What breed of dog protects chickens?

[rjohns39]

We found an Anatolian/Pyrenees/border collie mix puppy at 9 weeks old for sale, what do y'all think about that mix?

That sounds like a good mix.

 

[centrarchid]

That would work just fine.

 

[Little Farm Girl]

That would work just fine.

Awesome, thanks!

 

[Willowspirit]

We found an Anatolian/Pyrenees/border collie mix puppy at 9 weeks old for sale, what do y'all think about that mix?

Sounds like terrific mix but also a bit of a handful when youngyoung! Good !uck.

 

[kyron4]

My daughter was also looking at English shepherds and fell in love. She found a few for sale in our price range to. But lots of people are saying that ES are herding dogs, and might herd the chickens to death...what do you think? We need a dog that will willing stick around our house cause we don't have a perimeter fence. How does yours do with "guarding" the chickens?

They are great with learning boundaries and don't tend to wander or run off. We moved to the country about 2 years ago and it took about a day for him to learn the four boundaries of our 2 acre property. He has never roamed off the property and knows not to go near the road. They are very easy to train, high intelligence and have a desire to please you. Sammy all but ignores the chickens and ducks, but watches them closely and "checks" on them often. A few times he has "herded " one or two back to the main group. I can't see where one would herd them to death. For their size (about 30- 40 lbs) they will take on coons and opossums fearlessly . They are very protective yet not aggressive, great with kids (ours use to follow and herd my daughter )and a great family dog. I will say this, they are a very HIGH ENERGY breed, they can go from sun up to sun down, non stop. They are not a lay around on the porch dog. This has been my experience over the last 4 years.

 

[kyron4]

Got it, so you think they would at least bark when there was a predator around?

Definitely. Very alert and protective. Bark at the very least; engage and attack at the most.

 

[Little Farm Girl]

We found what is getting our chickens, it's a fox!

 

[livestockprojectswithkids]

What breed or mixed breed of dog if any will kill or scare of like Coyotes, opossums, foxes, dogs, etc? We have 115 chickens on 2 of our 7 acres, laying hens sleep in the barn with a chainlink fence yard around it, there is an additional 6ft chainlink fence pen attached to the back of the barn with its own little shelter, and then we have breeding pens behind the barn, we also have chickens in our 4 ft chain link fence backyard, gates are always closed, and birds are always locked up at night and free range in day. Attacks always happen at night, all areas with chickens have been attacked at least once. We have cameras, but they never see where the attack happens. Will a dog protect the chickens at night, if so what breed do we need to get? And do we have to have 2, or is 1 ok?

And yes, we know that LGD need intense training and won't be able to protect until they are adults.

Thanks for your time and opinions!

We have a Great Pyrenees and she is great for protecting our birds. She never attacks them either. She will flush them about once or twice a day but in 3 years never caught her really going after them. My pyrenees does like to roam though if she can get out of the yard she will. I do recommend a female. I find males are lazy dogs and not focused on their job. She really is great at protecting them and will even warn the chickens when there is something overhead.