does, you'll need to work at making sure your dog knows what is to be protected, and is not "prey."

If you are planning to get a "pound puppy", you're very possibly giving a good home to a large breed dog that might not get such a chance in life without you. On the other hand, you're taking more of a chance on health and tempermant than if you buy a working line dog from a responsible breeder. Up to you.

There are major health problems that have developed with German Shepherds. They are prone to hip and elbow dysplaysia, pancreatitis, and can develop an enlarged esophagus. If you are buying a dog, your breeder should be able to tell you about those four conditions, and what they are doing to ensure that their dogs don't have these traits. At minimum, they should be xraying the parents (not the young pups) for hip problems, and should have the Orthopedics Foundation for Animals (OFA) certification to back it up. The OFA registration can be checked at: http://www.offa.org/

A good breeder who is spending money on certification will be happy to show you their certification. I would be highly suspicious of a breeder who downplays the need to cert with this breed, or claims certification but can't be bothered to produce their certificate.

My GSDs are from breeders, and they've been wonderful around our children and other animals. They are generally very suspicious of strangers, however, and our present male GSD will not let anyone he does not know in the yard without putting them up against the fence and doing a "bark and hold." He is not the least bit accomodating to strangers, so a word of caution if this could be an issue for you.

I've also found that every GSD we have ever had has had a thing for bicycles. Something about the speed they go by at seems to make ours think they see a predator, and they are off like a shot. Good thing for fences. Because of this, I would not recommend getting a GSD if you are near a road, and don't have a fence. Fencing is wise for other reasons as well ... GSDs might be perfectly good with your stock, and perfectly willing to consider your neighbor's stock to be prey.

Good luck.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
Thanks for this link. I've been wondering how I was going to protect animals on the back of our property, as our lab only hangs out on the front and takes care of our birds up there. I have ILLed a good book on the subject to investigate which breed would work for us and be a good fit.

Personally, I think 80% of the tragedies detailed in the P&P forum could be avoided with a good dog, including dog attacks.