Horse vs. Dog in predator prevention

[DoDa]

Thank you Beekissed! I'm getting tired just thinking about the change and you all have given me hope. We've been overworked for some time (years) and we're trying to make a good decision that will bring more peace and organization to our place... I'm o.k. with the training time if we get a puppy. I've lost many a good pair of shoes to puppies in the past, and cleaned up many "messes". I'll gladly do it all again if we can have a dog half as good as the ones my family had growing up. Now to research all of your suggestions on breeds... Those Pyrenees look kind of cute!

 

[Wildsky]

If you are wanting 24 hour guarding, you should get two dogs not one... its too much stress and whatnots for one dog to be "on duty" ALL the time.

I've heard some folks get a male and female, and they will share duties, each can have good naps and rest while the other watches!

Good luck

 

[Beekissed]

Wildsky, that is soooo true! Lucy used to have to do it alone, then we got Jake for her Christmas present. We had never raised a pup before, so his destructiveness and rambuctiousness was a shock to us and to her! Well, now we are very glad we did it. He sleeps while she is on guard and vise versa, he rarely barks but he kills, she rarely kills but she barks! They are the perfect ying and yang to each other. He cleans her wounds, sleeps with her when it is very cold, keeps her active and exercised and backs her up in a fight!

Lucy was a dog someone had left on a farm, tied to a dog box on a 5 ft. chain...the neighbors were coming up to feed her. The previous owners had gotten her from the pound when she was a year old, kept her inside for one day, decided she shedded too much and tied her up.....a year later they moved to town and left her there. She has never growled or snapped at anyone and she is a therapy dog at the nursing home. She came fully trained and is the sweetest dog I've ever met.

Jake was the largest pup in a litter of 12! These folks were giving these pups away and they didn't care who took them. He was all bones and full of worms when we got him (I also rehomed 2 of his siblings the same day....if I could have taken more, I would have!!

) He was 2 mo. old when we got him and not a mean bone in that boney body! He also has never offered to growl or snap at anyone, took me one day to train him on chickens, took me 30 min. to teach him a whole range of tricks when he was about 3 mo. old! Took a total of 10 seconds to train him on the wireless fence...one jolt and he obeyed the warning beep thereafter!

I told you all that to tell you this....don't overlook those pound puppies and throw away dogs! Some already come trained, some are so smart they require little training!

Good luck with your search and I hope you give us an update!

 

[babalubird]

I've been doing a lot of reading about LGD's too, for the future. I like what I read about the Anatolians. I've heard several people say the Pyranese tend to be wanderers while the Anatolians as well as some others aren't as bad about wandering.

Connie

 

[azelgin]

When I was working on a 25000 acre ranch in NM, they had 3 Great Pyrenees that patrolled the 2000 acres closest to the house and barn. The problem is that they barked all night and slept all day. Fine, if you're in the big house with the AC on. Not so great if you have to stay in the old bunkhouse with the windows open all night to keep cool.
We have three mules at our place. Two will go out of their way to stomp anything smaller than a cow that enters their territory. One of them could care less. They don't bark all night, have excellent eyesight and hearing, stay out side with no complaints, don't spend much time sleeping and provide nice fertilizer for the garden. We had a donkey, but at 450 lbs. was not as easy to handle as our 1500 lb. draft mules. Plus, we've not had any snakes near the place in the over five years since they have lived here. I don't think snakes like the pounding hooves hitting the ground and the vibrations. The neighbors all know the mules will stomp their dogs, so they make it a point to be sure the dogs don't come around our house. On the down side, they do eat a bit more than a dog.

 

[Beekissed]

Those are beautiful mules!!! They sound wonderful for guarding livestock. I've heard the guard donkeys are quite loud when they bray....are the mules the same? I like the idea about no more snakes....my stupid mutts didn't even notice when a black snake ate my chicks right next to there sleeping area!

My GP mix does bark more than my younger dog but I only allow her to bark for a short while. I'm trying to teach her to alarm bark, give a warning set of barks....then shut the heck up! I give her some bark time and then tell her to go to her house. She usually complies with this order. If the younger dog barks, I KNOW something bad is out there! He hardly EVER barks.

 

[azelgin]

Beekissed:
The donkey we had was louder than a fire engine! He sounded off every hour of the night and day. The mules do bray, but each of them sounds different from each other. They get noisey and start talking to me when my truck get about a mile from the front gate. If they are making noise at night, something's up. Little SallyMae has a high pitched cry that sounds like she is trying to imitate a horse. Poorley. Ron sound almost like a regular donkey, but not nearly as loud. Glen sweaks like a little girl. They are usually pretty quiet at night. Glen has a real loud wheeze/snort that he does when there is something up. It wakes us up to take a look at what he is upset about. He alerted us to a cougar in the driveway a couple of years ago. We listen when Glen talks. Their eyesight still amazes me. We will see them focused on something in the distance and will have to get out the binoculars to find what the are looking at. They can spot an illegal immigrant a mile and a half away. Deer and coyotes just as far. Them big ears can hear momma cutting carrots with all the doors and windows shut too. We love them for their personalaties. Like big, friendly dogs.
The dogs on the ranch wouldn't have been so annoying if they would have done their barking when something was around. At first would go out with the spotlight to find what they were barking at. When I found it was usually the windmill, irrigation water cannon, or the water filling the pond, I didn't bother anymore.

Randy

 

[Queen Scoot]

i have a great pyr...he is 7 months old and guards the flock. he has kept foxes and stray dogs from getting my chickens.
my suggestion would be a great pyr. he doesnt bark alot only to sound the alarm and always stay on our property.

 

[dixygirl]

I have a white dog and a white horse. They both LOVE the my chuckies but in different ways. The horse loves to watch them, sniff them or come and call me if they need anything. The dog loves to jump on top of them and bite their necks or put them in his mouth and kill them. But mine is a salvaged stray not one of the lgd dogs.

If you are not an experienced horse person, I would recommend just a dog because a horse is a whole other bag of beans by itself and require a lot of care.

 

[willkatdawson]

In my limited experience the Anatolian shep might be a bit of a handful. My vet has one and he says she is the hardest dog he has ever had to train. He says she is very strong willed and does not like taking directions from he or his wife. I asked if he thought we might like one for my family as we have 30 acres and many animals as well as a coyote problem. He said he thought they were far too hard to handle.
On the other hand the Great Pyrenees I have met are great. They are kind, calm, and very sweet. Every year a petting zoo would come to my childrens preschool and the lady who owned the zoo always brought her G.P. The dog had children laying on it picking up its ears and loving on him in general. The dog loved it. I spoke with the owner and she said the G.P. guarded all of the animals on the farm. She had never lost one. I was very impressed as all of her animals were miniature (goats, donkeys, pigs, ect.) as well as rabbits and chickens.