Dead Goats

[LJH]

Crack Heads and pitbulls, I got them in my neighborhood too.

The pitbulls can usually be rehabilitated.

 

[Steave]

Sorry to hear about your goats. Same thing happens all to often around here too. (NW Ga). We've tried to narrow down when it may occur again but so far have come up with zip... Maybe today or not again for weeks.

We suspect wild dogs I guess the term feral is more accurate. Most of the attacks around here are on chickens, ducks, geese and such as most everybody around that has sheep or goats have some sort of protection. We have been lucky enough to do away with a few dogs that were suspects and a few that were down right guilty because they were caught in the act.

The attacks around here are almost always during the day of course that's when everybody lets their chickens out to roam. Most of time this happens they don't eat the chickens just kill as many as they can.
That really sounds like dogs ganging up just to kill anything running.

Good luck on protecting your animals and even at the best you can do Sh** happens.

 

[BuzzardA91]

Being in GA look into Black Mouth Cur dogs. I have one. There are a bunch of breeders in GA. My 80 pound female has done battle with two different adult bears, plenty of coyote, a few fishers and one wet and petrified fox (got run straight into our pond). No training required. My chickens start to call in distress the dig comes running from wherever she may be. The dogs are also relatively cheap. One from a top breeder can be had for $300 or less.

 

[Steave]

Being in GA look into Black Mouth Cur dogs. I have one. There are a bunch of breeders in GA. My 80 pound female has done battle with two different adult bears, plenty of coyote, a few fishers and one wet and petrified fox (got run straight into our pond). No training required. My chickens start to call in distress the dig comes running from wherever she may be. The dogs are also relatively cheap. One from a top breeder can be had for $300 or less.

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I've heard a lot about these dogs. I may check on that, thanks. I'm curious if they would help protect the goats the op is having trouble keeping. I've noticed the guard dogs people use actually live with the heard. In a barn yard situation with chickens the dog would be close by. On another note we live in hunting territory and if you own a yard dog it better stay home or won't last long around here. Seems like only the wild ones can survive, kinda like the feral woods cats, you never see a poor looking woods cat all are healthy and larger than house cats.

 

[DennisArrow]

I've noticed the guard dogs people use actually live with the heard. .

That's why they are called LGD.......Livestock guard dogs........Usually they are born with the herd and then live their lives out with the herd. Yes, they are friendly to folks and know that the humans are the alphas. We have a new Anatolian female 6 months now, that stays within just a few feet of the does, while her buddy, the 1/2 pyreneese and 1/2 anatolian goes around the perimeter.

Our old momma dog lived down in the pature for like 5 or 6 years and then one day decided that she no longer was gonna be a pasture dog. She wanted to be up at the house and nothing would stop her. She went over or through electric/goat wire fences, electrified gates, and out a barn window to prove her point. So, for the last couple of years she hangs around the house/yard/woods with the border collies. Needless to say, the number of critters wandering through the place has totally become zero.
The coyotes are still around, we hear them howlin and carryin on; but stay 1/2 mile or so away. One neighbor can't let his chickens free-range as immediately the coyotes get in there and grab one.....We have yet to ever loose any of our baby, high dollar breeding/show stock goats, cats, or the easter chickens that grandaughter keeps here and we let loose hoping a fox or somethin will grab them...........

Anyway..........the LGD situation works for us......God bless.........Dennis

 

[westcliffe01]

Dennis, I regret to say that you are wrong. At certain times of the year, coyotes around our parts appear to TRAIN pups how to take down larger animals. The sheep farmers would loose multiple sheep and none of them would be consumed. Part of it has to do with how sheep bunch up when a predator approaches. The coyotes (or dogs) will grab 1 animal on the outside, rough it up some, then potentially leave it and grab another, same treatment. At the end, they possibly outright kill one animal, but within a few days you have several more die from infection / shock and depending on the time of year, heat stroke/heart failure.

Of course, if nothing is done about the coyotes, then they come back and take out one at a time and drag it off to eat it. But they certainly have activities that result in the death of livestock that is not directly about feeding.

Feral dogs are a real problem because the only way one can positively identify them as such is by their behavior. Around people they are often completely normal. So here in the farming area, the basic rule is that unless it is a known dog from a neighbor who is NOT attacking livestock, they get shot on sight. One can't wait until it has a mouthful of whatever animal before one does something.

coyotes don't kill just for the sake of killing.....Goats are a target waiting to be hit. They put off an odor....they make LOTS of noise.......They run when threatened which kicks in the "chase" predator instinct.........Dennis

 

[DennisArrow]

Surely NOT to get into a urinary flow contest with you westclif.........In your statement you even say they kill one animal at a time; and wound others as part of their killing technique.......If you look at what is said, I merely am stating that coyotes don't go through herd killing randomly and thouroughly as a pack of dogs do.........It's as simple as that......

Yes, I totally agree with your method of canine removal on sight.......It's pretty much the same here: if they are interested in what's in my pasture, they are pretty much gonna vanish........

My real point is that pasture dogs, are a sure way to protect one's herd/flock from predatiion from pretty much everything but man.........God bless.........Dennis

 

[weldingisfun]

Sorry to hear about your situation. Same here, back in 2005, on my birthday, we had a pack of wild dogs kill 21 of our 28 goat herd. The pack was led by a large female Chow/Lab mix. The goats were all killed the same way you described, Cletus. If the laws in GA are the same as in TX, be careful, there are more laws protecting dogs that humans. Follow DennisArrow's advice, SSS. We have reinforced our entire fenceline and gates. What did we do about the dogs? I'll never tell, remember the third S? Let's just say, the dogs have never come back.

 

[BuzzardA91]

We never trained the black mouth cur as a livestock dog. They just are. As long as it is over 30 degrees or so she prefers to stay outside well into the night. Most time we have to make her come in. She stays around the house and field and doesn't roam.

The only warning with these dogs are DO NOT plan on brining them to a "dog park" or walking off leash in an area with other dogs. We have an older lab and the two are fine but we had the lab when the black mouth was a puppy. If the neighbors dog tends to wander over forget it. These dogs don't discriminate. They will attack from an adult bear to a chihuahua if it comes into their "area." They fear no animal if it comes too close to what the dog feels it needs to protect. Our dog is fine with people, animals....not so much

The breed also has a very long life expectancy with no common health issues or breed defects. I guess that's what happens when the breed doesn't get bred for shows and AKC standards.

 

[aczlan]

Some folks go the burro or llama routine; but for us, and we are in heavy duty pit bull and coyote country, you can't beat a couple of LGD, livestock guard dogs.........

We have 3 Llamas, but ours don't do squat to protect the chickens, we lost 10+ chickens last year to a fox (we assume a fox as one was seen around at the time and they all had bite marks on their backs). The chickens now have a chain link fenced in run.

The Shepard mix is still comes around but so far he hasn't bothered anything since the others are gone.

IMO, that's the key with what makes loose domestic dogs dangerous, one at a time and they wont hurt a fly. They get together in a pack and they become dangerous.

Aaron Z