Rooster and a Guard Dog?

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
Very good response! I love other 'difficult' breeds, who aren't as common, and take more experience to manage. Generally it's easier for first time dog owners to start somewhere else, like maybe a well bred Golden Retriever or another less independent type.
Mary

 

[Egg Nog]

I have two great pyrenees, they don't seem to bother my 3 roosters, but if it's a young puppy, he might chase them.

 

[AJane]

Welcome!
Very good response! I love other 'difficult' breeds, who aren't as common, and take more experience to manage. Generally it's easier for first time dog owners to start somewhere else, like maybe a well bred Golden Retriever or another less independent type.
Mary

Thanks for your reply. And I TOTALLY agree. It’s fun to figure out the complexities of a less typical dog, but it does take time, patience, dedication, insight and more than a pinch of intuition.

 

[agold23]

Hello!
In a few weeks, we are planning to get a great pyrenees mix puppy to train into a guard dog. Aside from not *really* knowing how to train a guard dog, it hit me that we have a Rooster who could cause some trouble...
Generally speaking, this Rooster is the best we have had. He will run up to us when we walk outside, and side step towards us, and run up behind us if we aren't looking, BUT he is probably the best Roo we could ask for. He is protective, alert, and hasn't been really violent. Ok, yes, we all have been bit by him before, but only once (lol).
However, I'm not here to ask about Rooster training, rather the dynamic between him and a guard dog. We have had an incident several months ago where a dog escaped from up the street and wanted to, play, with our birds; killing three in the process. Ever since, our birds have been pretty scared of dogs. With that, should I be worried about our Roo provoking the dog?

Just looking for some advice on how we should go about having both a dog and a roo.

With any dog (especially a guarding breed) , I’d recommend working with a trainer to make sure you're doing everything you can make everything go as seamlessly as possible!

 

[teria]

For anyone just reading this post, as it was posted a few years ago, I wanted to jump in with an actual reply that, like only a few others, deals directly with the original question. Your puppy will be a puppy for 2 years as a general rule for lgd's. They will be large and playful and may inadvertently run over chickens that don't get out of the way when they have the zoomies. As far as a rooster is concerned, if it goes for puppy the reaction will be unpredictable. The dog and the roo have the same job, protecting the flock. Both may well see the other as nothing all the way up to a direct threat. The roo could hurt the puppy in the process and the puppy could kill the roo. You won't know what to expect until the individual puppy and roo are together and then it may be too late.

The advice I would give is to sequester the chickens from the puppy's area by fencing. We use hardware wire. So far the 2 pyrs we have respect that fence but we know they may decide at some point to get thru it. Still, the chickens and roos are next to the pups and they are all comfortable with each other but they do not directly interact unless a random chicken finds a way into the dog yard. Since we put up aviary protection fencing that hasn't happened but when it did the puppy's just guarded the chicken gently until we got it back in its own area.

I don't know that I will ever combine the dogs with the chickens to avoid the eventual chicken laying eggs in the dog bed or the dogs eating chicken feed. Even then I don't want to risk a roo getting it in its head to go for a dog just to show off its place. It's a much for the safety of the dog as the roo. If I do combine them out won't be until the pups are at least 2 years old.

As far as roaming, pyrs will roam. Good fencing is the only solution. Sure a dog here and there may not be a wanderer but it is their nature to wander as it is part of the breed. They were bred to wander the mountains with a flock and to be independent thinkers. Typically the shepherd was not around so they had to be able to think for themselves. That makes them hard to train. They do what they want and if coming when called isn't what they want to do this particular moment they won't. Period.

They were not bred to be with chickens. If they are raised with them they may do okay but you are the key to that success. Having a flock before you hand the dogs will add an obstacle to the process. The roo will not think he should allow this strange animal near his flock. Solve that problem and you will be fine.