The thread for bad farm dogs

[Goosebaby]

My first was my parents yellow lab, Hunter. Hunter did NOT have a high prey drive. Hunter was extremely jealous.
He didn’t care about my birds until he noticed that I spent a lot of time with two particular goslings I raised, they spent a lot of time with me as they grew up because to them I was their mom, Hunter didn’t like how much time they spent around me and started trying to grab them from behind, he’d even stalk them like a coyote. He didn’t care about the other geese or the ducks, just the two babies.
It escalated to the point that he openly attacked them twice. He wasn’t allowed anywhere near any of the birds again.
After that his focus shifted towards the three other dogs. He attacked both our female dogs on different occasions and he wasn’t allowed around them afterwards as a result, he seemed fine with our elderly golden for awhile until Bear started requiring extra care and then he attacked him while he was asleep on the lawn.

After that he was only around us, not around any of the animals. He seemed okay for awhile until I got the flu, when he must of thought I was a weak link and saw it as his opportunity to raise his standing in the pack by eliminating me, he cornered me and tried to attack but I fended him off with an old walking stick. After this he was pretty much only around my dad. Over the years we had tried numerous things to try and deal with his rising aggression but nothing really worked because nothing resolved his jealousy issues.
His life was cut short when he developed a degenerative spinal condition, my parents tried to help him which seemed to work initially, but he began regressing again and the kindest thing was euthanasia.


My current is Tuck, a South African Boerboel. Tuck doesn’t have any problems with the birds or our other dog or our cat before he passed. Tuck’s issue is he doesn’t understand the “guardian” part of being a livestock guardian. Weirdly when he was a pup he was very protective of his goose sister Delphi who he basically grew up with, but after he became an adult he just kinda forgot about the protecting part. The first time I realized that Tuck didn’t click with the job description was when a fox was standing just six feet from the flock and Tuck sees it, makes eye contact with the fox….and Tuck runs down the driveway IN THE OPPOSITE direction barking in excitement trying to rile up the neighbors dog!
Tuck isn’t a great ratter because of his size but I gave him the benefit of doubt by letting him try to learn it from my older dog “Bailey.” He was really into it, having the time of his life up until the point where Bailey managed to grab one and I managed to catch one under my boot, resulting in two dead rats. Poor Tuck didn’t realize that was the point and he took it really hard, he sulked for two days and kept looking at a Bailey and I like we were monsters.
Tuck is also afraid of anything at night and I’ve scared the shizzles out of him several times.
According to Tuck his job consists of terrifying the UPS driver and trying to start drama with the neighbor’s dog, both of which he’s very good at.

Here’s my big softie Tuck.

 

[NotabitaiI]

My first was my parents yellow lab, Hunter. Hunter did NOT have a high prey drive. Hunter was extremely jealous.
He didn’t care about my birds until he noticed that I spent a lot of time with two particular goslings I raised, they spent a lot of time with me as they grew up because to them I was their mom, Hunter didn’t like how much time they spent around me and started trying to grab them from behind, he’d even stalk them like a coyote. He didn’t care about the other geese or the ducks, just the two babies.
It escalated to the point that he openly attacked them twice. He wasn’t allowed anywhere near any of the birds again.
After that his focus shifted towards the three other dogs. He attacked both our female dogs on different occasions and he wasn’t allowed around them afterwards as a result, he seemed fine with our elderly golden for awhile until Bear started requiring extra care and then he attacked him while he was asleep on the lawn.

After that he was only around us, not around any of the animals. He seemed okay for awhile until I got the flu, when he must of thought I was a weak link and saw it as his opportunity to raise his standing in the pack by eliminating me, he cornered me and tried to attack but I fended him off with an old walking stick. After this he was pretty much only around my dad. Over the years we had tried numerous things to try and deal with his rising aggression but nothing really worked because nothing resolved his jealousy issues.
His life was cut short when he developed a degenerative spinal condition, my parents tried to help him which seemed to work initially, but he began regressing again and the kindest thing was euthanasia.

Oh my frickin gosh
My parents would've given him a nice dirt dwelling if he'd attacked someone on our farm. They have very low tolerance for human aggression in our dogs.
Sounds like he had some sort of mental issue that progressed. That's just so crazy. Targeting weak pack members is absolutely diabolical.

