What type of guardian do you have?

We have a Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD), he is 1/2 Pyranees and 1/2 Maremma, we love the combination of the breeds. His coat is easier to care for than our pure Pyranees was and he is much more social. Not sure if it was because he was raised with the kids being older or not? Our first dog was a Pyranees, he was a great guard but did get into trouble on occation, but most of it was our fault as we were learning about guardian dogs and he was trying to learn to be a guard. He was born 1 month before my daughter, brought him home when my daughter was 1 month old so didnt have a lot of time for training. But Pete is a different story, he loves to be with the kids and us, he also does his patrol and keeps the wild critters at bay for the most part. We are lucky to have him.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
This is after his brushing today.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
He loves tummy rubs.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
My youngest trying to teach him a high 5, LOL.

We also have a Guardian Llama with our sheep. We started out with two, but had them before sheep, we had to get rid of them because they were just pets and not guardian material. This one we got as a youngster, at only 4 months old, she bonded very quickly to the sheep and is an awesome guard. Our little Jack Russell will go out gopher hunting in the pasture with the sheep and as soon as he is spotted she puts the run on him until he is back at the house on the other side of the fence, then back to the sheep again. She has even learned to go under the divided fence the sheep use to get to the pasture so the cows are not going into their pen, she goes down and crawls under with them then takes off running with the sheep.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Not the best picture of her but she is here eating with the sheep this spring in the winter storm.

I LOOOOVE my Pyrenees!!
Just yesterday, we put out the young chicks in a cage to get some sun and grass, and the other dogs were barking at the babies. She came over and laid down right beside the cage-that ended that!
I will always have a GP.
We are the only ones too, to have no coyotes in the immediate area.

We have six Maremmas and a tibetan mastiff (he is with the birds).

We have llamas but only a few have guarding instincts, although we did give one of them to the sheep lady down the road from us and the llama is doing very well there.

Its great reading about what everyone has for guardian dogs. I hope more people will discuss their favorite breeds! I'm currently looking for a dog and trying to decide what breed to get.

I find it risky starting new with any pup. We once (many years ago) had a part German Shepherd that was growing into a nice, obedient dog, but one day while we were all at work he decided the ducks and chickens would be really fun to chase/catch/kill. He demolished my flock down to only 4 hens and zero ducks. I was devastated. Since then we've had a lovely Golden Retriever and never a hint of a problem. She would keep the coyotes away in her younger years, but now she's old and tired. Time for another dog, but what to get? Most important to me is it must be good with kids, animals and chickens. Thinking of another Golden, as they really are lovely, wonderful family dogs.

We have a Golden too and love him to bits and he's nicely territorial! Barks at all smells, sights and sounds with his hair up and we praise him lots when he does it. But I would never encourage him or want him to take on a predator cause I don't think he's big enough. He's only about 65lbs.

We too are wanting a second dog next year and are talking about an LGD. It's funny, I feel really confident in know how to train a dog but feel a little intimidated by the idea of an LGD. We want it to be a family dog as well. Your dog looks great Hidden. And Cathyjk, I can only imagine how much it costs to feed your pack! I had two Irish Wolfhounds and they ate like horses. It must be something to see them all together.

Does anyone plan on breeding their LGD's next year?

Kathy I reccomend you look into a LGD, they do take some time to train but if your Golden is good with the birds she will teach the pup as well to be good with the birds.
When we trained our second dog that we have now we did it much different than the first. He was allowed in the pens with me, he was allowed to sniff and walk through all the animals, and we raised him in the sheep pen. When nobody was around to watch over his actions he was in a kennel, a nice large one for a pup to get lots of excerise and every time we went outside he was let out to go with.
I had him doing lock up with me at night when he was only 9 weeks old, and of course our JRT has always been good with the birds so we let him teach the pup right from wrong.
The key with a LGD is they bond to their livestock, and quickly, so it is important they spend a lot of time in and around the birds or animals they are guarding and any ill behaviors corrected immediately. By 4 months old he was out full time, we would lock him up at night because he wanted to take on coyotes but was not big enough yet, still didnt have adult teeth. By 6 months he was out full time and has never caused us an issue.
He is quite shy around the sheep because they did put the run on him a couple times when they had lambs, and he is not too sure about the cows, but he does his patrol through both of them just keeps his distance, which is fine with us.
A dog like a retriever or Shepherd are instinctual to chase things, that is just in their nature, so yes they can start out as great dogs but quickly change if they have not been corrected on an ill behavior. On the other side they are easily trainable and very loyal, so could just as easy become a great protector of the birds as well, but I am with Chicory on the fact they are just not big enough to handle multiple predators (if more than one coyote were to attack).

Good post Jayme.

Just would add that not every LGD will do their job. We have a two pups from the previous litter (ok they are almost 2 years old) and I'm not sure either of them got much guarding gene!

