I am looking for a puppy of large breed to train him with the chicken in the farm .. .replacing the dogs passed away in the last 2 yrs.
Good morning Hungnguyen,
You need a dog with little or no prey drive. Check for prey drive--that's the instinct to chase things--balls, sticks, people and animals. Herding dogs have high prey drive but (usually) without the desire to kill. They are not suitable around chickens because they'll chase them and try to herd them which is not how chickens want to live. Retrievers, hunting dogs and hounds all are bred to have a strongly developed prey drive with or without the drive to kill depending on their function.
Check carefully for prey drive. Innocently ask if the dog likes to play fetch. Is the dog good with cats? Small children? Throw a ball past its face and see how interested it is in it. There's all kinds of way you can get an idea of how developed a dog's prey drive is. Birds, especially chicks, are absolutely irresistible for many dogs that are otherwise safe around small animals.
Also, it seems you've written in the past that you lost two dogs because of the heat. You really need to evaluate what kind of protection from the environment you are offering your dogs, because dogs just shouldn't ever die of the heat. Something is wrong.
Dogs do not cope well with temperatures above their body temperature. They have very poor cooling systems. They do not sweat. The only way they dissipate excess heat from their bodies is by increasing their respiration rate (panting) which can cause its own problems, or by digging a hole in the cooler ground. If your dogs are outside during the summers in Texas, they need not just shade, but enough deep shade that the ambient ground temperature around that shade is cool. A 10 x 10 foot covered area out in an open pasture with the blazing sun beating down on the pasture around it will give you dead dogs no matter how much water you provide. The dogs need a large area of deep shade. Keeping a wet and damp area will help keep the dogs cool.
The color of the dog, the type of coat and the type of head makes a huge difference for how well a dog tolerates excessive temperatures. Avoid any short-faced dogs.
Listen to the dog breathing--does is make a lot of snuffling or snorting sounds if excited? Does it snore at night? That would indicate either a soft palate that is too long (the biggest problem in short-faced dogs) or one that is too flaccid. Either way, a soft palate can close completely and block the airflow--and dogs do die from it. This is especially a problem in heat, during exercise, times of excitement and during air travel. That's why airlines refuse to fly short-faced dogs such as pugs, bulldogs and pit bulls. Pit bulls are not allowed on many flights because of their short-faced heads, not because of their temperaments (which, by the way are outstanding!).
The best color would be white or sand color. Avoid anything dark. Also avoid a breed that has too short a coat or too long/thick of a double coat. You need enough of a double coat (outer guard hairs with a fluffy undercoat) to insulate the dog's skin from the sun beating down on its back, but not so much undercoat that it traps heat in the body. Great Pyrenees, although fantastic livestock guard dogs are unsuited for the Texas heat because of their coats. I suspect they have a few issues with their throats as well. The best dog for guarding livestock in our climate would be an Anatolian Sheepdog.
Here's a link to their national rescue:
http://www.nasrn.com/
You might be able to find a dog or two through this rescue. Like all big mastiff-type breeds, they pose a challenge with their very strong temperaments. These are tough dogs. When my little Dachshunds die off from old age, I will be looking into getting this breed.
You really don't need a puppy to train, an adult dog might be your best bet because the temperament is known and fixed and they don't have overly playful silly puppy behaviors where a puppy might kill all your chickens for fun one day, but as a grown dog be an extremely reliable livestock guard dog.
Think carefully of how you are keeping your dogs. You need to protect them from the elements. No animal should die from the heat. I would take that as a personal failure on my part if something like that happened to any animal in my care.
On my own property, about two thirds is completely covered in mature live oak. The native grass under those trees never goes brown in the summer, even during last summer's brutal heatwave and lack of rain. I don't water, either. The other third of the property has only a few much smaller live oak on it. The grass was parched. The difference in temperature between the two areas is shocking. Under the canopy, I never felt it was particularly hot, even in the heat wave. As soon as I stepped out into the open, I could feel the heat radiating up from the ground and my legs became uncomfortably hot. I had to shade many new trees to try to reduce the heat radiating up and desiccating the leaves, even though the soil was always moist.
All the best.
Steve Knell / naturepl.com
