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Study on the Breeds of Guard Dogs that Best Protect Livestock

posted by mrpg on Wednesday March 14 2018, @03:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the nobody-thinks-of-the-wolves dept.

canopic jug writes:

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) evaluated around 120 dogs from three large breeds from Europe and Asia bred to be gentle around sheep and children but vicious when confronting wolves. The four-year study was carried out by the USDA's National Wildlife Research Center and tested how these dogs did guarding livestock against wolves and coyotes in the western US.

[...] Young and her colleagues zeroed in on areas where dogs had been bred to protect livestock from wolves and brown bears. They selected three breeds for the study: Cao de Gado Transmontanos, originally from the mountains of Portugal; Karakachans, bred by nomadic shepherds in Bulgaria; and Kangals, developed to guard livestock in Turkey. The dogs were gathered as puppies and sent to the U.S., where they were used to guard 65 herds of sheep in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon.

Another finding was that when the owner and the dogs had a closer bond, the dogs performed their jobs much better. Something that might not be commonly realized in areas where they are kept exclusively for companionship or entertainment is that the different breeds of dogs are bred to gravitate to and specialize in particular activities: they have jobs they like doing.

From The Scientist : The Breeds of Guard Dogs that Best Protect Livestock: Study (2018)
and The Associated Press : Imported guard dogs deployed as part of US wolf-sheep study (2018)
and Agri-Pulse : Got wolves? USDA brings on the big dogs (2014).

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 14 2018, @06:00PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 14 2018, @06:00PM (#652525)

    you're a chickenshit if you think wolves are such a threat that you have to wipe them out. stupid goat humping ranchers think they should be able to leave herds of domesticated animals roaming all across the wild plains and then they want to suit up and ride around in helicopters like bad asses sniping anything that dared to try and eat their bred-to-be-helpless livestock. too lazy and greedy to even train dogs to watch over the herd. if you can't keep predators away without actively hunting them, then you are a dumb sack of shit. period.