Livestock guardian dogs

[Spongegirl]

I want to sell my maremmano. He is 15 months old and intact. My farm is not big enough for him and he needs someone with more experience with his breed than I am. When he doesn't listen to me, I have 0 patience. I'm in Henderson, Kentucky if anyone is interested, message me. I have his papers and his blood is all Italian names on one side and Pea Ridge Farm on the other.

 

[rainbowhatchery]

Yeah we dont socialize our males with people and they wont let strange people in the fence either.

 

[Phoenixxx]

I was glad to see in this and another thread that some of us are employing dobermans. I was actually looking for a shepherd since I don't have the land to satisfy a proper LGD and only a small flock of chickens, but I stumbled onto an ad for a dobie that we adopted yesterday He was kept in a farm environment for the past 7 months so he's had livestock - including chickens - exposure. My birds are full-time free-range and while he sometimes gets the urge to "rush" at them (which i am correcting), he stays still when I'm bringing the chicks in or out. He also stays out of the coop while I go in to feed/open/lock up and didn't budge when my chicken-**** rooster flew out of the run and high-tailed it for the neighbour's yard this afternoon! (Rooster is SO not happy about the dog! Can't blame him, had several attacks this year from huskies and foxes.) I am keeping him on a lead at all times until he's fully trained to the property boundaries and no longer wanting to play with the birds.

He is extremely clever and wakes/perks up at the slightest out-of-place sound. One of my chicks has a bad leg and sometimes "cries" when she is having trouble getting from one part of the cage to the other. Last night when she was crying, Higgins got up right away and started pacing and looking at me, then my husband and back again; I got the impression that he understood it was a distress call and he was asking one of us to go help, because he stopped pacing when I got up and sat back down on the couch once the crying stopped. He may have learned this at the shelter because they had a very young (human) baby.

While I know he won't be a proper LGD, I'm hoping with some work he'll be an effective daytime chicken and home protector.

 

[Triple Willow]

I love a good Doberman!

 

[Phoenixxx]

I love a good Doberman!

I just love a good dog! Funny thing is, the breed was not even on the long list we were considering, he was a complete and total fluke! When I researched, I found that they've been repurposed as therapy and companion dogs in old folks' homes because of their careful, patient nature. I had always thought of them as frighteningly ferocious guard dogs til now

 

[aart]

Quote: I think they're very smart and thus can be trained to do lots of things.

 

[Triple Willow]

I just love a good dog! Funny thing is, the breed was not even on the long list we were considering, he was a complete and total fluke! When I researched, I found that they've been repurposed as therapy and companion dogs in old folks' homes because of their careful, patient nature. I had always thought of them as frighteningly ferocious guard dogs til now

I have had five of them. Three were great and two were awful. The three would have been great service dogs. The two agressive ones were brother and sister, raised the exact same way as my other three. They wanted to bite everybody but my immediate family. I believe a BIG part of it is about bloodline. Of course anybody could take a great dog and turn it into a monster but if you get a genetic monster you just can't do much about changing that. I had one, gosh I loved that dog! When she died I was so torn up I had to take two days off from work. lol She was very smart and gentle as could be but also very protective when she needed to be. She was always looking out for me. I'd give good money for another like her.

 

[Willowmistacres]

Do the boz shepards have a tendency to be escape artists like the Great Pyrenees are?? We had 4 pyrs at one time and 3 of them were incredible escape artists, climbing 6 ft fences, squeezing in thru 6 inch gaps in gates and under woven wire fences... You name it, they did it. We recently lost the 2 10 year old ones, and currently have one 4 year old female that we keep tied up with our alpacas (we can't keep her in for anything) and our neutered male who respects the fence, but has to stay in with the alpacas because he eats my chickens. We are on 10"acres, but probably only have about 4 acres fenced in with animals. Looking to add something to guard my chickens, geese, ducks, peafowl that won't eat them...

 

[centrarchid]

I would work with dogs you have already. Training the chicken eater is easy with a little effort invested. The escape artists might be confinable using either hotwire or invisible fencing. Some of our dogs (also GP's) at work also get to be problematic with simple panel fencing for goats but are stopped readily by 2 strands of high tensile fencing. Dogs will still beat hotwire if really motivated but just to travel is not that motivated.

 

[rainbowhatchery]

Boz are an Anatolian Shepherd and they are amazing dogs, we breed an Anatolian Pyrenees cross, about 80% Anatolian. Pyrenees are great but they tend to have a few undesireable traits such as excessive barking and escaping. We have a poultry farm so any Anatolian line works great for poultry. All we have is a 4ft livestock fence and never have an escape issue the Anatolian are VERY territorial and once they know their property line they dont really want to leave it.