Will Great Pyrenees guard chickens?

[CUDA]

Well, if you just throw your dog out in your yard, and don't take the time to train it, what do you expect? You can not allow your puppy to be around animals you want it to protect without your supervision until it is trained. Allowing it to chase your goats is the worse thing you can do.

 

[Don B]

Dear bkgoatranch, Your puppy is too young for the herding/protective instincts to take over, so the puppy play instinct is the only guidance the pup has, unless you intervene with training.
I would recommend that you take a long weekend and dedicate yourself to training the puppy. In 3 or 4 days of training, you will definitely be able to break the chasing habit. This will teach the pup to respect the flock until she is old enough to care for it.
You will need a chain-type collar (the kind that gets tighter when it is pulled on), and a leash. Leash the dog, and walk it in the goat yard. Each time the dog begins to pull away from you to chase the goats, pull sharply on the leash, utter a sharp, single sylable sound (like "no" or "pip" or "hut" - just use the same one with the same pitch every time), and immediately turn and proceed in the opposite direction. Do this about 10 to 15 minutes at a time several times during the day, and during the training days, keep the dog seperated from the flock unless you have it on the leash.
This is very basic leash training, and there are many books and videos available on the subject. The best route would be to leash train apart from the goats (or chickens ) first, then later, use the same techniques to break the chasing/ attacking habit. The dog will soon learn that it is not in its best interest to chase the animals.
Pyrs are very smart, and I think you should be able to sufficiently train your puppy to be trusted around the flock in a short few days.

 

[pvc coop]

We have one GP. 16 acres. A few sheep and chickens. We lost 3 lambs to Coyotes this spring. I guess some GP's are better at guarding than others. I saw two large Coyotes crossing my neighbors pasture today at 2 pm. Our GP is nocternal. Likes sleeping all day, and guarding at night.

 

[Eggseronious]

A friend of mine has over 100 game chickens on 5 acres that is fenced in with 3 strains of barbwire that is electric. He has a male and female Great Pyrenees that are in the area with the chickens and raises pups to sell mostly to game chicken breeders. He hardly loses a bird, a few times to some owls but he is closing in on that now!

 

[chickery-do]

Hi!
I read your last post on raising GP cuz I'm getting a bday, xmas female one named Lacy! I have lost so many chickens, Roosters,
so I'm reading everything that I can think of. even waiting for my books from www.thriftbooks.com Really great deals!
Anyway, you said to put the puppy on a chain collar with a long lead and give it a fairly Good Tug with a real good NO! You said to do it often, but not just cuz she's pulling on the lead but more for chasing the chicken's or ducks that I hope to have out free ranging this summer. I have an excersize circle that I let the bunnies enjoy the grass and free run for their legs. I don't think GPs would be able to control them. But I would like it if the hawks stay away cuz I've lost 3 chicken and a rabbit grew wings one day. A real biop[ to see! Then there's the bears that have found out that the dogs died 2 yr's ago so one day I was on one side of a scotish pine and he popped UP on the other side! My heart is strong cuz the shock didn't kill it. And a rabid fox was on one side of a 4x8 ft tractor that we use for the little chicklets until their ready for the big boys! lol Luckly my dd co2 gun was in the sunroom when he heard me screech his name. Thankfully he got him between the eyes! It took some time to get over losing out 2 dogs and we both felt it was time to replace them.
She'll be 8 weeks come Dec. 25 so I could incubate some eggs in Jan. but I'd rather spend some time with the puppy. Plus I have Angora Rabbits so I have to groom them and shave some and comb the others. I'm 16 (ha ha) and I get tired easily. You wouldn't put a 2 litter bottle on a puppy so young would you? What about something a like a 20 oz. bottle of soda?
This one may be dumb but can I keep my critters out of my flowers and hostas's?
I've always walked the perimeter of my property and if she would go off the property she got a tug and a NO. But I guess this is something that won't for her hu lol!
What was the name of the book I think it was you that mentioned it. Could you remind me of it again.
Thanks for taking the time and effort you will be giving me and I hope you don't mind if I run something past you should I have anything come up?
Respectfully
Nancy & Lacy

PS
Do you have any girl names you like?!

 

[CrazyTalk]

Well, if you just throw your dog out in your yard, and don't take the time to train it, what do you expect? You can not allow your puppy to be around animals you want it to protect without your supervision until it is trained. Allowing it to chase your goats is the worse thing you can do.

Exactly.


One of the things people miss when they see reports of "oh, they just figure it out growing up with the animals" is that in large livestock operations that use these dogs, puppies are paired up with mature adult dogs - and the adult dogs keep them in line. It's not that they're not being trained - the training is just being done by another dog.

 

[Zoomie]

Exactly.


One of the things people miss when they see reports of "oh, they just figure it out growing up with the animals" is that in large livestock operations that use these dogs, puppies are paired up with mature adult dogs - and the adult dogs keep them in line. It's not that they're not being trained - the training is just being done by another dog.

I so agree with this. I had a friend who trained her guard dog to guard her goats and chickens, and oh my was that ever a lot of work. She worked at home so was always there, and had to watch that puppy like a hawk, and immediately fly out the door to curtail wrong behavior from the dog, mostly by noticing the problem ahead of time before there was a bad issue. As stated in this thread, these dogs mature slowly. It took her two full years before that dog was fully trained and reliable around the goats and chickens. He was awesome at doing that when his training was completed, but the training took so long that I personally started feeling like electric fences were really, really cheap in comparison...

 

[Bigwig]

My 7 year old male Great Pyrenees will chase off all ground predators (except dogs) and any flying objects as well (robins and helicopters included!) that come near his flock. He nearly killed two cats that came into our yard this year.

Please note: You MUST have a fence for this breed as they tend to move around a lot... actually that is an understatement the more appropriate term is "insatiably nomadic".

 

[chickery-do]

can you use those underground fencing or those wireless shock collars for them?

 

[isybee]

I also have two other dogs besides my GP. The two other house dogs ignore the chickens and guineas. But when something is rustling outside the fence, they run over barking to investigate. My GP is learning from them. He follows the other two to investigate as well. Usually, it's just a squirrel. My problem is with hawks. No, I'd say my problem is with the GP liking to sleep on the other side of the yard ignoring the chickens. I keep reminding him to stay in the back yard, I holler at him, "Back yard." He then runs over there, lays down near the coop and when I turn my back, he's wandering back to the front yard. Drives me nuts. Maybe he's still too young to fully grasp the concept of his job. I was unemployed when I first got him, so had plenty of time to train. He knows not to chase or play with the chickens, he's been trained to stay near them. I think he doesn't like the sound of the guineas. They get pretty loud. And I was wanting to get Peacocks!