Still the best $100 I may have ever spent

[Toast n Jelly]

Quote:
My fencing is kind of weird, because I didn't know there was a real hawk problem until I moved my chickens out to a big open field. I fenced the whole field (2.5 acres) with 5-foot chicken wire, just to give the chickens a visual barrier.

When we started losing them and decided to get dogs, I ran a strand of electrified wire around the inside. The chicken wire goes along the outer perimeter of the fence posts, and the electrified is on the inside, about 6 inches from the chicken wire. Because I'm paranoid about the dogs escaping, I've upped the single wire to a full 5-strand fence, with wires 1-3-5 being hot, and 2-4 being grounded.

The dogs have gotten popped a couple of times and now stay away from it.

Thanks ...sounds good.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Is it best to get a male or female Great Pyrenees? Which is better or does it matter? Are the males larger than the females when they mature?

 

[Fredster]

Quote:
The males are definitely bigger --- our male weighs about 20 pounds more than the female at 7 months.

Our girl seems to be the smarter one, and the better watchdog. She's more attuned to potential threats, and generally is the first one to run after one. But...that's anecdotal evidence, not scientific.

 

[apukanski]

Wow. Great pictures

 

[Harley's girl]

GREAT JOB!

 

[rooster0209]

that is awesome

 

[needmorechickens!]

Oh I wish I had one. I have one that is half pyr - half lab

Not that I don't like labs, its just that they aren't good guardians of livestock.
How do you train the pyrs?
~Rebecca

 

[Fredster]

needmorechickens! :

How do you train the pyrs?

They were never trained; they've just been around livestock since birth. It's all instinct, I guess.​

 

[babalubird]

Whoa! While they have been conditioned for the job for 3,000 years, I wouldn't leave it all to instinct especially around something as small and vulnerable as chickens.

My farrier's Pyranese ate his chickens because by his own admission, he did not train it and let it bond to him more than his chickens as a pet.

I also talked to someone whose Anatolian ate her chickens. They must be either trained by their working parent dogs or their human owners. It doesn't just happen automatically, but I do firmly believe the honest-to-goodness livestock guardian breeds are the only way to go for what you are trying to do. But an investment of time is either required by the working parent dogs or the human owners.

No doubt your pups are good because their working doggie mom and dad got them off to a good start being around chickens.

For anyone else considering such a dog, I would get a good book on training livestock guardian dogs and/or tap, drain, borrow the brain of some neighbor farmer who has successfully raised and trained lg dogs. It also has a good trouble shooting chapter in case problems or screw-ups occur at some point. You don't always have to get rid of the dog if they do kill just one chicken if you know how to correctly intervene.

Here's a good book I plan to buy. It has good reviews...

Livestock Protection Dogs: Selection, Care, and Training by Orysia Dawydiak and David E. Sims

Amazon.com has it available at ...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_g...ld-keywords=livestock+guardian+dogs&x=17&y=18

 

[Fredster]

I'll echo babalubird --- I have that book and it's a good one.