# Neighborhood Dogs



## Mazerath (Dec 15, 2016)

Looking for a bit of advice that has driven my husband and I crazy. We have 2 teams of Great Pyrenees (2 females, an unaltered male, and a castrated male). One of the females is 10 months, the other dogs we've had since they were puppies and are now over 4 years. We've spent a small fortune on 6 foot, non-climb horse fencing with welded-pipe posts. We have on maybe 3 or 4 occasions had neighborhood dogs get into our pasture or woods; our dogs have befriended them, I guess, because they won't do a darn thing to chase them out, even if they start terrorizing the flock. We lost a couple of pygmy goats last fall, and long story short, after the sheriff visited, the most aggressive of these neighborhood dogs was "disposed" of. No one in our neck of the woods keeps their dogs in a yard, just lets them run wild. Now, we were heartbroken about losing those pygmy goats, because they were very tame and like puppies with us, but they weren't monetarily valuable. My Nubian goats and Suffolk sheep ARE very valuable though. What do we need to do? A llama, donkey? A different breed of dog? We love our Pyrs, all are AKC registered and have on a rare occasion had a litter of pups which was a decent bit of income, they are great with my young kids... but my flock is much more valuable to me. Any advice? We only have 3.5 acres. Thank you in advance!


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## aart (Oct 20, 2012)

Hot Wire.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

I'm still trying to convince myself that the cost of a pair of LGDs, their feed and vet bills, would be justified based on the random flurry of coyote killed lambs I have from time to time. This post, and others like it, don't help to convince me. If I had fences that would contain LGDs, and in this case, keep out neighborhood dogs, I am left to wonder what purpose the LGDs would serve?


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## oceantoad (May 21, 2009)

What comes to mind for me is that I have seen dogs climb fences. We have dogs here that are dumped. If you have them where you are, would want more than just fence. I have seen videos of coyotes jumping pretty high.


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## CelestielAcres (Sep 16, 2016)

Mazerath said:


> Looking for a bit of advice that has driven my husband and I crazy. We have 2 teams of Great Pyrenees (2 females, an unaltered male, and a castrated male). One of the females is 10 months, the other dogs we've had since they were puppies and are now over 4 years. We've spent a small fortune on 6 foot, non-climb horse fencing with welded-pipe posts. We have on maybe 3 or 4 occasions had neighborhood dogs get into our pasture or woods; our dogs have befriended them, I guess, because they won't do a darn thing to chase them out, even if they start terrorizing the flock. We lost a couple of pygmy goats last fall, and long story short, after the sheriff visited, the most aggressive of these neighborhood dogs was "disposed" of. No one in our neck of the woods keeps their dogs in a yard, just lets them run wild. Now, we were heartbroken about losing those pygmy goats, because they were very tame and like puppies with us, but they weren't monetarily valuable. My Nubian goats and Suffolk sheep ARE very valuable though. What do we need to do? A llama, donkey? A different breed of dog? We love our Pyrs, all are AKC registered and have on a rare occasion had a litter of pups which was a decent bit of income, they are great with my young kids... but my flock is much more valuable to me. Any advice? We only have 3.5 acres. Thank you in advance!


I guess my question would be how are the "unwanted visitors" getting onto your property? I assume the 6ft fence is to keep the dogs in and the predators out? 

Did your dogs come from working parents? For your acreage it does seem that you are carrying too many dogs, possibly not enough job for them to do to keep their minds on the job at hand. Are they exposed regularly to other canine visitors from family and friends etc? 

Each dog can be so specific as well as the situations they are exposed to that it is hard to give ideas based on your post.


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## Mazerath (Dec 15, 2016)

As for the number of dogs... The property is very heavily wooded, with lots of coyote packs that come right up to the house. The house is in the middle of the property with two fenced areas, almost 2 acres each, on either side of the house. We run goats in the wooded hills and sheep in the open pasture, hence two pairs. Could probably get by with one dog in each area, it just seems like that is too few, but 4 is almost too many? The other dogs running the area have gotten in once when we had no dog in the wooded area... They dig under the fence and killed the goat. Coyotes come up even in the daylight if there isn't a dog in that paddock. We had a tree fall on the fence once and a male got in, though luckily didn't hurt anyone. We've considered the electric fence... Wasn't sure if that would prove a liability as children from the area occasionally come down to watch the livestock.


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## Mazerath (Dec 15, 2016)

CelestielAcres said:


> I guess my question would be how are the "unwanted visitors" getting onto your property? I assume the 6ft fence is to keep the dogs in and the predators out?
> 
> Did your dogs come from working parents? For your acreage it does seem that you are carrying too many dogs, possibly not enough job for them to do to keep their minds on the job at hand. Are they exposed regularly to other canine visitors from family and friends etc?
> 
> Each dog can be so specific as well as the situations they are exposed to that it is hard to give ideas based on your post.


And yes, all did came from working parents who were on acreage with cattle. We rarely have visitors, and none bring dogs. Thank you for taking time to answer!


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Mazerath, as you obviously know you have quite a problematic situation to deal with, i.e. with neighborhood dogs permitted to run freely over the countryside. Do you not have some type of Animal Control Department in your area? (Here if a dog makes a nuisance of itself and is reported, it gets picked up by Animal Control, which is quite a deterrant to its running freely again.)

Were I in your shoes, I would definately be looking at electric fencing. Myself I'm totally against such a type of fence; but then I don't have the preditor problem you do. My dogs (2: one Karakachan and one Lab) have intimidated everything around here; and even the hunting dogs that run freely during hunting seasons stay off my 6 acres. 

As for children being hurt by that electric fencing, you would need to post some warning signs so the liability of their harm is their parents and not yours. Other than that I don't know what to suggest. (Seems they could enjoy watching your animals without having to touch the fence.)

As for diging under fencing, a bit of chicken wire laid out flat on the ground at the fence line will stop that!

Hope this helps.


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## AnchorRanchFarm (Nov 17, 2016)

.308 WIN ought to do the trick.

In general I'm not a fan of killing things unless you plan to eat them. But stray/wild dogs are not natural predators and are a serious problem. I strongly recommend shooting them. I would have absolutely no problem shooting a dog that is causing damage to my stock. And while I would be sad about it, honestly if my dog somehow got out and was consistently causing damage to someone else's stock, I wouldn't blame them at all for shooting her. 

Unfortunately you're probably not allowed to shoot the irresponsible owners. 

BTW you can eat dog and it doesn't taste bad, but I'd be wary of eating a carnivore that's been running wild. I might be wrong but I think you can get some pretty nasty diseases that way.


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