mountain lions!!!

Mountain lions, cougars, panthers, pumas, whatever you call them in your area, have a range of 50 miles in circumfrence, therefore hard to catch twice in the same spot. This may sound cruel but your best bet is to bait them with an animal and find a way to kill them wether it's poison or gunfire or whatever. I saw my first one in 95' in north central ks and would have never believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes. The kansas fish & game still says there are no cats in kansas. So if there are no cats in your area, then you shouldn't tell anyone if you should happen to kill one that's not there if you know what I mean? One Sherriff out there in north central kansas who had a large cattle interest near the place I saw one told me, "three s's, shoot, shovel, shut up."

I'd try an Anatolian; get a couple good ones, and they'll practically train themselves. They can be expensive, but to me, they're worth their weight in gold. The males can hit 150 easy.
Oh, and don't baby an LGD. They're not pets. They go with the goat kids as pups, and once they're big enough, out they go. Seen so many people around here coddle LGDs the way some people do chihuahuas, then wonder why the dog won't stay with the stock. They're happier with a job, too, can get all bored and destructive without one.
Good luck!

And, I almost forgot, it's better to condition the cats to stay away from your place than kill them. They're very territorial, and killing one will just free up a slot for another.

I'm gonna back Lisa up on that one. One of her dogs (Guinness) also runs off those pesky "Black-Coated Dodge Durango Predators" that are up on the road! (once in a while he'll also frighten the rare "White Dodge Ram Truck Stalker")

I figure any dog that's studly enough to herd a big 4x4 barrelling down on them at 25 mph (okay, 15, when the potholes are bad) should have NO problem with mountain lions!

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Gun-toting, church-going, homeschooling, right-wing conservative, happily married, stay-at-home mom of three living in the real United States of America!

Yep, no durned truck will be coming on to HIS property. Harp, meanwhile watches the river side of things, escorting those pesky rafters downstream.

Mountain lions stories are like Bigfoot sightings around here. Many people have seen them. There are even a few pictures. Yet our state game commission refuses to acknowledge their existance. So, when livestock is injured/killed, most of the locals use the SSS method of dealing with the problem. Sad, but true.

Gin, Mrs Vet is right in saying the AR Fish and Game denies Mountain Lions in Ar. Even though a couple of years ago an amateur photographer caught one on tape west of LR. The US Fish and Game has a program of repreditation where they are reintroducing cats in TX, OK, Kansas and MO...but they don't say anything about Mountain Lions in AR. There are some interesting studies based on reported sightings that suggest rather significant populations in the state.
There was a suspicious death a couple of years ago and Mrs. Vet and several others did quite a bit of research. We're convinced it was a Mountain Lion and the tracks were impressive. The large watch dogs at the home were found cowering in the corner. The state denied the evidence completely. Scary. Watch your back, Gin. While watch dogs, donkeys and protective cattle my help with your livestock. You and your family working around the place can be easy prey.

I think you're making it a bigger issue than it probably is. Every now and then you get a cat that isn't afraid of people or dogs and needs to be shot. ThreeJane had one like that several years ago. Mountain lion attacks on humans do happen, but they are pretty rare considering how many cats there are in western states. I sincerely doubt there are as many big cats in Missouri/Arkansas as there are in the western states.
And the LGD's do deter attacks on humans too. They mark and patrol our entire place and while our nearest neighbor with a German Shepherd is visited regularly by predators, we aren't. My Pyrs protect everyone on the place: horses, sheep, goats, small dogs and even the cats. Most especially my kids. They never let the kids go into the woods unescorted. They are great pets as well as working dogs. Here is Harp enjoying ghost stories and s'mores around a fire last summer with a bunch of little girls:

I have lost three horses and one LGD in two years to a cougar. The animal in question is estimated to be between 170-190 lbs. It has so far eluded trapping and tracking. After numerous attacks on my outbuildings and many hours of talks with wildlife experts, I can tell you this - the ONLY effective way to protect animals from cougar attack is locking them up at night.

A LGD (and mine weighed 140 lbs) can not take down a cougar. Yes, maybe the barking will scare it away, temporarily, but a determined animal will come back.

Cougars are "ambush" predators. They will not chase prey in the open. If they can't jump their prey in 10 yds or less, they'll give up. If you have to keep livestock outside, keep them in an open area at night, away from brush and trees, where a cougar is likely to watch from.

Smaller females do not generally attack livestock. Big males do. And they sometimes do it just for the fun of killing something. Like any feline, their attack sense comes from seeing an animal move, so a cougar that isn't hungry will still kill a sheep or goat if it runs, just because that's what they do.

