It does not matter what breed of dog you get, IF you get it as a puppy, and introduce it to livestock EARLY and OFTEN, you will be fine. If you get a high prey drive dog as an adult, forget it, you are never going to get that dog to leave animals alone. High prey drive pretty much equals high drive period, high working ability , etc. We rescue dogs of all breeds and ages, and act as a foster home. We always introduce all the dogs to the animals, to see how they will react. Personally, we have a pitbull/lab/beagle mix who is very trustworthy around anything except ducks..
, got him at about 8 months, and he has been great, he has lots of drive, kills little birds all the way up to groundhogs, but he leaves the animals alone. A few attacks from a rooster, and a male goat, when he was younger, taught him to never fool with the animals. He will fight them for food, but never outright attack them, or chase them. Our other dog we got as a 4 year old adult, she is a great pyrennes /border collie mix, she is totally trustworthy with all except cats and ducks, she would die to protect her sheep, and she was not raised with them. The worst adult dogs I have ever seen as far as wanna be animal killers have all been mixes of working herding breeds, not guard breeds, but dedicated herders, not trained around animals. Those dogs are the worst!!!
