# chicken guard dog



## twitch1 (May 1, 2013)

Hay everyone i am new to this site and I got question I have always wondered what kind of dog you would get to guard a flock of free ranged layer hens. and stay there at night I have been wanting to start a flock but a guard dog seems to be the only way to really keep the predators from just eating them all. any info or advice is appreciated. Thanks


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## RJMAcres (Sep 9, 2009)

All of ours guard poultry as well as their goats.
4 Great pyreneese and a catahula.
Not unusual to see a chicken standing on 1 of the great pyrs while eating the dogs food.


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## ajaxlucy (Jul 18, 2004)

I have a mixed breed (Collie/English Shepherd) dog that is our "chick-sitter" every summer when we raise a batch of meat birds for the freezer. He stays outside with them at night to make sure that no critters try to break into their pen. Once they go off to the processor, he starts sleeping in the house again. The laying flock gets shut up into their sturdy coop every evening.

During the daytime, my English Shepherd joins him outdoors to keep an eye on things while the birds are free-ranging. Some days the flock doesn't have a dog-sitter and we have lost some hens/chicks to hawks when the dogs aren't around.

Both dogs know not to bother the poultry.

Edited to add: Welcome to the site!


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## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

A dog for birds is just plain odd. Unless you have them on a lot of land, 5+ acres and a lot of birds, its far easier and cheaper to just put up electric fencing.


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## mawalla (Oct 28, 2002)

I've never seen an electric fence stop a hawk but I've seen my Great Pyr do it!


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## jandersen (Jul 11, 2011)

I mawalla I'm getting a pyrenees anatolian cross to protect my 200 hens. Hawk and ***** took over 100 birds from me last year.


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## ajaxlucy (Jul 18, 2004)

secuono said:


> A dog for birds is just plain odd. Unless you have them on a lot of land, 5+ acres and a lot of birds, its far easier and cheaper to just put up electric fencing.


A dog works pretty well for us on our small acreage. We use the electric fencing for the sheep. We've gotten used to thinking of ourselves as odd, though.


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## twitch1 (May 1, 2013)

secuono said:


> A dog for birds is just plain odd. Unless you have them on a lot of land, 5+ acres and a lot of birds, its far easier and cheaper to just put up electric fencing.



I thinking a couple hundred red rangers in a ten acre pasture with my beef cattle


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

My mt cur does an great job of protecting the homestead livestock no trouble with them bothering the chickens .no varmits are allowed in their neabourhood though they will not stay with the livestock like a perineses is supposed to .I have way to many chickens free ranging on my backwoods farm and haven't lost one in years bears or skunks havent botherd my honey bees ***** and possam and cyoute once regular visters are no problem and the meter reader does'nt have to fear being bitten


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## Cheryl aka JM (Aug 7, 2007)

Dogs make great chicken guards, but a word of hard earned experience for you~ 

Don't run out and buy a an LGD pup and expect it's gonna keep your chickens safe. MATURE dogs WELL TRAINED make great chicken guards. Pups have a difficult time resisting that fun feathered toy squawking through the yard! They are fun to chase, fun to catch and they make fantastic sounds right up until they stop making any sounds at all...... A good chicken guard has probably killed a chicken or two when he was younger and been completely and properly shamed for it. I joke with people here that I had to beat my dogs regularly with a dead chicken for the first two years and NOW they are fantastic chicken dogs.

Edit to add:
Before someone jumps in to inform me not all pups are hard on poultry Im sure some dogs come by it naturally~ but my experience with 1 great pyr, 3 anatolians, 1 rott and 1 mongrel has been that all of my dogs had to mature with the chickens and be scolded regularly for killing or chasing chickens (don't actually beat the dog) before they got it. The mongrel dog was fastest to understand the joy of the chase wasn't worth the misery of me being outraged at her.


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