guard animals help me decide please!!!

[ninny]

heres my problem. i need some kinda of guard animal for my tiny farm. we have about three and a half acres. right now we have 6 kittens, 2 small indoor dogs, rabbits and guinea pigs that would be outside part of the time. the cats and maybe rabbits all year. we are going to get 3 dairy goats and some geese, ducks, guineas, chickens. and a couple big outside dogs. but where we live we have a big predator problem. i was thinking of getting a livestock guard dog but i dont think its worth the hassle with such a small acreage. the big dogs we get ( leaning towards mastiffs and dobermans) will be outside so they will help alot but i know we are going to need something more. i was thinking maybe a donkey or pony ( worked pretty good at my moms place) but not sure if we have the land. we live in the midwest, usa. any ideas? my geese always get killed off first so i need something bad. not sure about the lamas? anyhow all suggestions are wanted!!!

 

[nccatnip]

Do a search for livestock guardian dogs, learn the breeds that will be most suitable and go from there. I cannot see where a GLD would be more hassle than a dobe or mastiff, IMO they might tend to be more.

 

[ninny]

whats a gld? and i grew up with mastiffs so i love them to death. but the big dogs are also getting trained for therapy, so can't be full time guard dogs.

 

[Wooden_Pony]

One of my Parent's neighbors has a flock of sheep about 15 of them. They got fed up with dogs killing off the lambs and they bought two lamas.

They still on occassion have had dogs come onto their property and the only dead thing they have found was a dog. It was stomped to death by the lamas!

They have 5 acers of land so not much more then you have.....

 

[ninny]

hmmm... so just found out hubby has a fear of lamas. go figure.

 

[Wooden_Pony]

LOL, sorry to hear about that!

They are really sweet animals to. They are loyal and LOVE their flock/herd.

We have an Aussie/Border Collie dog she is good at protecting her critters and kids.

 

[BarbK]

If you do try a donkey make sure it is a mature adult that is used to dogs. To young and they won't guard their charges. (just think of teens and how they stick to their jobs) If they are not used to dogs your dogs could end up on the hit list as easly as your predator.
If dogs and Llamas are out I would consider a good donkey.

 

[davecash]

guineas are good guard animals

 

[FluffyChickenMama]

guineas do make great little alarms.. I dont think they would do much in the way of protecting though....

 

[ninny]

donkey but big, little, how much do they usually cost? are they hard to train? ive had horses and ponys.