Livestock Dogs trained for Poultry?

[Stormview]

We Have 2 Mareema Livestock Guardians We Had A Very Bad Fox Dingo And Hawrk Problem Untill Our Pups Grew Into Dogs We Have Had Zero Losses In 4 Years

Cant Go Past A Good Guardian Dogworth There Weight In Gold!!!

 

[ColbyNTX]

Quote:

 

[greatergraceoffbg]

Thank you all very much for your responses. I understand a great deal more than before. I think I am going to try multiple red blinking lights first. The food bill, vet bill, wandering described on another thread, disappearing dog mentioned in this thread all brought home the investment and potential loss factor. I think if I lived on a few hundred acres it may be a good option but on two city lots not such a great plan. Once again thank you all for your input.

Sincerely
Andy in Fredericksburg

 

[Peck Johnson]

We own a Maremma Sheepdog and have not lost a single bird since he's been with them. He even sleeps with them when it is really cold. Introduce to the birds when they are very young with supervision and very soon no worries. I would not get anything but a LGD though. Even though we had another dog that was trained not to hurt the chickens, the prey drive is just too prevalent in most breeds whereas the prey drive has been bred out of Maremmas, Great Pyrs, and Kuvasz.

 

[Gvansan]

I agree. I have a chocolate lab that lets the chickens eat out of her dish and ride on her back.
I had a yellow lab that would kill anything he could catch.

 

[Firefighter Chick]

I have two lab crosses that we had before we had chickens. The older one always showed a protective instinct for the family. The other follows what the other one does and plays with everything. Since being in the country, they have taken to killing vermin. From mole to ground hog, they've killed them all. As for our chickens, we had only one casualty from them treating a hen like a toy. A lot of scolding and monitoring later, they let the chickens and even our kittens run around happily. I think it's just the luck of the draw when it comes to dogs. You can blow a lot of money on a purebred or work with a mutt like I did. If the dog listens to you and is willing to learn, I'd do it. I would be more prone to training a shelter animal myself, but the choice is yours. good luck.

 

[Mountain Man Jim]

Another fan of shelter dogs here. The nice thing about the shelter is you can adopt an older dog and evaluate her personality to some degree before adopting. Like Firefighter Chick wrote, how important you are to the dog and how well they obey you is critical to training them for chicken duty.

I would suggest for chicken guardian duty the one chooses a breed or mutt that has a guarding temperament because you may be able to train a dog to accept the chickens but, if they don't have the desire to guard the property, they won't be much help.

Jim

 

[pshay4]

I have Anatolian Shepherds, and have had them for years. This is the breed of dog that works best for me. The dogs referred to as lgds or livestock guardian dog breeds have been selectively bred for hundreds of years to help shepherds guard the flocks. They laze around during the day, seemingly unaware, until a percieved threat appears. They will bark warnings, then get as aggressive as they need to. My dogs had to be introduced to new pets or animals, but accepted them into "their" flock. They guard their territory more than specific animals. When the dog barks an alarm, the goats all run toward the dog. The chickens are pretty oblivious. At night, the dogs are more on guard because that's when most of the predators are active. The dogs even bark at hawks or turkey vultures that happen to come too low. They are protective of what is "theirs". My dogs, as puppies, behave more like adult dogs of other breeds. They are very laid back. The adults come up to greet you then go back to what they were doing. They don't jump all over and constantly seek attention.

While many dogs can be trained to protect livestock and there is always exceptions to rules, it is hard to go against instinct. Labs have been selectively bred to retrieve birds and waterfowl. Border collies and blue heelers have been bred to herd livestock. Terriers and dachshunds have been bred to kill vermin. These dogs could possibly make good poultry guardians, but might not. I had labs and always lost poultry to them their first year. When they matured, they left them alone (they didn't protect them either).

If I wanted a poultry guard dog that I had to train, I would start with a breed that has natural instincts for the job. Anatolian Shepherd, Great Pyrenees, Akbash, Maremma, Kuvasz, Komondor are just a few. There are more and more of these dogs in shelters, so if you wanted to help rescue, you could still try for these breeds. I don't have much experience with the other breeds, but have contact with breeders and owners. Pyrs tend to roam a little more than others. While you should have good fencing for any animals, they like to add to their territory. Dogs bred for specific jobs like to work. If you get rid of your flock or herd, your lgd might go in search of another.