Spanish mastiff's for guardian dogs

[Baymule]

I am so sorry these beautiful dogs home fell out from underneath them. I hope you find them the perfect home.

 

[Bruce]

I think that the phrase "not cheap" with no price tends people to think:
"If you have to ask, you can't afford it". Which very well may be true.

 

[TAH]

Nope!

To me, $1500+ is a very reasonable price for working good guard dogs. It is different when you by a good LGD from good owner and breeder than buying one like some friends of friends did down in Oregon. They brought from a backyard breeder that called his dogs LGD's (they were GP/Toil/St bernard-mixes). The guy was selling them for $800 a dog. They ended up finding a new home for her.

 

[Southern by choice]

@TAH keep in mind many dogs that fail are due to human stupidity.
People that have 1 dog and need 3-4 and overwork the one dog and create issues. Or unethical and ridiculous raising of LGD methods.
At least half the time it is human error that causes dogs to fail.
Many set their dogs up to fail.

 

[babsbag]

And many aren't patient with a pup. They expect the puppy not to play at all, not to chew, not to chase chickens, and not be a puppy. Period. When the puppy or young dog kills a chicken they send the dog packing as a failed LGD when it is often a failed owner.

Mia is turning out to be a great LGD. Many would have given up on her and lost out on a good dog. Was I thrilled with her for the first 8 months, absolutely not, but what I learned is that I like raising two pups at a time. (more dogs for me that way too )

 

[Green Acres Farm]

Thankfully, our GP has never shown any aggression or even really attention to our chickens, but how do you train your dog too not kill chickens if they already have tasted them?

 

[babsbag]

TIME is on your side when it comes to LGDs and chickens. All of my dogs have killed chickens but none of them ate the chickens. They looked at them as squeaky toys and when the toy quit squeaking they lost interest.

I will be quite honest since I am among friends...I used an e-Collar on Francis. And it worked AS LONG AS HE HAD THE COLLAR ON. He is a smart boy, no collar = I can chase chickens. So the collar did no good as far as I am concerned and I never recommend them to anyone. I will never use one on Alondra, she is too sensitive. Mia outgrew chickens at about 11 months, Francis took 'til 18 months, and Sig about 1 year. Francis only chased them in the evenings when it was nice and cool, day time it was too hot and he wasn't in a playful mood.

I think that the biggest thing is socialization with them from an early age so they see them as part of the farm and not a novelty. However, my dogs know the chickens that lived in their field and new ones were not welcomed. I would put new chickens in a chain link run for a week in the barn so the dogs got to know them, then I would introduce the chickens to the coop and the dogs were good.

 

[Baymule]

Thankfully, our GP has never shown any aggression or even really attention to our chickens, but how do you train your dog too not kill chickens if they already have tasted them?

Once a chicken killer, always a chicken killer.....NOT TRUE with LGD's. Think of a young dog as a teenager with an attack of stupid. Not all teenagers are bad; not all LGD's are bad. Teenagers that do dumb things generally grow up, mature and don't do dumb things anymore, same thing with LGDs. I got a GP for free because she killed chickens. She turned out to be an awesome chicken guard and will leap in the air at a hawk or buzzard, barking at them.

 

[TAH]

We finally sat down and really considered what would be best for our small farm and have decided to completely change what we are doing.


After reading thru Breda's blog about her SM's, we have decided they are not what we are looking for. I am a bit sad because I love the breed and the looks but am happy with the breed we are going to do.


We have decided we are going to go with a farm dog, not an LGD. All we need is a dog to keep predators off the property and to be okay around the animals so really all we need is a good farm dog that can live in barn/outside.

Well, we have decided to go with the Bernese mountain dog!

Our neighbors have 2 goats and kept there Black/Lab around the goat pen and never lost their goats to bears so if a BL can keep a bear away a BMD can. I think they are what we were looking for all around the clock. They are a quite a few good breeders in AK so we wouldn't have to have them shipped. The cool thing the whole family like the BMD and we are all very excited!


I am aware of there many health issues they have but we are going to go with the best breeder in AK and feed them the BEST we can. We are all really excited about this breed and hopefully be adding 2 puppies's to the family this fall when we are all done building the cabin (yes we have switched again what we are building, dad just can't decide, LOL) and have all the fencing is done!


There is a lady up here that has two that live outside around her livestock and she hasn't lost any animals so I think they will work well!


I will not change this thread to BMD's so others can post about SM's here.

 

[TAH]

This was all I needed to get my sister sold on the breed, LOL.
It is really cute tho.