# Dog attack



## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

We're having to re-evaluate and move ahead. Last week a stray dog dug under our perimeter chain-link fence and dug under another fence to actually get into our barnyard. My great Pyrenees high-tailed it to my front porch where she barked the alarm. It was too late by the time we got down there to figure out and see what was going on. He managed to kill all of my rabbits, most of them immediately, but the ones that lived are dying now from the stress of fear. Apparently, the dog didn't like feathers in his teeth because he didn't mess with my birds at all, even though they were 20ft away not even locked in the coop. He ran the goats and injured one one day and then came back two days later and tried to finish him off. I heard the screams the 2nd time and ran him off, but the poor guy still has puncture wounds in his neck. I'm treating him for pain and infection and he seems to be rallying and may make it. Thankfully, the other goats were not injured. I thought the LSG's were bred to protect the animals, what happened? I have/had secure fencing and a LSG - along with a false sense of security.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

So sorry to hear of this. It is one of the dangers of having livestock. We know from personal experience what dogs can do, our herd was attacked in 2009. We have but one doe left from that horriffic experience, she can no longer make normal goat noises. Most LGD's are there for their charges but not all of them get it, especially young ones who have not been taught by olders LGD's.

We dug ditches along the bottom or our outside fenceline, placed glass and puncture weeds mixed in with dirt, and barb wire at the bottom of fence lines. We also have double fence lines on the out side perimeter of the goat area. Mind you we do live in town so our dog problem will always be there. It has only happened once and hopefully the very last one ever. BUT we are prepared. We do have an LGD that tells us when something is amiss in the yard. We have the perimeter booby trapped so they will cut up their feet trying to get in. They basically leave us alone now. BUt we worry all the time now.

Once again, very sorry about your animals. It is devastating. Just keep your goat clean, do it 2-3 times a day or even more. He will heal and it takes time. Make sure he is eating and cudding. I would definately look at your fences again and figure something. FIND THAT DOG! It will be back for sure. Then when it comes back...take it out.
Tam


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## informative (Aug 24, 2012)

That's horrible bad luck. I could not get rid of wild rabbits if I wanted to on my property because the rabbits had dug their own tunnels under my old plum tree. They were there for years and would randomly seem to wipe out certain crops of mine. Funny thing was they would pick on tulips (ate ALL the tulips) but not the purple ones because those were actually not tulips but those bulbs were I think daffodils.

I always wondered how they didn't drown down in those tunnels during heavy rains. Then one day they were just all gone couple of years ago. Haven't seen one since.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Sorry this happened to you, Jennie.

This is the third dog attack I've heard of in the last week. There is a herd not too far south of me - they lost, I think four goats -- 3 kids and their best yearling milker. The sad part was the milker was their daughter's who won BDIS with her at her county fair.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

That is so sad. An electric wire or two on the OUTSIDE of the fence near the bottom might work well as long as it's hot all the time. We finally got our goats moved up close the house, about 20 feet away and I can see them all the time. Our LGD is out there and our other "normal" dog too. The dogs do very, very well at patrolling the property line all the time. I think they do better now that their resting area is very near the house/front door....they can watch us and the goats at the same time. We also have a large dusk to dawn light that the goats lay under at night. No more trying to see down the hill in the dark. You do need to kill that dog. I would hate to do it, but it needs to be done. Did you contact the owners? You simply can't sit back and hope the problem will go away. It won't.


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

I hope you contacted the local animal control or cops about the dog. You need to make a report. The owner is responsible for the costs his/her dog incurred by killing or injuring your livestock. Tams can tell you all about the process first hand. Her herd was hit hard by dogs.

I'm really sorry for your loss and your poor injured goat.

My Great Pyrs will go after any dog that comes onto the property. I got bitten pretty badly last November when a stray dog was by the chicken area and my pyrs went after it. One Pyr was loose, the older one was on a leash along with my mixed breed. A fight ensued, I got stuck in the middle when their leashes tangled with my legs. The stray got my leg. The muscle is still full of scar tissue and my leg is still very sensitive in that area. 

You might try running the electric livestock or sheep netting along the outside of the fenceline. That stuff works great at zapping dogs. I have heavy gauge chicken wire laid out flat on the ground outside all my dog pens. I put it down when I was building the dog yards, put some composted manure along the top and tossed down a mix of quick growing and slow growing grass seed on top of the compost. By the time the roots worked their way down, nothing is going to be easily able to dig under the fence from either side.


