Will English Mastiffs guard livestock/chickens?

[Haviris]

I have no experience w/ English Mastiffs, but I've never had a problem teaching my pups to behave around the other critters. When I get a puppy I take them w/ me when I feed, a little curriousity is ok, but if they move towards the chickens they are corrected (they're always on a leash in the beginning), mostly they tend to be alittle afraid of the chickens at first. But constantly letting them be w/ the chickens w/ me, and it's not long at all before it's just routine and they pretty much ignore them. The important thing is to never let them learn how much fun chasing chickens is, and never give them the chance to screw up until you feel completely comfortable that they have no interest in the chickens. And I haven't always had chickens when I've raised pups, but I socialize them like crazy, finding not only as many different people and other dogs, but also different animals as possible. They generally learn when it's something I want there. Right now when I bring in something new I show the dogs, they give them the royal welcome, and we're all good! A good sniff is usually good for Havoc, Iris likes to be more thorough. Zoe just wants to be sure they know she's above them. I feel completely comfortable leaving my three dogs (2 danes, and a Chinese Crested) alone w/ my chickens, ducks, goats, horses, cows, etc. I came home one day to find Iris laying in the yard w/ 2 ducks and a goat snuggled up napping w/ her.

As for guarding, I feel confident that my danes aren't going to allow anything in the yard that doesn't belong there, I'm not sure it's that they are protecting the other animals (although Havoc does not like the other dogs to get rowdy and will get onto them if they are playing to rough, or fighting), they're just protecting their territory. Now my dogs spend the majority of their time inside, so they're not exactly livestock guardian dogs, but if their out there I'm not worried about something coming in the yard.

Now I've also made my mistakes, I've had one chicken killing dog. I did my usually training w/ some ducks I had, Storm (aussie mix) was 8 weeks old and doing well, infact she didn't seem to care at all about the ducks. I left her outside w/ the ducks while I ran to town (5 min.), came back and she was in the process of killing a duck (the duck was bigger then she was (and seemed faster), but she still managed it). She was obsessed after that, she belongs to my nephew, she's 6 1/2 now, and this year my mom was finally able to free range her chickens w/out Storm bothering them. She's still not completely trustworthy, and never will be, but she's as good as she's going to get!

That said I think there are probably some dogs that will just never be safe around certain other animals, high prey drive or what ever, sometimes it's just the way it goes, you won't really know til you get him home and get to know his temperment. I hope it works out, I love being able to have everyone together and not having to worry about keeping everyone separated.

Here's a pic of Iris w/ a couple ducklings (we didn't put the ducklings in w/ her, they were in there and she desided she was hot) these are the same ducks she was napping w/, they always liked her.

 

[redhen]

Haviris!...OMG!..that is the best picture!...

..i love it!...My Dane is also a big water baby!.he loves to get in the kiddie pool also!..

... But, my Saints wont go near water...

..i even bought them these wide steps so they could climb in my pool and sit on the steps in hot weather..nope..they just looked at me like i was a fool!...LOL..thanks for all the advice!...

..

 

[menageriemama]

Our mastiff cross pup is pretty good with our chickens and ducks. She wanders around the run eating any spilled chicken feed

She really isnt very interested in the birds themselves.

 

[Guitartists]

That pic is GREAT!!!!!

 

[sandy sea]

I have two English Mastiffs and one Neo Mastiff. I can not trust them with my chickens or pigs. My English Mastiffs are more of a large house dog. They lay around the house most of the day, they do not like the heat. I do not think they would make a good guard dog. I have accidently lost a few chickens to them. I would never let them get to my pigs.

 

[Eglyntine]

These are my purebred EM girls, they are 8 months old in this picture:

Mystique is in the front and Phoenix is the one peeking over from behind. While of course they look big and weigh in at 130lbs already they are still very much puppies. In all my life with various breeds of dogs I have owned with and without chickens these are the first ones I have ever had that was good with my kids (3 and 5), my chickens from puffball to full adult, kittens, you name it. I never had to yell at them one time to stay away from the chickens, do not chase them, do not hurt them, etc. I trust them explicitly with my birds. But unfortunately I cannot trust them to stay away from the chicken poop. It is the most disgusting thing in the world but they would kill to eat chicken poop. It of course is virtually impossible to keep them from doing it since the chickens free range my yard and I also compost the hay and chicken manure all over my yard but it is a daunting task keeping them away from it to say the least.

They are super protective but not in an aggressive way, they will not go after something outside of the fence but anything that tries to come in the yard that does not belong there and I would not want to be that person/animal. But on the other hand they allow a flock of 50 doves and about 30 quail in the yard to scavenge after my chicken feed. I am a little upset about feeding the entire neighbourhood of birds heh.

They have super sonic hearing I think because even if they are inside with us, if a cat or whatever comes in the yard they are up and out that door faster than you can say "WTH?!" I would like to take full credit and say that I am a great dog trainer but I cannot. They have been like this since day one with the chickens and our family and I could not be prouder that is for sure. I say I did not "formally train" them to be good with the chickens but through our other training of them they have instinctively realized, these chickens, kittens, kids, etc. are something my owner loves and therefore I love it too and will watch over it. If something is not a danger to my property or family the girls could careless but if something threatens my "stuff" the girls will protect the stuff but not necessarily go after the threat if it backs off. And 9 times out of 10 whatever ALWAYS backs off when they see the size of this pair of EM's.

I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone in their right mind would intentionally train these very large dogs to be aggressive or give them attack training yet I have seen it done over and over. No human I do not care how strong you are can control one of these dogs if they decide they are going after something. Before I lost 180 lbs, I was a big STRONG girl at 342 lbs. and I was out walking our previous EM girl years and years ago. We were living in a 1 bedroom apt at the time and she of course had to be walked. Well we were out, she was under complete control (I thought) and all of a sudden a Pit Bull came around the corner charging after me. In her attempt to protect me, she lunged at the dog to put herself btwn me and this dog and she flipped me up feet over head and probably at least a good foot off the ground and then dragged me for about 12 ft before she realized what she had done. She did all of this in a split second and it was no effort at all for her.

Anyone who is thinking of getting these dogs, they should know up front, that even though they are 99.9% not aggressive, they are great around your small children and animals (if trained properly), they are NEVER completely under your full control and they are really just "allowing" you to be in control. Throughout the years of owning these dogs I have been seriously hurt several times due to my own fault of not paying attention. The dogs never tried to intentionally hurt me but they are 200 lb animals and when they move sometimes you move with them.

So, yes they can be really great with your kids and animals of any type but you have to train them and put them in the situation often to always obey you and know what you want even if you do not say it. Hard job but it can be done and with these dogs their driving force is to please you. Use that in a good way and they will give their life to make you happy.

 

[teach1rusl]

I think any dog that doesn't have a super high prey dog has the potential to be good around small animals (such as chickens) if properly trained. Mastiffs remind me of great danes on steroids...pretty easy going type dogs. And my dane pup does great around the chickens...except for eating up the scratch and other treats I throw down for the birds...and chicken poo...oh...and his tail has sent them squawking on occasion. I think your mastiff pup will do fine with your birds if you work with him daily.

 

[NYboy]

They have very short hair, can they handle being outside in winter? Good luck with your puppy

 

[Hound]

Did you change your mind about the boxer/poodle?

 

[redhen]

This thread is from 08!!...
Keep up folks.