HELP: What breed of dog should I get to guard my chickens?

[memiller123]

One more criteria to add:

I don't want a dog that is too big, due to food costs. A greater swiss mountain dog would be great, but he'd eat me out of house and home!

 

[pdsavage]

research all the breeds people have listed so far my Livestock gaurdian dogs realy dont eat that much alot less then my rotts did thats for sure.

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

We have a Boxer and Choc lab and had NO problems at all (except a neighbors dog first year we had chickens) and we have been raising chickens for five years now. They are both inside dogs but go out often to run our 20 acres and I think they keep everything away

 

[Dawn419]

Quote:
I'm sorry but I must totally disagree with you on that point. Since getting back into chickens in 2007 (after a 20 plus year vacation from them) we have owned 2 different Australian Shepherds (first one passed away, recently and we saved the second from being sent to an aussie rescue place). Both were/are amazing in only a positive way with being around our birds.

Our first Aussie adopted the day olds as her charges and stayed with that attitude until the day she died. Our second one was used to being around horses and a penned up chicken. I was nervous about him around our flock at first but being the breed he is, he looked at me for guidance the first time he was off his run when the chickens and guineas were free ranging and all it took from me was a stern "NO". He got the message/point and has never made a move to go after the birds again. It's all about the training/reinforcement.

Aussies are working dogs and need to have a job to do, which is up to it's owners to give them. If they aren't given a job/worked with, then yes, they can be very destructive.

The same thing goes for Border Collies and any other livestock dog.


Hope this is some help!



Dawn

 

[WalkingWolf]

We had wolves around he chickens with no problems, lost two though because of old age. We just got a mutt that was given to us, the remaining wolf is 13, we wanted a replacement before he passed. So far we have had the pup a month and he is doing fine with the chickens, two broody hens taught him respect and he leaves the chickens alone. The wolf has accepted the chickens so well he lets his favorite preen him while sitting on him. So you see breed does not matter so much as the dogs learning to coexist with the chickens. It helps to have a broody that will deliver the message though in the puppy stage, or even the adult stage. An aggressive roo may help with training but the spurs can injure the dog.

 

[chkinut]

we have a boxer and we didn't get chickens till he was around 5 and he's been great with them! hardly any teaching at all had to be done. only twice did he chase them (and got reprimanded for it) cuz he simply wanted to PLAY......i think what goes through a boxer's brain (especially a male) is PLAY? PLAY? PLAY?.....lol.....but he really has been great! hubby is getting a new dog in about a month. i won't go into explaining the breed here, may bore people, but it's basically an American Bulldog. he will be 7 weeks old when we get him so should be easily trained.....but from our research, he should be fine with the chickens, i just can't speak from experience yet.

 

[jenni22776rn]

I have 3 labs..chocolate, yellow and young black lab..and they have been great around our chickens! Very gentle and I have never had an issue with them around our chickens...I even let them in the pen when I collect eggs and they have no fear of the dogs! That being said..I think it depends on the temperment of the dog regardless of the breed..my friend has a husky and lost 5 chickens to him..while my other friend has an husky and has had no issues with his chickens as well as no issues with fox or coons...My neighbor has a golden that protects her chickens and has no issues with chickens..and she comes over to visit my dogs and has never been aggressive towards my chickens...and my chickens go over there to visit her chickens.
I am sorry for your loss of your dog..they are hard to lose!

Best of luck to you on whatever breed you choose!

 

[AKsmama]

Great Pyrs are the most commonly used LGD in the States, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a puppy. They meet all your requirements except for the wandering, and possibly the domination factor. Pyrs are known to be wanderers, but if they have an older dog around to learn from, maybe it won't be as bad. Typical LGDs, while all being large breeds, don't eat nearly as much as you would think for their size.

Pyrs are an intelligent breed. They do not enjoy being told what to do. They were bred to guard hundreds of head of sheep and goats in the mountains, oftentimes with only another few dogs as company, for weeks at a time. They tend to think for themselves. I'm not sure how one would get along with another dominant dog. Not saying it can't be done, just saying sometimes it's not a good idea to put two smart, dominant breeds together. And Pyrs tend to fight the same sex- females don't get along with females, males fight with males. Again, not saying it wouldn't work in your situation. Getting a young puppy is best since they tend to learn from their elders, so to speak.

I have a Pyr. She's young yet, about 7 months old, and we got her strictly as an LGD. She doesn't come in the house, ever. She lived in a house with a family as a very young puppy for about three weeks, so she is very attached to us, especially my children. But she is very slowly coming into her own. She does playfully chase the chickens, and we are working on that. But I have seen her in action a time or two and as her natural instincts develop, along with training, she's going to be a really good guardian, not just for the chickens but for the home and family as well.

 

[The Burg Peeps]

You don't want a HERDING breed, you want a GUARDIAN breed, there's a huge difference.

Herding breeds (Collies, Shepherds, etc. - Herding Group in the AKC) are meant to drive stock from one place to another, working in tandem with the stockdrover. Leave a herding dog alone with the stock, and the herding dog may harry the stock to death by constantly moving them from place to place. It's what they do, and what they're bred for.

Guarding breeds (Great Pyr, Anatolian, Akbash, Maremma, Kuvasz, Komondor - they're classified as Working Group in the AKC) are meant to live with the stock and protect it from predators. They have been bred for this for thousands of years in some cases, and the "prey drive" instinct that so many other breeds have is severely controlled in these breeds.

http://www.lgd.org

Here is a specific article about Livestock Guard Dogs (LGDs) and Poultry:

http://www.anatoliandog.org/poultry.htm

If you go with an LGD, a couple of words:

1) Get in touch with someone who owns an LGD (particularly a poultry LGD) for tips and information. It's not like owning a pet dog, and there are certain techniques used to acclimate the dog to the stock - and vice-versa.

2) Consider contacting an LGD rescue group to see if they have any working dogs who need a working home who would work with poultry. That may not be an option because none are available, but with the number of small farms going under and the number of working LGDs needing homes, this is always my first recommendation - working LGDs usually don't transition well to pet homes.

3) If you go to a breeder, go to a REPUTABLE breeder of WORKING LGDs, and get recommendations from other LGD owners about where to go. If possible find someone who breeds LGDs and trains them to work with poultry already, so the pups will have some foreknowledge in puppyhood that these are not feathery chew toys. Don't skimp on this, because you're trusting this dog with your stock's lives, and you don't want to cheap-out on the price of a dog and pay for it with the lives of your stock.

 

[matthewschickens]

I agree with the above post. Border Collies work WONDERFULLY for us. When they were young we taught them the "land" so that they hardly ever leave our land. They almost treat the chickens like their babies. They watch them and we haven't lost one to a predator since they started guarding them. At night they sleep outside and chase away all predators, and the deer that tear up our garden. During the day they sleep in the house. They're also not too big. They're wonderful dogs and I wouldn't choose anything else.