The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service along with the Texas Livestock Guardian Dog Association will present the webinar “Using Livestock Guardian Dogs With Poultry” on Sept. 14.
The webinar will take place at 3 p.m. on the Zoom meeting platform. There is no cost to attend but participants must preregister at https://tx.ag/Sept14LGDwebinar.
Although livestock guardian dogs, LGDs, are typically used with sheep and goats in Texas as predator deterrents, canines can be bonded to different species and used to protect a wide range of livestock.
The Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Service Center in San Angelo has a research program dedicated to livestock guardian dogs and utilizes LGDs at the center’s ranches and in partnership with private ranch owners.
Joy Combs, longtime LGD user, to speak
Webinar speaker Joy Combs and her husband Darrell Cobb own Providence Farm, in McLeansville, North Carolina, where they produce free-range poultry, forest-raised pork, dual-purpose heritage breed sheep and miniature dairy goats. Hundreds of free-range birds including chickens, turkeys and ducks move around the farm under the watch of LGDs.
Combs will share her firsthand experience, successes, observations and advice on using LGDs with poultry. She has been working with dogs and livestock in various capacities for over 30 years. She moderates the Learning About LGDs group on Facebook and partners with several rescue organizations to promote successful LGD ownership.
“We have a rolling topography with lots of cover and waterways that provides rich habitat for diverse wildlife, including a healthy predator population of coyotes, foxes and the smaller usual suspects as well as at-large domestic dogs resulting from the recent push of human population to more rural areas,” Combs said.
To combat predation, Providence Farm maintains a permanent pack of five LGDs, which include three Great Pyrenees, one Anatolian shepherd dog and one Karakachan. At any time, there are also rescue/rehab/rehome LGDs onsite working towards placement as working LGD.