They don't just 'do it'... they need direction and guidance to be good at their jobs.

You might try this book

Livestock Protection Dogs: Selection, Care and Training
Orysia Dawydiak, David E. Sims
ALPINE PUBN, 2003 - 244 pages
Livestock guarding breeds protect sheep, goats, poultry, and exotic animals from predation and make good family companions. Dawydiak and Sims explain the work of the livestock protection dog, characteristics of the various breeds (Akbash, Anatolian Shepherd, Caucasian Ovcharka, Great Pyrenees, Kuvasz, Komondor and others), puppy testing and selection, training, care, health and breeding.

I guess we don't really count...but...our dogs (coonhound/shepard x and whippet/blue heeler x) are good at alerts at least and if we can we let them into the paddock/pen/wherever the creature may be so they can scare it off. Zeus, one of our alpacas...likes to try to guard sometimes...against chickens. Yup...Now and then I catch him out my window..head down...chasing a poor chicken all the way along the fenceline. Never seems to catch them though.

We love our White English Bulldogs (they are also called Old Southern Whites or Old White English). They are farm protectors from the deep south. We brought ours up from Mississippi. A lot of this breed has been changed and used for pig hunting down there, but the true tradtion of the dog was for livestock protection, family protection and working stock.
We looked long and hard for someone that was breeding the farm utility dogs and honestly couldn`t be happier with these dogs. They are a true family dog. So respectful to all family members and that includes cats, horses, chickens etc., but so smart about anything that is out of place.
Here is a bit of info about them:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
I agree with most of what it says, but not all of it. Our dogs are very low energy except when they need it. My female just lays close to me when I am outside and waits patiently until we go to do something else. She is more reserved about new things and people than the male is, but I know I am very safe when she is with me. She particulary loves the chickens and sits with me and them for hours.
The male:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The female:
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
My sister ended up getting one as well but hers comes from pig hunting lines and is very different than ours. Way more energy...all the time! I don`t think she has the same livestock protection instincts that ours have either, but she is only 5 months old. We will see.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Just something a little different than the norm as fare as LGD go.

*edted because I was having trouble with the pictures!

We have two border collie cross males and 1 Australian Sheperd x Heeler female and they seem to make a good patrol team for us. They are not very big any of them but together they seem enough.
The two males are getting older though and I think if we even had 1 less dog we may have more of a problem..
The thing is that all our dogs love to herd livestock though so if we are off doing that I usually lock up the hens.
I have been leaving the roosters out though if we aren't gone for too long as they seem to stay much closer to the house than the hens which go way out...
And of course, we try to get everything locked up by dusk.

Lots of great ideas here! I was feeling like Chicory Farm - curious about LGD, but intimidated about getting one. I have neighbours with Pyrenese that are very serious about guarding the sheep. But I've been warned not to approach the dog, or let the kids anywhere near him. That really worried me. It's great to see that there are LGD that are family pets as well as livestock protectors.
I'm going to look into this a bit more. Thank you everyone for your input!

Kathy the reason for that is the dogs that are large flock guardians have been raised solely with the sheep, very little human contact, they are meant to protect the sheep from everything.
I find the LGD that are raised with kids, and with animals are very social dogs. They bond to not only their livestock but to their people. I know my dog is a puppy at heart still, and is very friendly to everyone he meets, but he would not hesitate in a moment to protect me or the kids from harm. (unless of course it is a cow which he seems very afraid of, LOL.)
The typical LGD do have a larger range so that is something to keep in mind as well, I wouldnt suggest them on anything under 80 acres. Our boy has a good route already and he keeps broadening it as he sees fit, but you can train them on where to go by walking your boundary daily. Our boy sticks pretty much to his north boundary we have set and then travels south on our land as far as he pleases, generally though unless he is on the attack he doesnt tend to go too far from the house, because he knows his main area and animals to guard are right here.

My guardian dog is Border collie X great pyrennees. His name is Jackson. He guards everything, from chickens,pigs sheep, donkeys right down to the neighbors grandkids!!! I couldn't function without him. I would be like a buffet around here! I love him!!![You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I have not lost a bird to a predator since we got our GPs and all our birds run free on 40 and 80

Kathy, like Jayme, all of our maremmas were socialized with other people and kids. I can't afford to have a dog that no one can get near.

Reality, your dog will need to go to the vet's at some point. If the vet can't even exam the dog you will be in dire straits. YOur dog also should know basic commands and respect fences. How does that happen if there isn't some training?

Sorry, but folks who think you can just 'leave' any dog with livestock and magic happens are fooling themselves. There is no place that these dogs have been raised in history where they didn't have a shephard or human as guide. That's not to say they don't figure a lot out on their own or from other dogs.

My 1/2 cents worth