German Shepherd owners...*update*more pics

[ChickBond 007]

Here's my baby-dog, Cedar, a chicken-guard in training. At 7 months, he ate a white silkie. He shook her to death, and she likely walked right up to him as she was more pet than chicken. At 8 months, he killed a drake mallard. I was ready to pull my hair out.
We began a training program where he understands that he has a "job" on the farm. GSDs are highly intelligent, and need not only extreme levels of excersize but extreme levels of challenging stimulation. If they understand they have a purpose, a job, they are truly better dogs. Cedar is now 18 months old and has not killed any more chickens/ducks. They all free range, all day, and he mingles among them freely. He herds them in/out for me at dusk (if necessary) and keeps them out of the long grass. He is their guardian. Never-the-less, the ducks are fun to "break-up" and chase every once in a while and he hasn't stopped that.
IF you choose GSD, understand that training is time consuming and sometimes expensive, but just part of this breed. Also understand that SHEDDING is extreme.
Anyway, I love the big-hairy-lug.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

my two brontosaurused sized GSD (all white) help me all day long with the poultry. they are excellent dogs and spooky smart. they keep everyone in their cars and off the property. only one person has had the you-know-whats to actually get out of his truck. they are great dogs.

HOWEVER

being around two huge male dogs is like being around teenage boys all day long... there is a lot of pushing and shoving and biting each other on the head. and a lot of farting and burping, if you care to know.
;-)

that being said - shepherds have a huge prey drive and i had to train them that the poultry are mine and they are supposed to help me - not chase them. they killed a couple chickens when they were younger but mostly because, like all dogs, the flapping and squawking was just too irresistible....they were playing and their huge paws were to much for a little chicken.

the trick to getting a good livestock dog is training - you need to have the time to put into it and not expect to just pop them in with the hens and expect it to go well. they need training and work every day. every single day. they are working dogs and the more you expect out of them the better your experience will be. as wombat wrote - they NEED a job. they'll be happier and so will yo.

in our pack, we maintain a physical hierarchy, expect manners and good behavior, and if they get ants in their pants - we exhaust them with work and play. the payoff is worth it. half the time i give them hand signals instead of voice commands - and they know to keep the roosters off me (only on command), and totally ignore the hens and baby chicks.

i havent read this entire thread but has someone brought up that they can tend to be compulsive? one of mine is a little OCD over playing ball or with sticks.

good luck!
ps one of mine would be a great candidate for Schutzhund but we have too much farm work to do!

 

[babalubird]

That strong predatory instinct is why so many of us here keep preaching to get a dog bred for the job, i.e., if you want a better starting point for a livestock guardian dog, get a livestock guardian breed, genetically programmed over the centuries to at least start out with a lower predatory instinct.

 

[sunket77]

ok Everyone, I have come to a decision and well found a dog! I did not go to a breeder b/c of the large overpopulation of dogs in my area. And have worked with local dog and cat rescue and trap/neuter/release programs for neighborhood cats. So I found this lovely girl on CL. She is a GSD mix she looks a lot GSD and collie (she has the face of a collie for sure). She is 10mo. old already house broken. Her temperament is perfect, so far she has not attempted to chase anything, not even our cats. She stares at them wanting to play, but between me telling her no and the cat hissing at her she just sits. I brought her around the chicken pen and she is interested in what the heck those thing are. But I am working on her understanding I am boss (which she is catching on very fast!) Hopefully she will come to understand the chickens and cats are a part of her family. She has the basics down very well already. We have only had her two days so far so only time and LOTS of training will tell. Thank you all so much for putting in the time to post about GSD's !!!

I will post her pic. as soon as I get a chance! We are so glad to have her!
Please say a prayer and keep fingers crossed that this is her forever home!

 

[speckledhen]

Congrats on the new dog! Can't wait to see the pics. She sounds lovely.

 

[wombat]

i havent read this entire thread but has someone brought up that they can tend to be compulsive? one of mine is a little OCD over playing ball or with sticks.

LOL. I have a GSD from a Czech bloodline, and a friend has a sibling of the one we own. They're rather compact, stocky, black sables, and don't look like most people's idea of a German Shepherd Dog.

