dumb question about lgd's

[trixiwick]

I'm wondering how those of you who use LGDs lay out your property. For example, how much territory can one dog reasonably protect? Part of me thinks an LGD would be a good idea for our place, but another part thinks that our layout is too scattered and too cross-fenced for it to work. We've got turkeys pastured way over here across a little creek, goats in a pasture not far from the house, ducks and geese over by the pond...

Does everybody have to be in one place for an LGD to be able to do the job right? What about the creek as a barrier? Any thoughts would be welcome!

[Little Quacker in OR]

I have Cattle dogs, not LGD's. Do I understand that there are a lot of areas that you dogs are fenced out of? Didn't want to get myself confused here! lol

A "good" dog of any working/ herding breed that has had lots of time spent with it as a pup so it gets to know what is what(like not eating the poultry or chasing the stock)will patrol it's territory and guard it against "invaders" no matter what or who they may be.

This seem to apply to one acre or 20. There are some dogs that prefer to guard close in..and others that will do well further out. This is a matter of the individual dog as well as the breed, imo, and good training. I think a pair(or three) of good dogs does a better job when the property gets larger than one can do alone. Dogs are braver too when there is more than one. It's just "pack" nature. However, there is much more training needed when you add dogs. You need to not just double the time..you need to SQUARE it when getting more than one pup at a time.

Sounds like you may be considering a new pup.Have fun!

LQ

[Maura]

As trixiwick wrote, most dogs with protect the farm. A livestock guarding dog is put out with the livestock when it is still a puppy, when you bring him home. He bonds with the livestock, which is why you can leave him out there all day and night with them. They protect the livestock by virtue of being large. Once they start barking, they scare away predators, they do not fight with them.

Are you going to be leaving the dog outside while you go to work? Trouble waiting to happen. If you want a dog, by all means get one, but even a natural born protecting breed needs training, including what his borders are.

[trixiwick]

Well I'm not a very experienced dog trainer, so I figured I'd be willing to shell out the money for a well-trained adult rather than a puppy (though I do realize I will still need to train in terms of where the boundaries of our property are and which animals on it are "herd members" deserving protection).

And our property isn't that big - just 8 acres - but the goats are about as far away from the turkeys as they could be, with several cross-fences and a creek between them. If we get two dogs, could we train one to guard the west half of the property while the other guarded the east half, or would they just stay together?

Still trying to decide if a dog would be right for us. And I would certainly need to leave it outside during the day. Some neighbor's dog recently jumped one of our (four-foot) fences while I was at work and went after our geese. No major injuries, thank heavens! But this is the kind of thing I will be looking to prevent with an LGD!

[wr]

I don't feel it's in your best interests to buy an mature dog, they do what they do well but they do it primarily because of instinct and they need to bond with you and your situation as young as possible.

[superduperchickenman]

two dogs due to the cross fencing, I've 3 males.
1 male in the front yard, one male in the back yard & one male in the door yard and a couple of bitches at large. you must keep them seperated thou. with a good fence.