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## Annie (Jun 10, 2012)

Jennie, soooo sorry to hear this has happened to you/yours. We've been lucky to not have an actual attack, but we have had a few strays try to climb over our fence, in the daytime too. 
I've become quite "hard" or tough over the years. I have no tolerance for a stray, if I know who owns the dog - I immediately let them know they MUST retrieve the dog NOW. 
We live by the "3 S Law". Shoot, Shovel, Shut-up. It's hard to do but it must be done. If I call Animal Control, they tell me that if my livestock is threatened I have the right to shoot the dog. In fact, they won't even come out unless I have caught the stray for them. arrrghh..

I'm hoping that the goat that was injured cont's to heal, but I'm sorry about the rabbits


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

So sorry, it is the bain of our existence, neighborhood dogs and trying to raise livestock, it goes on everywhere and everyday. It somehow to me is more understandable when it's wild animals! We had an attack from a bobcat, our male LGD killed it but not before it got to our female dog and a does rear udder and hip. A good friend of mine just lost the two doelings she kept from this year to a rescue dog she had gotten about a month ago (she does rescues), when she talks about her rescues my first thought always is what is this teaching your guardian dog, these mutts coming off and on your property....and then the worst happened, her LGD did NOTHING while her goatlings were killed.

May I ask how old your LGD is and what breed? Vicki


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## Jo~* (Oct 26, 2007)

We have a new family in the neighborhood and just one week after they moved in there pit bull came over to my neighbores place and went in with her horse and chewed her up bad. Ripped open three of her legs and bad bite marks on her jowl. That was about 2 months ago and two certified letters to the dog owners and a visit from the horse owner to the dog owner. So far my friend has not seen a dime or even an apology. Now just yesterday same dog owner had a run in with another neighbor. Getting off track here sorry. I just hate people that let there dogs run all over.


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## Cotton Eyed Does (Oct 26, 2007)

We put up with that here for 20 years until I had a belly full of it. Really the only thing you can do if the neighbors won't cooperate is kill the offending dogs by any means you know how to protect your livestock. The worst attack we had was from a black mouth Cur. Yellow looking dog with black around the mouth.


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## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

I live on a pretty rural country road and I know all of my neighbor's dogs. This one wasn't any of theirs, someone probably "put it out" on a country road to let it "run free". Vicki, my LSG is a Great Pyrenees and she will be two in December. I don't have the funds to feed an animal around here that doesn't perform a job, so I've found her a new home on a large farm where she has children to protect. I'm going to try again with the GP and get a male puppy. Maybe I can have been luck with a male. Before I got her, she was in a pasture with 150 goats and had never had any human interaction other than the people dumping food in a bowl for her, which is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I didn't want a "pet", but I did want a dog to bond with my stock. It took her several months, but eventually she decided she wanted to be part of the human pack. :,( I love that about her, but I have to have my stock guarded - I've got my kids covered. 

We've got a great understanding on our road about dogs running loose. New neighbors (myself included) have been warned shortly after moving in that if the dog runs, it'll get shot. It seems cruel at 1st, but one of my neighbors breeds a fairly rare kind of horse and has a stallion that is valued at 50,000.00+, she makes no bones about it... if she even SEES a dog in her field, she's going to shoot it. They also warned me about people dumping their dogs off here, too. The animal control people told me to handle it myself that it would be the next day before they could even come out here. 

That is sad that the lady's "rescue" did that to her goats. Sometimes I wonder how the "obvious" isn't obvious to people. I don't even let people that I don't know come onto my property. I'm happy to pass whatever i need to through the gate, because I don't want my dog(s) to think that strangers coming thru the gate is okay. Even my friends that have the dogs they take everywhere with them are not allowed here. I've tried to be careful about not de-sensitizing them to intruders, but apparently it was futile. 

Any ideas as to what went so wrong that my GP didn't even so much as try to protect the animals?


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## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

I posted earlier, but something messed up. The offending dog was tired after killing my animals and had the audacity to curl up and go to sleep in my chicken coop. Apparently he didn't like feathers in his teeth, because he didn't even mess with them at all!!! We took care of the problem. I shut the door to the coop (chickens were out) and waited until hubby came home. We had a big bonfire that night.