Until you've lost a number of expensive animals, you can argue and tell me a dog will protect them. They won't. They can make a valient effort, but in the end, the cougar is the top of the food chain because he's bigger and stronger than a dog. If a cougar and a dog fight, the cougar is going to win. A cougar can attack and kill an animal as large a horse in less time than it takes your LGD to trot across your 20 acres to investigate and bark.

The problem in our state is that hunting with dogs has been outlawed. The only time you can hunt with dogs is when there is a specific animal that is causing property damage. This has caused the cougar populations in the NW and California to skyrocket.

Cougar attacks are NOT rare. In the western states alone, over 5000 attacks and near attacks (animals spotted in daylight near populated areas) have occured. Over 1000 head of livestock have been killed - these are reported attacks - it's possible that an equal number of deaths have happened that are not reported, or are questionable and so not reported in stats by wildlife officials.

Keep your animals safe at night. Put them up in a barn, or keep them in the open so they have a chance. Even a goat can outrun a cougar if given enough space. Cougars don't run down their prey.

Rhodesian Ridgebacks are used to hunt lions. I think a couple of these could keep them at bay. Only problem is they are short haired and don't like cold weather but would be great in warmer areas of the country.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodesian_Ridgeback

What on earth are "Pinerises"? Knolls with pine trees on them? How would they stop a mountain lion?

Pyrinees is the name of the Large Guard dog that people have been talking about in this article. People that don't fear the cougar are not so bright. The person that was found to be the victom of a cougar was with 4 LGD but they were cowered in the courner. The thing is to remember that you and any children are a canidate for a cougar attack. Not only the livestock but humans are prey for a cougar. In Arkansas we have both the California cougar and the Flarida couger along with African lions and Tigers that have been turned loose from capitly. If they are seen around a place they are more than likely to not be afraid of humans. If they are do anything that would kill them.

I agree that putting your animals in at night is best, but for many undoable.
Maybe where I live, being much more wild than most, the cougars are not as determined. All I can say is after the Pyrs came, we've lost no stock, including lambs in the spring. We find no sign of them and our neighbors, a 1/4 mile away have tracks in their yard all the time.
I also said that cougar attacks on humans are quite rare given the large number of cougars in the western states.

You're calling someone else not so bright?
If you shiver and shake because of predators, maybe you should move to the suburbs. If a cougar has proven himself a nuisance or unfearing of humans...by all means shoot him. If you can cause him to decide there are better pickings elsewhere by having an LGD...that just seems smart to me.

It's plain stupid to move out where there are predators and then whine about them.

Lisa, I know you are unaware of the background on this AR. couger stuff. A friend of the Vets, and mine, and others here was in her yard, rural, weed-eating with 4 LGD out with her. Her sister and BIL came there and found her body in the yard, disemboweled and shredded by a cougar. AR. F&G said no cougars in this state even though there were paw/pad prints all around the body which had casts taken by neighbors. The AR. State police declined any action as no crime had been committed. the locals hunted and tracked that cat for months without success. So, yes, folks in that particular area are VERY wary when out on their property with very good reason - the IS a man-hunting cougar in that area. Yes, we shiver but we also go armed at the same time. Nobody has moved here recently, the family this happened to had been on that property for 20 years or more. Lighten up a bit unless you know the whole story behind someone's post.

I wasn't speaking of cougars in only Arkansas, and I believe I said that if a cat became a nuisance...by all means shoot it. Of course, a man-eating cougar would pretty much fall into that category. What is it that I should lighten up about?
The original poster asked for methods of deterring cougars and protecting livestock and LGD's are a tried and true method. That's why they are bred.
And I'm not a tree-hugger but I do believe predators have an important place in the food chain and it's ridiculous to shoot them just because you see one as Old Vet suggested.

LGD with heavy spiked collars have a better chance of surviving a cougar attack.

OK, there is so much BS and paranoia on this thread that it's unreal. And I say this as someone in an area that does have a healthy population of cougars, which even come through town and eat people's dogs. Let's just say that I don't think dogs ar ethe be all and end all answer to the problem, and that cougars aren't always a problem just because they are present. As I said, I've never lost a single animal to one.

All that aside, has anyone here noticed a difference with cougar predation and electric fence? Have you seen cougars *inside* the fence, one that is properly charged and working?

Nope, but they don't keep the darned moose out.

um, you got any proof to this story? like a link or something?