My current is Tuck, a South African Boerboel. Tuck doesn’t have any problems with the birds or our other dog or our cat before he passed. Tuck’s issue is he doesn’t understand the “guardian” part of being a livestock guardian. Weirdly when he was a pup he was very protective of his goose sister Delphi who he basically grew up with, but after he became an adult he just kinda forgot about the protecting part. The first time I realized that Tuck didn’t click with the job description was when a fox was standing just six feet from the flock and Tuck sees it, makes eye contact with the fox….and Tuck runs down the driveway IN THE OPPOSITE direction barking in excitement trying to rile up the neighbors dog!
Tuck isn’t a great ratter because of his size but I gave him the benefit of doubt by letting him try to learn it from my older dog “Bailey.” He was really into it, having the time of his life up until the point where Bailey managed to grab one and I managed to catch one under my boot, resulting in two dead rats. Poor Tuck didn’t realize that was the point and he took it really hard, he sulked for two days and kept looking at a Bailey and I like we were monsters.
Tuck is also afraid of anything at night and I’ve scared the shizzles out of him several times.
According to Tuck his job consists of terrifying the UPS driver and trying to start drama with the neighbor’s dog, both of which he’s very good at.

Here’s my big softie Tuck.

View attachment 4221471

Oh my goooooooooooooshhh I neeeeeed a Tuck in my life
He's soooo cute! I love boerboels but I'm not sure if I have the ability to properly train one, they're very intimidating. Tuck sounds a lot like all my LGDs, all he needs to do is look tough when he's really a marshmallow on the inside

 

[Goosebaby]

Oh my frickin gosh
My parents would've given him a nice dirt dwelling if he'd attacked someone on our farm. They have very low tolerance for human aggression in our dogs.
Sounds like he had some sort of mental issue that progressed. That's just so crazy. Targeting weak pack members is absolutely diabolical.

Oh my goooooooooooooshhh I neeeeeed a Tuck in my life
He's soooo cute! I love boerboels but I'm not sure if I have the ability to properly train one, they're very intimidating. Tuck sounds a lot like all my LGDs, all he needs to do is look tough when he's really a marshmallow on the inside

I think he did have some sort of mental illness, he came from a puppy mill that one of my neighbors also got a few dogs from, the dogs being shepherd Lab mixes. I’m pretty sure they were his half siblings or cousins. One of them was alright, the other was like Hunter but she was much worse.



As for Boerboels, if Tuck is true to the breed their difficulty in training comes from the fact that they’re basically pugs but with big athletic bodies. They’re stubborn and willful goofballs that need to be reminding. Socialization is critical because of this and training never completely ends. I’d definitely recommend them to anyone with property and the patience for a permotoddler. I’d also reccomend the Australian and African lines, like Molly the Boerboel as an example. I don’t necessarily trust the temperaments of the American lines given how most of the breeders here advertise their dogs as “monsters” or brag “I can barely hold him back.” They’re pretty much declaring that they’re breeding dogs that aren’t psychologically stable.

 

[NotabitaiI]

I think he did have some sort of mental illness, he came from a puppy mill that one of my neighbors also got a few dogs from, the dogs being shepherd Lab mixes. I’m pretty sure they were his half siblings or cousins. One of them was alright, the other was like Hunter but she was much worse.

Oh wow, they're the kind of dogs that end up in the news. I think those types of illnesses are probably more common in the bully breeds, specifically the backyard bred pit bulls, so you'd never expect it from a lab but when it's a pit bull who loses its sanity headlines dismiss it as typical pit bull behavior. And who knows how many little dogs are not right in the head but they can't do as much damage so their craziness is propagated.

As for Boerboels, if Tuck is true to the breed their difficulty in training comes from the fact that they’re basically pugs but with big athletic bodies. They’re stubborn and willful goofballs that need to be reminding. Socialization is critical because of this and training never completely ends. I’d definitely recommend them to anyone with property and the patience for a permotoddler.

If all Boerboels were like Tuck then I'd definitely get one, I already have three big stubborn independent dogs who like to throw their weight around and after some training they're the goodest dogs ever

I’d also reccomend the Australian and African lines, like Molly the Boerboel as an example. I don’t necessarily trust the temperaments of the American lines given how most of the breeders here advertise their dogs as “monsters” or brag “I can barely hold him back.” They’re pretty much declaring that they’re breeding dogs that aren’t psychologically stable.

Ewwww, I hate that. So many bully breeders out here like to profit off of how big and bad they look and it's absolutely disgusting, nobody nowadays needs a dog that wants to attack every twitching thing and can't be controlled. Luckily because of how people raise dogs for companionship today most dog breeds will probably be way more chill in 100yrs and the bad breeders will only have looks to brag about

 

[500Chickens]

I used to have a farm dog who fell under the "Yep, very very bad" category.

