Guardians for Goats in woods

[River Farm]

We need something that would protect them during the day. Which might mean deterring mountain lions (it would not be as hard as they are not as determined as at night) and fighting everything else. As to why we cannot have dogs, we are not able to provide enough maintenance for them so we want something a little easier.

 

[Beekissed]

We need something that would protect them during the day. Which might mean deterring mountain lions (it would not be as hard as they are not as determined as at night) and fighting everything else. As to why we cannot have dogs, we are not able to provide enough maintenance for them so we want something a little easier.

How often will you be checking your flock? Many people keep LGD out in the flock at all times, with continuous feeders in jump cages so the dogs can self feed and the goats can't eat their food. I'll be doing the same setup with my dog as soon as I get the time to get his jump cage done, so I won't have to feed him daily. Will still be checking on him and the flock daily but won't have to worry about getting out there at the same time every day.

 

[River Farm]

How often will you be checking your flock? Many people keep LGD out in the flock at all times, with continuous feeders in jump cages so the dogs can self feed and the goats can't eat their food. I'll be doing the same setup with my dog as soon as I get the time to get his jump cage done, so I won't have to feed him daily. Will still be checking on him and the flock daily but won't have to worry about getting out there at the same time every day.

Most likely we will be checking them every day or every other day.

 

[Beekissed]

Most likely we will be checking them every day or every other day.

That's often enough to maintain dogs well. My dog works out in the woods, out of our sight quite frequently for days at a time, but I feed him daily and check the stock then. Soon he'll be working even further away from the house and will be doing so all winter long, so we are looking for a partner for him...too much to expect a dog to work alone when you can't be there for support at any given time.

 

[River Farm]

Okay, I will look into having an lgd.

 

[Baymule]

Please educate yourself on LGDs before getting one. A good place to start is reading the threads in the LGD forum. There is lots of good information there and we will be happy to help you.

 

[River Buffaloes]

I was wondering if their were a livestock guardian that would do well in our situation. We cannot have dogs. we are in a forested area. And we have mountain lions, coyotes, bobcats, and foxes.

A female with a colt is your best bet if you can't have dogs.

 

[River Buffaloes]

Donkeys? They are quite fierce and will put up a good fight. They also make one helluva racket making human intervention possible. Having said that, we don't have large predators other than the two legged variety - stock theft is a real issue where I live - but the donkeys are a big deterrent! Always have two or more, for company but also so they can back each other up.

Huh, we called it cattle raiding. It used to be a problem here upto few years ago.

 

[River Buffaloes]

I need to be a very careful because we have many big predators out here.

I tell you, donkeys will runaway leaving your goats to fend for themselves.

 

[River Buffaloes]

Curious as to why you cannot have dogs? Donkeys are iffy....if they are raised with the goats from a young age and it's a single donkey, they may protect the herd though not likely against mountain lions~there's a thread on mountain lions here right now that was testifying to that fact. They are death on anything canine, even smaller canines, like foxes.

If not raised with the goats, they are just as likely to attack the babies when born, as I found when I got a donkey to guard sheep here this spring....about lost a lamb and its mother, who was trying to protect it from the donkey. She also tried to stomp a LGD pup. She got sold in a hurry. Sweet as can be to humans, tried to kill any lambs or puppies she could.

In a place with mountain lions, the only good protection at night is a pack of LGDs and many agree that Kangal, Anatolian or Akbash are the best against larger preds like bear and lions. If I had mountain lions here I'd have at least 3-4 dogs in my pack and they'd all be wearing spike collars.

Albais (central asian shepherd) is also very good for protection against large predators.