Leaving a dog around Chickens alone.

[centrarchid]

PatriciafromCO,

What type of garmin unit are you using to track dogs? I am interested in tracking mine as well. Could the unit you use be adapted to a chickens themselves. Some of my free-range birds I would like to track. Also if I do get into some coyote / bobcat issues I would like to Garmin unit strapped to carcass so I can use it to locate cache sites.

 

[PatriciafromCO]

PatriciafromCO,

What type of garmin unit are you using to track dogs? I am interested in tracking mine as well. Could the unit you use be adapted to a chickens themselves. Some of my free-range birds I would like to track. Also if I do get into some coyote / bobcat issues I would like to Garmin unit strapped to carcass so I can use it to locate cache sites.

I have the Alpha receiver and that is important to understand this receiver can set up the geo fencing and radius alarms along with training stimulus and tone.. The Astro receiver is tracking only.... There are Training collars that you can set up for stimulus and tone with the Alpha receiver..

Both Tracking only collars and Training collars work with the Alpha receiver which includes Tracking only collars responding to any geo fencing and radius alarms you have. If i am not mistaken the Tracking only collars are cheaper so if your not going to use the training stimulus and tone,, save yourself some $$..

I don't use the stimulus don't have the barbs in the training collars.. just to make sure I don't accidentally zap them pressing a wrong botton lol lol .. Did want to see if I could work with the dogs with the tone. Every morning and Every evening I would go with the dogs on lead out around the property /pastures for fence training and it was normal anyway that we finish and come back to the house. So I would introduce the tone and command of " house" at the end of the fence training. We were going back to the house anyway to have an opportunity to see if repeating it walking through it with them everyday would stick.. It works to bring them back in, as long as they not (working) or engaged on something for the LGD's

it has a 9 mile radius and GPS was the only thing that works out here and a bonus to get no delays always real time status. . oh and the collars also have lights that you can turn on or off with the receiver.. Solid light, or blinking fast or slow.. I can't see 10ft in front of me at
night so lights are really cool... have done a lot of practice out in the dark with the receiver using the compass display (not easy) so turning on the dogs collar lights is a helpful cheat while I was learning to orientate in the dark.

there are other systems out there that are cheaper that use cell phone towers and apps each works better or worse depending on your local service and the product system..

They do have Garmin small collars now for smaller breeds but nothing that will fit for a bird.. you might try the small disc personal item trackers that are the size of a disc like a dog tag..

if you do have the larger Predators such as big Cats i would hope you have at least 3 LGDs working your property. I have two right now youngest is pretty much ready and am currently looking for my next pup to add to the group. I just feel better with a team of 3 as a minimum since we are the gateway trail from the mountain for large cats and bears when times are tough and they come down to look for easy food and are really hungry to do it.. Stay safe....

 

[centrarchid]

Astro is what I will be looking into. I just want to know what dogs are up to as a function of weather and season. Would also be nice to have a handle on their location while I am at work.

Biggest wild predators here are Coyotes and Bobcats and they are easy to whip. Where I work a single dog covers no less than four herds scattered over a couple hundred acres. Mr Fox and Great-horned owls much more challenging with chickens. Currently we have two dogs with neighbors dog filling gap when coyotes getting sassy. Still have three dogs in plan with third to come in next spring as that is when sheep and goat herds will be founded. When dogs acquired from outside they are acquired in 2 year intervals to control for pup troubles. I will never have enough grazers to justify even one dog on an expense basis, rather dogs are more for study and grazers to manage poultry pastures and walk ways.

 

[PatriciafromCO]

Astro is what I will be looking into. I just want to know what dogs are up to as a function of weather and season. Would also be nice to have a handle on their location while I am at work.

Biggest wild predators here are Coyotes and Bobcats and they are easy to whip. Where I work a single dog covers no less than four herds scattered over a couple hundred acres. Mr Fox and Great-horned owls much more challenging with chickens. Currently we have two dogs with neighbors dog filling gap when coyotes getting sassy. Still have three dogs in plan with third to come in next spring as that is when sheep and goat herds will be founded. When dogs acquired from outside they are acquired in 2 year intervals to control for pup troubles. I will never have enough grazers to justify even one dog on an expense basis, rather dogs are more for study and grazers to manage poultry pastures and walk ways.

See you got a great set up and plan!! , that is pretty cool you work with your neighbors and their dogs that is actually really awesome. Am the same when adding to my dogs. Caucasians and Cane Corso are new breeds to me. needed to grow them out first see what I thought of them (would I even want more then one of them lol ) and then if they were ready to be good helper dogs to the next pup. have the 3 intact females and one intact male .. had that area of my female pup maturing where they get a bit edgy wanting to throw their weight around on the older females. My two other seasoned mature females 11, and 6 years old ignore while I help work (babysit) with the pup until she naturally passes through that awkward growing stage . Back as a good unit, we ready to bring in another male pup.

just got lucky that this Caucasian female pup is aerial orientated, that was just luck. After she arrived she was so sound sensitive, go ballistic charging off over even the sound of the wind. The first time one of the military jets was coming to boom over the house as they go over us low.. She charged full throttle out to the pastures towards the sound coming , didn't even flinch when it boomed over us, and was just as fast to chase after it.. lol lol .. never said a word just always watching her, thinking that is either going to turn out really really good and turn into something useful, or she is just going to be really really crazy in the head in the end as an adult lo lol .. Turned out to be a really good skill for the predator birds lol ..

