Lgd

Hi, and !
My main concern would be the weather. With such short hair, I would think a dobie would not do well outside in the winter, which is where you want a LGD to be, guarding your livestock, etc. Maybe your husband could warm up to the idea of a dog with the same markings, but with fur?
Good luck!

 

What I'm seeing from a pretty quick scan of the googles seems to indicate that Dobermans tend to have a pretty high prey drive. What you want is a dog with as near to ZERO prey drive as you can find. For me, that alone is plenty enough to rule out a Doberman as an LGD.

My advice to anyone looking for a livestock guardian dog is to get a real one, of a recognized LGD breed, rather than beating your head against a well in trying to re-purpose another type of dog for the task.

 

every doberman i met hated the rain also most ive met like the idea of cats as snacks to lol http://www.lgd.org/ i like kuvask the most as lgd breed

 

I don't think dobies would be good.

I have a shepherd and a mastiff and they are great!

 

I agree that the doberman wouldn't do well in the winter. Shepherds are great dogs for guarding livestock, and also make great pets even if they are working dogs.

 

What about Great Pyrenees? I don't own any yet myself, but am hoping to get a couple next spring along with some goats. Everyone I've talked to said they're AWESOME! They are really good at recognizing what is supposed to be there (goats, chickens, ducks, cattle, etc.) and keeping everything else away. The ONLY complaint I've heard about them is that one guy got them and was really impressed at the excellent job they did, but the dogs also kept the deer and turkeys away (he loves to hunt).

Here's a link about them: http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/greatpyrenees.htm

They are VERY big dogs, but I've been told that they can be very inexpensive to feed. If you have a large enough farm they do a lot of their own hunting. And with a white shaggy coat they do well in both summer and winter.

 

Dog breeds were developed to do specific jobs. The Doberman was not developed to guard small or large livestock. It was developed to hunt and later to do police and military work.

I guess it also depends on where you are moving and what sort of predators are there. I would get a different dog where wolves and bears and cougars were a problem, than I would where racoons and snakes were a problem.

In some areas there are multiple problems. Racoon, possum, snakes, rats, bear, cougar and coyote have all been sighted in my area, but the commonest problem with chickens is racoons.

I also think it depends on what sort of property you have. If you are in a suburb-farm area in an area with many homes nearby and few stretches of forest, it's a very different situation from having dozens of acres surrounded by woodland where you really want a dog to be very independent and bonded with the livestock, that will actually kill a coyote, racoon or bear, rather than just bark and let you know something's wrong.

I think too, that it's more important with guard dogs to raise them with the stock. So most people get their livestock, and then get a young pup of one of the LGD breeds.

 

I have two great pyrs and they are great. Scout is full blooded and Bella has yellow lab in her, but she is a guarding machine. They were rescue dogs I got as puppies in Missouri. They are absolutely the best dogs, love you to the death, and are wonderful with the Alpacas. We want more, would love to breed them, but not set up for it. They eat, but honestly my four little dogs eat as much a month as they do. I have one of those big several gallon feeders (can't be over 6 gallon's the way it looks) and I fill it 3 x's a month, sometimes 4, but there is always some left. I would guess between the 6, they eat a 50# bag a month. The Pyrs might eat 4 of the containers, and I fill it the 5th time, just never kept track, but I know I don't have to fill it every single week. I give them bones and snacky's too, so they are very happy with their food situation. In the winter I add a can of wet every other day to give them something else to keep the cold away, plus beat up eggs in powdered milk and give it to them for treats too a couple times a week.