Yeah my rough collie seems not to be beat as breed for stock protection, a lot calmer and stockier than border collies, with speed and agility still. mine is the runt of show dog litter, tiny compared to siblings, surprising actually he has such good working dog instincts, as parents and siblings supposedly dumb as mud and hyper as heck. My collie still here and after first night and since had chickens here, roaming cats coons and dogs have learned to go well around coops. coyotes are smart and haven't come up since first day, aside from four younger seeming other night. a white codog (stocky short tail), was at chickens first night had them here, and my collie chased him first time lightly, but stopping at cattle fence boundry i showed earlier (learned boundarys first day). he immediately returned as soon as we went to go inside, and this time my dog didn't just pace and tease. maine coone mix cat got a small coon on top of chicken coop but growled and swatted at me when got too close, and she dragged it into brush next to or into barn and it stopped squalerin for fam after that. If your gonna get a barn cat the only useful ones I've had were maine coon and bobtail (bobcat mixes). They're easily trained like dogs and can be taught to leave chicks even alone, but they then see them as fam or at least great bait to hang around to catch mice to coons and other cats to attack, with size to at least run off (my bobcat mix at forty pounds, would hunt full grown oppossums like field mice and finally kill with just one blow to head unless they played possum as he ate at them..).
