Great pyr

[babyrnlc]

Quote:
I'd recommend rescuing most any MEDIUM sized dog from a pound, and forget the idea that a dog is going to protect your chickens from anything besides possibly other dogs.

Dogs are little deterrent to hawks. and a dog in the front yard playing with the kids is not "guarding" the chickens in the back yard anyway.

First, we always adopt, I do not buy puppies. I dont think I would want a medium dog. I have always had large breeds, I actually think they are better with children. The smallest we have had is my mom's australlian cattle dog.

I dont want the dog to neccessarily protect, but deter. Also want any possums etc to e afraid to come in my yard.

My german shepherd mix has been seen keeping three possums out of the yard. And when she is out free ranging with the chickens, they hawks stay away. She is amazing, she was adopted as well. If I could get another just like her, that is what I would do. (Though she has jumped a 6 ft privacy fence in her younger days.) I just read that in general gsd may not be the best choice with chickens.

 

[babyrnlc]

Pip's chicks :

If you are looking for a pyr...I would suggest looking up Tip-n-Chips Kennel. Best Breeder of pyrs in the biz!!! It is in Illinois but getting a life long family member is worth finding a great breeder that is dependable and has been doing it for years. I know the breeder personally and sometimes she does have adults which wouldn't be a bad idea because you can get a dog with the understanding of the personality. Sometimes as puppies you can't really tell what type of dog they will grow up to become. Good luck

I like that idea, but we will probably go with a shelter dog. Or a rescue. We have not had a breeder pup since we got our lab (and she was to be a service dog for my son, so we had to get a pup to train)​

 

[babyrnlc]

Quote:
I'm guessing you have quite a bit more then 3/4 acre, with 2 houses and a pool already on it.

The OP isn't concerned with wolves or coyotes, but mainly hawks and daytime predators

I think the lot is an acre, we have a 3/4 yard. It is the largest in the neihborhood. It is on 3 large lots (on a culdesac). One of the houses is a little pool house (600 sq ft). They yard is huge for a city yard. We have had 36 children playing in the yard and it did not seem crowed at all.

I am also concerned about nighttime pregators like racoons and opossums. We have a lot of opossums. The house backs to a large field/park. There are lots of animals around.

It has never been an issue for us because of our shepherd. She is amazing. She will not let anything in the yard (but people, especially kids, she loves them) She did allow a travelling duck pair to chill in the pool for several weeks.

 

[TDM]

Quote:
Pyrs can bark quite a bit at night, especially if they sense a predator. There is a dairy farm half a mile away from where my chickens are pastured, and they can hear my pyr at night. Your neighbors may not appreciate that.

 

[LotsaChicken]

Quote:
I'd recommend rescuing most any MEDIUM sized dog from a pound, and forget the idea that a dog is going to protect your chickens from anything besides possibly other dogs.

Dogs are little deterrent to hawks. and a dog in the front yard playing with the kids is not "guarding" the chickens in the back yard anyway.

Do you own a pyr? Great Pyrenees will stop in the middle of eating, much less playing, if something enters it's territory. I've seen my dogs jump up midsnore and run to the back, because something was on the air. They play with my kids and still do alot more than just run off other dogs. I live on a working, 10 acre farm. We have all of your usual farm animals here. Our farm is situated at the end of a dirt road with nothing but woods and then a large river behind us for miles and miles. We have every form of wildlife that lives in the state of SC, with our main problem in recent years being coyotes. It sounds like we are in the wild west at night with all the coyotes yelping and howling, running the river. Before I had my pyrenees it had gotten to the point that I was having atleast one loss a day. I lost all my muscovy ducks and twenty of my young grow out roosters, quite a few laying hens and on and on.

They are also the most effective deterrent for hawks that there is. If they see the shadow of any large bird you will hear that "Woof, Woof" and see them following it. While I've never seen one catch a hawk, every hawk I have seen moves on and does not take the chance.

The idea that LGD's have to have no human contact to be good working dog is a misconception. It's all about territory for LGDs. Training a pyr from a puppy to live with a herd of goats/sheep and nothing else, teaches it that those goats/sheep are it's territory and nothing else. So it will protect nothing, but those goats/sheep. Whereever the goats are becomes the dog's territory. Trainers will start with a small herd in a small area with a young puppy and then will move the puppy and it's herd every few days, so it never gets a sense of a place as it's territory, but instead it learns that wherever the goats are is it's territory. This keeps the dog focused on protecting the area where the goats are. That is a method that is used on huge operations, but some small landowners misunderstand the method and many think it applies to them as well. Big operations range goats and sheep sometimes on thousands of acres, so it's important that the dogs boundary line becomes the outside of whereever those goats/sheep are. The dog never believes it's a goat, it never falls in love with the goats, but it protects them because they are it's property.

Now on a small farm, like mine, I don't just want the dogs protecting one type of livestock. I want them to protect everything within my fences. So, I have my fences set up with them having the run of the entire property. We spend time with them. I even let them come inside some during the day. Their territory is the area inside my fence line. You can see them walking their boundary line many times during the day and night. Their property is everything within that line. They are even protective of the barn cats. They do show a favoritism for the pigs. My pigs are pastured raised and they like to lay out in the field with them alot and follow them as they graze, but they protect everything. Let them catch sight of a hawk near my chicken pens, or the rustling of a fox and you've never seen such a big animal move so fast. They are fine with visitors as long as we are with them. Noone has driven through my gate since they have been here without calling up to the house and asking for someone to open the gate for them.

I couldn't be happier with my dogs. They're everything I'd have ever wanted them to be and I feel that my animals and my home is safer with them here.