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Nice to know the dog was attended to . We had one trapped in a pen and the other one was found by the owner. Both were euthanized. We did have to take the owner to court for restitution. It was handled well. We are still afraid of other dogs and even ask our friends and family to never bring their dogs over. Our LGD would probably eat them anyway. It has been 4 years and I still can close my eyes and see that dog attached to our Gwenies neck and hear the screaming from those torn, shredded, and dying. Every time this comes up it all comes back and I am filled with the horror of it all over again. 
Several good things came out of that dog attack:
1. We have a better fencing system
2. We do not assume it is safe (fence system)
3. We have a better relationship with our vets
4. We have a better relatioship with our community, which includes neighbors, county, and the sheriffs department. We all look out for each other here. When we are gone our neighbors watch for us. They take care of things 

A rehomed LGD is hard to get that will remain bonded. Raising your own LGD is a better route. No they cannot defend a herd until around 1 1/2 yrs or age but once they are integrated they will defend every charge on "their" watch. Ours is quite the mix (maremma, Lab, and Husky) She is family oreintated and grounds oreintated, meaning the whole grounds is watched...goats, ducks, our cats, and us. That is the kind of LGD we wanted and we were blessed with her. She will not let anyone in our gate unless we make her behave and she will not let them in the house or goat yards unless we tell her its okay. Outside cats are chased out. Thats our LGD
Tam


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## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

She learned that people scratch better than goats, I guess. lol I wish I had the resources to just keep her here as a pet, but the family that is taking her has a lot of kids and wants her on their farm to bond to the kids...... so that should work out better for her. Now to find one that will work for us! 

After all this settles down, I'm going to do the shard glass thing around the perimeter fence, that would go a long way in our situation!!!! And as many glasses as my kids manage to break doing the dishes, it won't be a problem! lol


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## VictoriaK (Jul 8, 2012)

Wow, what a huge huge bummer!There is nothing like losing goats (or anything for that matter) to dogs. 

I have had a couple experiences myself, one of my own heelers years ago, I worked for months with her as she was a rescue and I was her last resort. Needless to say the last straw was when she actally poulled a baby goat through the field fencing(it was a baby nigerian) and ate all but one hoof. Yea, three s's insued that night. 
The second was a stray husky that broke into the goat pen early one morning, thankfull I had no nigerians at the time, but I did have Laverne's Lamancha, Moon BEam. THe dang huskey was on top of poor Beemer, rippin her a new one, that dog got a severe case of lead poisioning that day, I love dogs so much, and he was a beautiful boy, but I had no other choice. Poor Beemer was ripped up one side and down the other, including the right side of her udder shredded up! Bless her heart, she recovered, and you can't even tell she was all sewed up!
So glad you took care of the menace!! I remember having such a heavy heart after that husky, and my heeler, but it has to be done.. 

Such a bummer about your LGD, after that huskey visited, I searched for a good ol guard dog. We are a small place, my goats are outside my bedroom window :biggrin so I hear if there is trouble. My collie is a great guard for the small critters, but dang her if she didn't sit and watch that dog, and for once in her life, she didn't make a noise! My big mutt Tucker, he will box any animal that thinks about messin around!

I sure hope you have plans on getting a better guard. I wish you were closer, someone offered a guard donkey to us the other day, they would kick the daylights outta a dog like that!!


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## informative (Aug 24, 2012)

I agree with Caprine Beings on the notion that "taking out" problem animals. I would not give a trespassing animal who was up to no good more than two seconds consideration. Those two seconds would be me thinking if I were sad that he could not read my no trespassing sign and then deciding nope.

Modern folks have gotten too comfortable and accustomed to not having to defend their land with firearms. This lax behavior is partly what has resulted in overpopulated feral pigs, feral dogs, coyotes and all manner of ornery critters. Everyone is a PETA sympathizer and says oh no maybe you could just trap them without hurting them or put up more electric wire to scare them away. To that I say no. It's not a game. it's my land. I will decide which animals get a second chance and which ones do not.


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## Annie (Jun 10, 2012)

And it's even sadder that those of us who live on farms have to deal with some of these "drop-off" dogs, city people who think it's ok to drive out to the country and randomly let a dog out thinking a kind farmer could use a dog and will take it in. If they only REALIZED what really happened to the majority of those poor dogs. 

While my heart aches for those throw-away dogs, the life of a stray is no life for a dog. I don't give a second thought to grabbing my pink camo .22 I must protect the animals that I chose to have, feed, protect, and take of. 

I wish PETA would stop by here and "rescue" all the darn racoon and fox we've had so much problem with this year. I think alllll the spring babies survived and we've all been over run with varmits. Thank goodness the feral hogs have not ventured this far north, but they are about 75 miles south....

Jennie - how is the injured goat doing? Did any of the rabbits survive the stress?


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## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

I ranted on CL about people letting their dogs out on a country road, but it got flagged immediately. lol 

The goat is still kicking! His wounds don't look infected, but they don't look like they're getting smaller, either. There's still hope, though! Nope, the last of the rabbits died Monday. :,( My GP went to a good home last night and they've sent me pictures and called to tell me how she is doing. It's a good place for her. Now i'm just down to a few chickens and a few goats and a family pet. But oh well....


