What kind of dog should I get for my backyard?

[SilkiesForEver]

I have a German-Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix. We got him off of craigslist when he was 6 months old. He is an out-door only. Since he is a shepherd, he considers him-self the protector of everything we own. Including our livestock (chickens, sheep, goats).
He "plays" with my Silkie/Black-star mix hen, but never hurts her. With my sheep and goats, we don't let him directly in with them since his herding drive is so strong, and we don't have a big herd so we only use him in herding rams.
This is Rinty. Named after RinTinTin.


Here he is watching our Silkie bantam hen Mojo.


Here he is with his precious tennis ball.


Here he is retrieving it.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

You might want to look into a livestock guardian breed. We have a 14 month old Anatolian Shepherd. While I do not leave him outside at night, he does take his chicken guardian duties seriously when I let the chickens out to free range. However, a true livestock guardian dog lives 24/7 with his charges. If you decide to go this route, I seriously recommend you do a lot of reading, talk with breeders, join a the National Anatolian Shepherd Rescue network (or a similar group for Great Pyrenese or other LGD breed association) because these dogs are large, smart, independent thinkers and many end up as rescue/shelter dogs because their owners didn't do their research before they brought their puppy home.

Aslan, our ASD has been a handful. He's large, smart great problem solver and, because I don't want him with livestock 24/7, I've had to spend a great deal of time socializing him with people and other dogs, because their instinct is to quard their property and their charges. It is my belief that he is on his way to becoming an outstanding dog, but I need to keep one step ahead of him at all times as he goes through his "terrible teen" stage. In fact, if you look on the rescue sites for Anatolians or Great Pyrenese, you'll find a large number of them are right around 9 - 15 months of age, when they become oversized, naughty teenagers and their owners don't know how to channel their intellegence and dominant/protective drive.

That said, they have been raised for thousands of years to guard livestock and excel in this area. Here's Aslan in one of his favorite guarding locations, the top of the stairs, where he can keep an eye on the front dooor and driveway, keep track of my husband (in the office behind him) and me in the sitting room over his right shoulder.

 

[Mac14]

Cute dogs!

 

[jendodd79]

We have a poodle/wheaten terrier X who is 2. We were hoping that she would be good around the chickens, but when we let them in the run each morning - she races back and forth along the side of it whining. I definitely wouldn't trust her at this point!

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

We have a poodle/wheaten terrier X who is 2. We were hoping that she would be good around the chickens, but when we let them in the run each morning - she races back and forth along the side of it whining. I definitely wouldn't trust her at this point!

Terrier's were bred to hunt vermin and have a very strong prey drive. I don't think a terrier would ever be safe around chickens. Their hardwiring is just too contrary to what you're asking them to do. As poodles were originally bred to retrieve waterfowl, I'm not sure their instincts would be very helpful as a guardian of chickens either.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Terrier's were bred to hunt vermin and have a very strong prey drive. I don't think a terrier would ever be safe around chickens. Their hardwiring is just too contrary to what you're asking them to do. As poodles were originally bred to retrieve waterfowl, I'm not sure their instincts would be very helpful as a guardian of chickens either.

You can train any breed to be around your other pets if you are willing to put in the time and be extremely consistent with overall training and impulse control training.

 

[my sunwolf]

You can train any breed to be around your other pets if you are willing to put in the time and be extremely consistent with overall training and impulse control training.

x2 And "terrier" is a very generalized term. My dog is a Jack Russel crossed with a Corgi and a Shepherd... basically, a mutt. He is EXCELLENT with the chickens, and only required a few days of training with the adults and a few months with the chicks. Now he considers all the chickens his buddies, as well as poop-making-machines, but he's not very good at protecting as he's 35lbs and tends to run away. Here are a ton of pictures as "proof"

Like others are saying, training is key. With my dog, I found that it was pretty easy as he was 2.5 years old when we started the training, and had been living with me for 6 months already. He was calm enough in demeanor because of his age, and was familiar enough with me to trust me (though it took him longer than other dogs I've had).

The specific training I did was rewards based. We started on a leash about 10ft away from the chickens, who were in a pen. We would practice sit and down while ignoring the chickens. Then we'd move closer. If he looked towards the chickens, I'd call his name. If he broke his prey trance and looked at me, I would give him a treat and move closer. If not, we would move further away and start again. I did this for 3 days, and on the 3rd day ignored the coop and barely glanced at it. After a few weeks, I let the chickens out to free range and did the training again with loose chickens, just for 1 day. He has continued to be respectful of the chooks. I haven't had a single accident with this dog.

That being said, I had a 1.5 year old "coon dog" of some sort who I did the same training with, and she killed 2 chicks, 1 bantam, and 1 hen. Her energy level and prey drive were too high and would have required constant training and not leaving her alone with chickens for years in order to get her to accept them into her pack.

Sorry about the long post.

The short story: get a dog only as long as you're willing to do some serious training.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

He is so cute! I love his coloring.

 

[phalenbeck]

I write as we have a Pea-cock, Cocker and pekenise who takes her chickens quiet seriously. She patrols the yard, sometimes only the backyard where her chicken are located if weather is bad. She has chased off possums, dogs and cats. If a intruder does not respond she runs in the house to let us know the problem is too scarey. Occasionally for fun she runs through the flock. I do not know what the poodle side of your free dog would do, but my 1/2 Cocker is a good yard dog. The picture is getting cleaned up for summer.

 

[ChcknGrl]

I think u should get a dog as a puppy and raise it w/ your chickens....... I'd get a German Shepherd!