That's one of the things I like about a farm dog over a cat, you can train a dog to leave your livestock alone and just go after the rodents, hard to get a cat to do the same.

It is legal to kill dog's for chasing livestock but I dont really want to kill somebody's pet unless they are a little over aggressive. I just burn their butt with a load of wax from my .410.

The best way to get a dog to guard a heard is to throw a pup in with the baby goat's. He grow's up part of their family and will guard them like family.

I agree, a dog is the best security system. Yeah, a quick shot of oven cleaning spray in their face will send em up to heaven in a few seconds, and there are I'm sure a dozen other ways to quietly dispatch a guard dog, but in all my experience with home intrusions I've only heard of the possibility of dogs being eliminated by a burglar, never actually met someone who had it done to them.

the vast majority of home intrusions are dead-beats looking for drug money, with neither the brain power nor the ambition to overcome any resistance. Just having a burglar alarm sign visible in your yard cuts your chances of home break-in from 1/15 to 1/64.... Having a dog that barks or runs up to the window whenever someone approaches your house cuts those chances in half again, even a little yippy dog makes em not want to come in and raise further alarm, although a rotweiler slobbering on the living room window with a deep piercing bark adds a lot of intimidation factor as well.

If you're more concerned about home intrusion or bad-guy stopping power, get a bull mastiff, or some other dog that's bred to *detain* a bad guy, rather than chase down and attack a bad buy. I personally met one woman who has a Bull Mastiff (named 'Brick'), bad guy jumped her back fence when she was out sun-tanning. Doggie smashed him up against the fence with big, drooly snarling teeth an inch from bad-guy's face, held him pinned there with the dog's massive paws and 180 lbs pressing on his chest.... And held him in that exact position for twenty full minutes until the cops arrived and arrested him.

I also heard of a guy who had a german shepherd who attacked and ripped the shit out of a bad guy who broke into his house.... The bad guy won a lawsuit for damages and the dog was put to sleep for attacking a human. I'm not saying german shepherds are vicious by nature, I strongly believe they are one of the very versatile breeds that can be taught just about anything. Teach them to pin down, and/or intimidate, dont' teach them to attack! Dogs don't understand our legal system and they're not so good at relaying THEIR side of the story to a judge. Bad guy can make up anything he wants, and he'll win, every time.

We had a Maine Coon Cat named Quincy who was a mole hunter. You'd see him out in the yard with his ear to the ground for hours, then the next morning you'd find mole bits somewhere. Silly cat never went after anything else.

the only akita i ever knew had to be put down. as she matured, she began to get agressive with the owners children, finally attacking one. she could not be adopted out as she would not bond with anyone but the male owner. she was a beautiful dog and i never had any problem with agression from her, but i am not a child. it was very sad for the whole family.

A buddy of mine has a rat terrier. I think the dog may run 20#. He took Buster squirrel hunting, His thought was that the Buster would tree them and he would then make a quick head shot from under the tree with his trust .22. Well Buster kept catching and killing the squirrels he even had a little trick of running straight up a tree trunk and catching the squirrel as it paused at about 10 feet up to look back at its pursuer. Then he saw why they call terriers the dogs that know no fear. A bobcat smelling the blood and hearing the ruckus between the squirrels and Buster tried to sneak in and steal a squirrel from the pile. Well Buster would have none of that and he lit into the bobcat that was nearly twice his side and you know they call bobcats "wildcats" for a reason. well that fight lasted 30 seconds and it was the bobcat that retreated. Buster required some stiches but according to my froiend he walked around for days with this air of pride and a "Who's the MAN?" attitude.