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Is there any oozing of exude?If there is let it ooze. Only use a fly spray like catron IV to keep flies off the tissue. Once it starts scabbing allow it to do so but make sure there is no built up exude underneath that can turn rancid. Scarlet oil is okay or chlorhexidine or Iodine water to cleanse with but you really want that would to heal dry.
Tam


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## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

No oozing that I can tell and the flies aren't attracted to it. i've been spraying VetRx on it a few times a day. I'm not an expert, but it seems to look okay.


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## Annie (Jun 10, 2012)

Glad to hear he's hanging in there


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Sounds like your doing a great job then Jennie  
Tam


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## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

Thanks! I'll keep you posted - so far, so good!


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## Bella Star (Oct 27, 2007)

I am really sorry for your loss ! I have certainly had my share of dog attacks as I lost 2 big pregnant does this spring to loose wild dogs and several does a few years back. The dogs are in a frenzy and just kill for sport. They will be back and so you have to get rid of those dogs as they teach other dogs to be aggressive and kill. If possible shoot them BUT if in the city then .... there is "dog meatballs" made from mole pellets that are in the cone shape container from feed stores ,put some pellets inside a meat blob and make a firm meatball (you can add bread crumbs to meat to firm ground chicken up) and then make sure all your animals are locked up including your dog and pass them out at night . Remember how many meat balls and where you put them as you will have to get them, that was not ate the next morning as you dont want your dogs to eat them . Whenever I see loose dogs running ,I pass some meat balls out every other day for a couple of nights on the 4wheeler and just toss the meatballs out or shoot the dogs !
linda


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## mamatomany (Aug 7, 2008)

Thankfully we have not had any issues, but do have excellent fences and we are all skilled in shooting handguns and rifles. Sorry you had to go through that...never good


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

We haven't had to shoot any dogs, for which I am thankful, but we have had to shoot a coyote that was coming right up to the yard in broad daylight and stealing chickens. And we shot our neighbor's cat because it came over here and was acting very strangely. First it attacked our cats, but then it went after my kids. It jumped on my daughter and scratched and bit her leg, tearing up her pants and she still has scars. Its behavior was so strange that we thought maybe it was rabid. It ended up not being (the sheriff sent the head off to be tested) but it was interesting to see how the local sheriff's department responded to the whole situation (totally on our side). My neighbor, however, was not happy with us and couldn't even see her way to apologizing about the attack as we were taking my daughter to the ER. We hadn't known it was her cat when it happened, but her house is next door and we thought we'd stop there to inquire on our way to the hospital. The first words out of her mouth when we pulled into the driveway, "Have you seen my cat?" It was like pulling teeth to get her to tell me whether it had been vaccinated. I mean, I understand that you're sad about your cat, but can you please just tell me if it had its shots so that we can tell the doctors?


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## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

I don't have a problem defending my livestock, it's those un-seen threats (like a dog digging under a fence in a few minutes) that get me! Well, it's been almost 9 days since the little guy got attacked, he's eating, drinking, and walking around with the herd!!!! Yesterday, he was vigorously rubbing his neck on some rocks (on the ground) and making this sound that said "ooooh, this feels good"! I can only pray that means that it is itching because it is healing! The swelling is gone down and there is a scab over the gaping wound that was in his neck. We had planned to put him in the freezer, but if he makes it, he can live here as a weed-eater as long as he shall live! LOL He's turned into quite the little puppy dog with all of the attention that he's been getting, too, so I'm sure that would make him taste terrible, right?! haha


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## Annie (Jun 10, 2012)

kerryandjennie said:


> He's turned into quite the little puppy dog with all of the attention that he's been getting, too, so I'm sure that would make him taste terrible, right?! haha


For too many yrs my hubby would pick a buckling or two to wether and keep to train as a cart goat. He'd then never train the darn kids, he'd just them into pets. Year after year I'd battle with him about it, and I would end up putting them in the freezer or off to the sale barn. He finally quit a few yrs ago, 'cause I think he got tired me getting rid of his "pets" LOL

Glad to know the lil' guy survived  Did you maybe name him Lucky?


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## kerryandjennie (May 27, 2011)

Haha, We'd refrained from naming them as not to get attached, so while I was trying to describe to my husband and friends over the phone which one it was I described him as "the little one with the red collar", so "Little Red" is what we're calling him! LOL Lucky would fit, though! We're still planning on eating his brother, though! ROFL!


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