Keep in touch on what you think about the GPS Tracking system.. you do learn a lot about the dogs.. and your dogs are always protected. you always have a record of where and when your dogs were, that no one can ever make false claims about them . just set up a folder and save your tacks to your computer..

 

[centrarchid]

Neighbors dog is part LGD and part something else with pointy nose and spots. She is not effective in her own right nor used in any LGD capacity by her current owners primary purpose is as a not so well maintained pet. She is broken of interest in livestock as something to attack, I had to work on chicken part, which was straight forward since she is full adult. My dogs start challenge on interlopers and neighbor dog follows suit. Same dog is also partial to eating feed which is aggravating.

 

[Vaders Mom]

I have Anatolian shepherds guarding my flock. Great dogs doing the job they have been bred for centuries to do. Neighbor dogs learned very quickly that chasing my chickens is not a good idea. All resident coyotes, foxes, raccoons, Hawks and all other predators/pests learned that lesson as well. I love that my dogs instinctively know that danger comes from the sky as well as the ground and any large birds flying over my property are tracked by the dogs until they fly off. I haven't lost a single bird to predation since I got my dogs. The right dog for the right job.

 

[centrarchid]

I have Anatolian shepherds guarding my flock. Great dogs doing the job they have been bred for centuries to do. Neighbor dogs learned very quickly that chasing my chickens is not a good idea. All resident coyotes, foxes, raccoons, Hawks and all other predators/pests learned that lesson as well. I love that my dogs instinctively know that danger comes from the sky as well as the ground and any large birds flying over my property are tracked by the dogs until they fly off. I haven't lost a single bird to predation since I got my dogs. The right dog for the right job.

They were not bred to guard poultry, especially chickens. They were bred to guard herds of sheep and goats form tighter groups and are more mobile than domestic chickens.

The right dog for right right dog assertion above does not stand based in breeding.

 

[nzpouter]

I never have any lgd.... all my dogs are either bull breed cross or whatever the local rescue hand to me to foster. They all live and stay with the rest of the animals here, chickens, ducks, pigeons, pigs, sheep, goat.... we never have any problem with them, pups will do their usual chase when first introduced but a few stern words and they leave them be and mostly ignore each other. They still hunt the usual varmints and uses the chickens squawk and scream as a cue to predators and will start their guard and hunt mode.... and they are fed raw too by the way.

 

[centrarchid]

I never have any lgd.... all my dogs are either bull breed cross or whatever the local rescue hand to me to foster. They all live and stay with the rest of the animals here, chickens, ducks, pigeons, pigs, sheep, goat.... we never have any problem with them, pups will do their usual chase when first introduced but a few stern words and they leave them be and mostly ignore each other. They still hunt the usual varmints and uses the chickens squawk and scream as a cue to predators and will start their guard and hunt mode.... and they are fed raw too by the way.

I agree.

I have used multiple dog breeds and mutts around chickens. Keeping them separate was never sustained and they make a huge difference when it comes to predator management. Having a good dog around poultry does not start and end with pedigree, it is a lot more about the long-term investment in a partner that must learn over time to get job done. I have kept free-range poultry in a variety of settings longer than most and have become wary of parties just getting into keeping chickens and getting an LGD to make assertions about the breed it represents without even going through a single dog's life cycle.


The dog side of keeping chickens free-range and sometimes even with confined flocks is not something you achieve by simply buying a large dog. This is especially true when resources such as acreage, fencing and flock size are limiting. Most of our audience has just a few birds on less than an acre of ground. The dogs are also likely not to be single purpose and be forced to work in a more predator rich environment than a I enjoy in a rural setting.

 

[kkrogman]

Thank you all for the wealth of information and advice. We chose our breed of dog because of reputation for intelligence and human companionship. My only hope was that no matter what dog we got, it could live with the rest of the family.
Growing up we had a Dalmatian on our farm. As far as I know he had little to no training. He never chased any domesticated animals. Coons, I think he had a vendetta for.
So having a dog that would actually "guard" my chickens would be great, but not what I am expecting. I'm only hoping I can let my chickens, cat, and dog "free range" at the same time.

Thanks again to all you experts for your advice. I feel that for my particular dog, with more training and letting her get over her puppy stage a bit, I will be able to try again someday. I understand that it may never happen, but I am hopeful. Right now I am encouraging her to chase rabbits and squirrels. I know she knows the difference between the chickens and other animals. She only needs to KNOW that the chickens are part of the pack.
She is alone with the cat all the time and I didn't think I would ever see it, but they are becoming friends. They also had alot more time and "training" together.

If anyone cares, I will keep you all posted how things go (although it will be some time).