What is the best FLOCK Guard dog?

[Bedste]

My German Shepherd KILLED my best Rooster today..... (there was blood)..... my mongrel puppy plays with the chickens until they die...... I have two dogs and neither one of them is a keeper.... OMG

 

[Beekissed]

I don't think any one breed is considered the best at guarding a flock...and many people on here will advise you that NO dog can be trusted around your birds.

I have found that dogs with a desire to please the alpha leader and those that are trained to basic obedience are the ones that are the most successful...regardless of breed. It CAN be done....my dogs are entirely trustworthy and have proven this for the past 5 years of unsupervised guarding of my free range flocks. They required very little training, the older one required none.

Time to step back and evaluate your behaviour with your dogs, your expectations, the amount of time you spend training and bonding with your dogs and how you monitor their instincts around your chickens. I would say that anyone that lets a dog "play" with chickens until they are dead is just not real observant or vigilant.

Rewind, put some effort into the process and see if you can't retrain your dogs to fit your lifestyle. GS are very intelligent dogs that need work to do and seem happiest when they are doing a job. There are many threads on here about how to train or retrain a dog to be around chickens.....it would be worth it for you to do a search and see if you can salvage your dogs.

 

[ninjascrub69]

my lab never atacks my chickens and the chickens think hes part of the flock and follow him every where

 

[eenie114]

Great Pyranese are good, and they will protect everything else, too. (Including you!

)

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

Quote:
That pretty much says it, but I’d just like to add… I’ve had two male Rotties, (thye sure get a bad rap becuse of stupid owners), that have NEVER harmed an animal that belongs to them but they wouldn't/won’t tolerate a STRANGE animal, dog/cat/possum/coon/etc./etc. anywhere near their “family”. We have three (spayed) female rescue mutts that can also be left alone (trusted) with the chickens, ducks and geese. Puppies will be puppies and that’s when they learn what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Most dogs can be trained with a little oversight, guidance and parse.

I/we had German Shepard’s when I was a boy. They never harmed any of my dad’s chickens or my ducks or rabbits. It's all in how they are trained.

 

[sprawli]

We have a chihuahua that does well with the chickens (they're twice her size), and makes a ton of noise if there is an animal in the yard that shouldn't be...

 

[nzpouter]

we have dogs of all breeds with our chickens.... from rotties, sheperds, boxers, daschunds, pitbulls and bull terriers... none are chicken killers... yes acidents can happens when they're young and exuberant... but it all depends on the training and time put into it...

 

[Bedste]

I have always been the alpha dog. That is what shocked me.. The German was born here on this property and I raised him up. He has always been so eager to please me and he knows I love my chickens. The puppy is new to our home. He has been here for 3 months or so...... HE has never been 'allowed' to play with the chickens. I would find chickens in the morning dead but not bitten. When I realized the puppy was a problem I thought he would outgrow this so I kept him on a chain. He got off the chain and into the coop and ate one 5 day old chick. I am not a stupid person and I do not leave my dogs and chickens unsupervised on a regular basis, I am simply mentioning the most recent issues. I loved my dogs and I know that they have kept preditors away but my concern is that they have become the preditors. This is heart breaking.

 

[Boyd]

one that doesn't eat McNuggets

 

[Keara]

Ditto what BeeKissed and GrumpyOldMan said.

The breed of dog that does not kill chickens is the dog that is trained to listen to you. Being dominant is not the same as training and having a dogs respect.
Take the puppy to basic obedience classes and you may see a world of difference. Check your town recreation center or, community education center, you may find evening classes for very little money.

I have a Chesapeake Bay retriever who has been great with the chickens for 5 yrs. He went 2 rounds of basic obedience classes and, once we got the chickens it was short work (about 1 wk of telling him no, and refocusing his attention on something else) to train him to ignore them.