My friend's female GSD is a bit on the small side, and uniquely colored. When visitors ask what she is, our friends say "Toy German Shepherd" ... and if anyone questions them, they hand that person a dog toy ... whereupon their pooch goes beserk and starts bouncing all over the place, and they say "see, toy German Shepherd!"

Mine's OCD over firewood. He steals logs from the woodpile and hides them in the laurel to chew on. There's usually about 20 pieces of firewood under the shrubs. He spends half the day carrying a large log around in his mouth. Another friend of ours had one that carried a cinder block everywhere he went, and wanted you to throw it so he could fetch.

As someone else pointed out, they shed A LOT. We call them "German Shedders"!

They also get rather attached to their humans. We used to have two, and my wife complained that they followed her around all day attached to her at the knee. Some owners refer to them as "velcro puppies."

Anyway ... I've seen a wide range of prey drive vs. tending instincts in German Shepherds. Some are great tenders, some are quite predatory. If you get one for tending, it pays to find a breeder who is still breeding for that sort of work, rather than for police/military/protection or the like.

There's been so much backyard breeding of GSDs for size, coat color, or just plain profit (as opposed to structure and temperment) that just picking a GSD pup out of the newspaper is likely as not going to put you through a lot of extra work training your pup.

It's just so much easier to start with the right breeding (in any breed, not just GSDs) and work with natural tendencies, than to work to overcome them.

Sunket77, glad you found a new buddy! Good luck!​

 

[chickens asome]

my dog loves my chickens soo much that she picks them up like there her pupies and brings them into het dog house cleans them up by licking them then fall a sleep with them

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Mine's OCD over firewood.

this is hilarious - ok so mine is not the only one? we started off with dog toys but he wore down the tips if is canines so much that i had to take him to a dog dentist who works on K9 dogs for 3 states.. i was braced for a $1200 titanium grill.. which he narrowly escaped. the vet was amazing tho - she's the one who got me to start using hand signals to challenge him.. which is working amazingly well!

we also moved from rubber toys to sticks which actually helped a lot

and yes he loves firewood. sometimes he'll bring a 'stick' that looks like a small tree!

and yes ours are velcro too.. when we give them a dialogue we give them a goofy voice that says 'i love my momma i want to be with her ALL THE TIME".. hee hee and a couple of times my hubby (who is our pack alpha) has had to claim me as 'his' (dogs thats MINE - pointing me to me)... its very funny.

i think they'd rather be guarding me than the chickens so i give Dog#1 more 'perimeter' work and Dog #2 (at the bottom of the pack) gets to pop the chickens back over the fence - which is slightly below the dignity of Dog#1
;-)

i just love them tho.. extra good dogs
​

 

[guesswhatchickenbutt]

We have a GSD who can't be around the chickens. He's been to several training classes and we even hired a super-pricey in-home trainer too. He's a well-adjusted dog, but he goes insane when something runs from him. His predator-prey ichasing nstinct is so strong. I know he wouldn't purposely kill a chicken because he really doesn't have a viscious bone in his body - he's a total softy - but he would trample it and end up killing it that way. Even our in-home trainer gave up on him - LOL. He yelps and shivers and just vibrates when he sees something running until he almost comes out of his skin and has to take off after it.

He has caught a couple of squirrels in the yard before. He just sort of squashes down on them and holds them between his front paws and sort of bumps them with his nose. Then he lets them go and the chase is on again. I doubt a chicken could survive that.

Our last GSD was much more trainable. His desire to please my DH was off the charts. He had some Schultzhund Training too and was such an obedient dog.

This current dog...age 5... well....not such a strong desire to please - LOL. It's just his personality.

They are great dogs though.

 

[sunket77]

This is Sammy! She is doing very well so far on most commands she already knew. We are working very hard on "stay" right now, she almost has "leave it" down. She is very smart! We are working diligently on establishing chain of command. At this point she is interested in the chickens, so far I bring her out to watch me feed them and pick them up and hold them, I am letting her know they are mine. Hopefully things will work out!!

Best we can tell she is a GSD-collie mix, what do you guys think? she is taller than she looks in the photos since I was standing over her.