Managing costs of LGD's

[centrarchid]

Predator that worries me most is the red-tail hawk. One of the locations to be used is just 1/4 mile from nest used almost every year. Dog inside pen seems to a must. Flocks will be hens only and the only cover provided will be by the henhouse. Such a recipe without dog would make for some easy pickens as far as red-tails are concerned. Digging may occur so will cross that bridge when I come to it.

 

[OwensMom]

Don't have any LGD's of my own but have vicarious experience from friends. I leased part of our farm (50 acres) to a friend who placed a flock of 30 sheep and 1 guard dog on the farm. That guard dog (1 yr old) guarded not only her flock but our flock and the neighbors horses. The dog would jump our 5 ft smooth wire electric fence to get out of the alloted pasture and make her rounds to our pasture, the neighbors' pastures. The guard dog was very friendly with people, but we could not keep her confined in the pasture on our farm. Ended up chaining her up with her flock. Needless to say, the guard dog became frantic and was difficult to manage. The friend had to give her to ranchers that grazed thousand acres of BLM and were far from other flocks or farms.

This guard dog also would not tolerate our Border collie gathering sheep (hers OR ours) to herd them into shelter at night. From numerous accounts, LGD's are dangerous to all other dogs. For example, we know of another LGD which was guarding her flock and unprovoked attacked a visitor's Border Collie and tore the Border Collie's chest out. Almost lost that dog.

Another friend had an LGD for 3 months. She could not keep that dog on her property. It jumped fences as well and adopted the flocks in the entire area.
I train my Border Collie in the desert on my own flock but cannot go there if the local ranchers are running their sheep in the area with guard dogs. The guard dogs will attack my dog and adopt my flock even though they do not know my sheep. That is their job and I respect the work ethic.

Don't get me wrong, I respect and approve of using guard dogs. Better that than loosing stock or killing predators but they can be a management problem in cases where they are located in proximity to other flocks or encounter other dogs.

FYI, border collies cannot tolerate ivomec. Not an old wives tale.

 

[centrarchid]

A single dog will not be able to protect multiple flocks unless the dog is a fast sight oriented greyhound. Darn foxes do the snatch-and-grab by targeting birds some distance from guard dog. A couple of my neighbors have LGD's guarding chickens, sheep, and goats. They do not loose the ruminants but chickens are lost pretty regularly to coyotes and especially red foxes. The snatch and grab is much harder to pull off when prey is larger like a young sheep or goat, even for a coyote. This behind part of logic making paddocs small.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

She could not keep that dog on her property. It jumped fences as well and adopted the flocks in the entire area.

That sounds like typical Great Pyr behavior.

None of my Maremmas have ever jumped a fence, and I have some sections that are only 3 ft tall.

I've had some dig under gates, but only if they didn't have sheep to take care of, or if they were alone in a pasture​

 

[centrarchid]

We are looking to have some combination of Anitolians, Maremas and Great Pyrenees. None have been extensively selected to guard poultry but this may enable us to identify characterics that more suited to poultry guarding.

One of our farms has several GP's and GP crosses, some of the GP's were prone to roam but they may be a function of their upbringing as much as breed.

 

[OwensMom]

Keep us updated. I'm interested in knowing about your results.