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Breed Recommendations For "fenceless" Guard Dog.


Merrirose
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Hi all,

Im looking for a breed of dog that will be loyal, be happy to stay around the house on 50 acres and not roam & alert us very loudly to any strangers coming up to the house. I would prefer a dog breed that wont chase stock.

We do have a large fenced backyard for the house dogs though that is at the back of the house so would like a dog I can leave "out" when mature and be able to trust to hang around while we are out.

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers :provoke:

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You could find several breeds to do part of what you want. There are lots of breeds that are loyal, are less inclined to chase stock (if trained), & will alert bark for you.

But I don't think there's any breed that will automatically stay on your property or stay near your house & not roam off it. Leaving a dog out in a rural area is going to risk it being shot by neighbouring farmers, or hurt on the roads.

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You may find a dog that will do that. But you wont find a 'breed of dog' that will do that.

As always, good fences make good neighbours. (yes, you are in the country. So am I - but even with livestock guardians I make sure my fences are good enough to contain them.)

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You could find several breeds to do part of what you want. There are lots of breeds that are loyal, are less inclined to chase stock (if trained), & will alert bark for you.

But I don't think there's any breed that will automatically stay on your property or stay near your house & not roam off it. Leaving a dog out in a rural area is going to risk it being shot by neighbouring farmers, or hurt on the roads.

It's also contravenes the Dog Act not to provide sutable containment for your dog......you risk having it seized by rangers, and not returned until you can prove you have suitable fencing. (and you'd cop a big fine & impound fees in the meantime).

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I dont think what you are thinking is very sensible,dogs will roam they arent robots.I live on acreage and I wouldnt dream of letting a dog wander the property to "guard" it too many dangers for dog and stock. Also having pet dogs and a guard dog that is left to its own devices seems to be a bit odd, are you looking for a dog that will look after your sheep or your property?

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KC Blue,

I also think the idea of an uncontained dog is asking for trouble in several ways. To address the specific issue of the approach of people to a large property ... I installed a solar powered gate for elderly friends of ours, you can add to this a discrete (not easily seen) detector that monitors the drive and rings a bell in the house when the sensor is passed. Perhaps that would be enough?

If someone is bent on mischief, I don't think a dog is necessarily going to stop them. Friends of ours had their entire pack of 5 dogs drugged with doped meat when thieves made off with their 4X4 from a locked farm yard! Luckily, all dogs did recover .. but it was a close run thing for the two smaller terriers.

:provoke:

Best of luck. I can understand your worries.

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As dog owners, we should be protecting our dogs and being safely enclosed is part of that.

If we don't have our dogs safely enclosed, they can roam, attack other animals, have other animals attack them, be stolen for reasons other than ownership and so on. None of that is good so we should be doing everything in our power to prevent the aforementioned, if we are RESPONSIBLE.

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I think a Pekingese would be suitable for this situation. They really don't want to go that far, have zero prey drive and can be encouraged to bark like crazy if a stranger turns up.

I suspect that's not quite the look KC Blue is after though :provoke:

Edited by Sandra777
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Im looking for a breed of dog that will be loyal, be happy to stay around the house on 50 acres and not roam & alert us very loudly to any strangers coming up to the house. I would prefer a dog breed that wont chase stock.

We do have a large fenced backyard for the house dogs though that is at the back of the house so would like a dog I can leave "out" when mature and be able to trust to hang around while we are out.

Any ideas anyone?

50 acres is a good slab of land but it's not that much and most dogs could traverse its boundaries on a whim.

If you were on a few hunder acres, then having a guard dog with no perimeter fencing could work

but 50 acres is not enough land for this option.

Also there's a big difference between a guard dog and a dog that will alert you very loudly to strangers -

referring to livestock guardian dogs in particular:

the more reactive breeds would need some barrier between where visitors arrive / front door driveway and where the dog roams.

Otherwise visitors will get bitten/attacked

and your set up won't last long.

That said, invest in a fence around your house

and you will find that a well bred Central Asian or Anatolian wont let any unwelcome visitors in when you are not there

and they won't be the type of dog to accept food from strangers and be drugged either.

There's also a lot of other things CAO/ASDs will do and not do, that may or may not suit what you are looking for, ready for, need or want.

Instincts to guard don't exist in a vacuum, so whatever type of dog you get, you need to look at the total dog and whether its charcteristics will fit in with your current household.

Edited by lilli
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Hi all,

Im looking for a breed of dog that will be loyal, be happy to stay around the house on 50 acres and not roam & alert us very loudly to any strangers coming up to the house. I would prefer a dog breed that wont chase stock.

We do have a large fenced backyard for the house dogs though that is at the back of the house so would like a dog I can leave "out" when mature and be able to trust to hang around while we are out.

Any ideas anyone?

Cheers :D

50 acres is 20 hectares.

If your property is square, then it is one and half kilometres square.

This distance will not exhaust an active, inquisitive and bemused dog.

Dogs can be used on fenceless properties but you would be talking hundreds of hectares.

Fifty acres is pithy in farming terms and you have to fence it, anyway.

It can be done with an electric fence and I have had extraordinary success keeping Maremmas in with them.

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Also there's a big difference between a guard dog and a dog that will alert you very loudly to strangers ...-

That said, invest in a fence around your house

Couldn't agree more about a fenced houseyard to keep the dog in. And the comment about a guard dog & an alert dog.

I've got dogs that alerted us to an intruder who was entering our house thro' the doors onto the deck.

He fled into the dark outside after hearing the dogs' barking coming at him, up the hallway.

But he still didn't escape, the dogs tracked him. And found him walking down the driveway next door.

So I got a good look at him, for description for the police. Turned out he'd stolen from a few houses in our block that same night, but our dogs were the first to discover him. Our alert dogs are tibetan spaniels.

Builder we know has the perfect combination. He owns a dobe & his wife a tibetan spaniel. He has a lot of equipment & materials on his property.

But alert dog, the tibbie, lets them know when there's a stranger come in (only time it barks). And guard dog, dobe, wanders out to take a look (providing the deterrent). What intruders don't know is that the dobe is a sweet, sook!

Alert dog in position. :D

post-3304-1297572513_thumb.jpg

And a team of 1 alert dog & 2 guard dogs, at the gate. A tibbie between 2 tibetan mastiffs. :wave:

post-3304-1297573768_thumb.jpg

Edited by mita
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I definitely wouldn't recommend having an unfenced dog.

Even if it does stay on the property. It only takes 1 time for it to have a wander, and either get hit by a road train, shot by a neighbour, or eat some poison. So many things that could go wrong.

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The thing to remember about no fences too is that some neighbours may be baiting with 1080. That is not something you want to risk a dog with.

I think they have to tell you if they place baits around in the vicinity of your property, erect signs and advise of a time frame.

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