 

[SunriseChickers]

My family has a pit/lab/beagle, and we were worried that she'd go after the chickens. If I'm remembering correctly, she did chase them for a time. She's very effective at hunting cotton tails, so any chicken would be done for (she definitely isn't allowed around my sister's rabbits, and we'll see how things go as my other sister starts introducing larger livestock to the farm). Thankfully she started more or less ignoring them, it seemed, with the occasional prowl. We visited in May with our dog, who was around 5 months old at the time, and he started chasing the chickens (he was almost twice her size at the time). She hopped right up and gave him a few good snaps! We were very surprised that she moved to protect the chickens, since she didn't seem to have any good or bad inclination towards them at all by then. So, less a story about a horrible farm dog, and more one about a dog who we thought was going to be horrible, and surprised us!

 

[NotabitaiI]

My family has a pit/lab/beagle, and we were worried that she'd go after the chickens. If I'm remembering correctly, she did chase them for a time. She's very effective at hunting cotton tails, so any chicken would be done for (she definitely isn't allowed around my sister's rabbits, and we'll see how things go as my other sister starts introducing larger livestock to the farm). Thankfully she started more or less ignoring them, it seemed, with the occasional prowl. We visited in May with our dog, who was around 5 months old at the time, and he started chasing the chickens (he was almost twice her size at the time). She hopped right up and gave him a few good snaps! We were very surprised that she moved to protect the chickens, since she didn't seem to have any good or bad inclination towards them at all by then. So, less a story about a horrible farm dog, and more one about a dog who we thought was going to be horrible, and surprised us!

Aww, what a good girl
My beagle mix started out pretty bad but turned into the best farm dog, I'd love to have another just like him. I had hoped my other bad farm dogs would have a similar learning curve but they've maintained their badness

 

[Rillowen]

Just curious to see if anyone else keeps a dog who is not well suited to a farm. I've got one who is not meant for the farm life, I've tried many different training methods but I can't train his prey drive away, can't desensitize him, can't redirect him, and I don't see a future where he improves and calms down. I'm okay with that and I keep him separated from the animals, he is indoors primarily and he LOVES his humans, he lives a happy life here and I've worked around his special needs and I will continue to do so for the next 10-15 years. Let me know where you draw your lines, how you train your high prey drive dogs, what methods you think work, why dogs haven't worked out etc.
Please don't fight, I think this topic is important even if it's controversial to keep a high prey drive dog on a farm.

I have a high prey drive doggo (carolina dog) but fortunately she is also extremely focused on pleasing us and therefore trainable. She only really went after the chickens once, but I was there and stopped it, and got onto her severely for it. She still chases them for a moment for fun but mostly just enjoys scattering their group as she runs through them. We have been having an issue with her sneaking into the coop through the hen door and eating eggs while they free range though.... any advice is appreciated.

 

[Rillowen]

My dog was a Jack Russell - her hunting instinct was very strong.
Which made her the best Ratter I have ever met - but also meant she thought the Rabbit was to be hunted even though he was as big as her.
We had to have a fence between them to avoid trouble.

Hmm we have a rat problem, our carolina gets some, but they are really too small and fast for her, and hubby is firmly against cats... did you have to train him to be a ratter? We only have chickens, with goats maybe on the docket.

 

[Rillowen]

Aw that's so sad
I love my pittie, he's great in every way except for his prey drive, but I totally understand how they can be prone to aggression. I used to be a hater, didn't like em at all, then I was a lover and vehemently against discrimination and bans, but now I see how in the wrong hands this breed is absolutely dangerous. I think it'd suck really bad to lose the breed, especially since in a hundred years they'll be completely different, so I'm still against the bans, but maybe people should have to get licenses to breed and obedience classes should be utilized more often. They're so incredibly fun when they have good temperaments, I want to own more in the future even if my current pittie has been a massive headache.

While i have never owned one myself your transitions there match my own completely. Was raised to hate them, then had good friends with 2 adorable lap pitts, who bred them and gave away the pups to help spread the good reputation , had me convinced for a while the bad was all just lies! Then I met some bad ones, or even just not consiouse of their strengths. Have a friend who's had was deployed by a rambunctious neighbor pitty trying to take a snack from her hand while she wasnt looking. Not an inherently bad dog.... but not safe either.