Hi
Sorry to hear what has happened, As someone has already mentioned Angela Stockdale is an expert in this area, not sure where you are based but she does workshops in Somerset about livestock aggression, might be worth googleing her website or getting in touch with her for advice. Also David Ryan has a book and workshop about predatory chasing which may be worth exploring.
My Dad has a rescue dog which is a confirmed sheep chaser thankfully we are able to manage his urge to chase by being extremely vigilant about keeping him on lead around sheep (and before he even notices the sheep) and doing lots and lots of work on having a sound reliable recall. I appreciate this is of no use to you as your sheep are your pets so this is not practical information for you. Just wanted to let you know that people do take on rescues that have problems with livestock (and there are plenty of sheep in Devon!) and it can work out, so please please give some rescues a call rather then going straight to euthanasia, At least if you have tried you will have a clearer conscience. Good luck

The op came on here to be told it was the right decision but didn't get what she wanted so she attacks to justify what she is going to do. She seems to think that her dogs shouldn't act like dogs.

They taught the sheep not to be frightened of the dogs, they didn't take precautions to make sure the sheep were safe and don't seem to want to bother to do this. They are partly to blame.

My dog that would kill a sheep if she got the chance, killed a lot of rabbits was a fantastic dog with children, I took her to a nursery one day, I took my eyes off her for seconds and she had disappeared, there was a pile of children, when we got the children off she was under them and upset because we took the children off.

Dogs hunt to survive and we will never be able to get rid of the instinct.

I think we have been mislead into believing that the OP wanted advice, when she was looking for approval of her decision.

I hope that, in time, she will see things from our points of view, and will come back and tell us what happened in the end.

I am sure that we learn from our mistakes and those of others, and there is no shame in saying 'I've cocked up, but I now know better. Thanks for your advice.'

Can the remaining sheep have a safe area to live in?
Why is not walking off lead not an option? Loads of dogs are walked on lead or on a line it is not the end of the world.
Why not consider rehoming them out of the area? Not everybody lives in sheep country.
Your child is not a sheep so why would your dogs be a threat?

If you want to destroy your dogs that's your business.
Its no skin off my nose really.
They are not my dogs.
I will not lose sleep over it.
Will you?
And why does it seem to be becoming unacceptable to raise children to understand early that animals kill other animals?


Alex

For what it's worth, I couldn't keep my dog if she attacked and killed an animal.

I don't think you should immediately jump to putting them down given they are healthy and show no aggression to people.
There is a very very fine line between herding and killing, it is a modified prey sequence after all, without training I wouldn't be surprised to see a high drive dog go the whole hog and kill the animal it's herding.
They are predators/scavengers so killing smaller animals is to some degree 'natural'.

That said, in my opinion, your dogs should have been well aware that the sheep are 'family' and not hurt them if they are used to seeing you care for them.

I think that the use of the collar created a negative, fearful association with the sheep then one day it attacked it.

I don't believe it was purely instinct as if they have been taught not to chase the sheep and see the family caring for them on a daily basis i would expect them to know that chasing and attacking is most definately not allowed!
Although I think some will disagree.

I think a lot of people would find it very very difficult to look at their pet in the same way after something like this and the dog will almost certainly sense the sudden change in emotion.
I know I would not feel the same way again and would find it very difficult to continue being affectionate.

I think you should contact a larger gsd's rescue organisation as they take dogs from all over the country, or you could try privately re homing online specifying that they worry livestock and must not be off lead.
Plenty of dogs do worry livestock, I don't think it would affect their chances of being rehomed too much.

I think to put them down would be a little harsh.

He is four and the sheep was HIS pet and he is obviously devastated at losing her.

If he knew the dogs killed her at four year old he would hate the dogs and maybe become extremely frightened of them.

All the previous threads on this site by adults whose dogs have killed sheep go to show that they find it very difficult to comprehend, almost all the thread starters have expressed how they can't look at their pet in the same way, considering pts etc, so how can you possibly expect a four year old to be understanding and forgiving?!?!?!?!

Too late now as it has happened so all you can do is keep the remaining animals safe. Personally we used to keep rabbits and two terriers who would have committed murder if they had a chance only thing we did different to you was we kept the dogs and the rabbits completely separate at all times and made sure if we were anywhere near the rabbits with the dogs we put the dogs on leads and never let them out of our sight.

No idea what the collar is but electricity has been mentioned so guessing it gives a shock ? if so that won't have helped if the dog associates being hurt with the sheep then he would be daft not to kill the thing that has been giving him pain. Seems entirely sensible to me.

Dogs are not Humans they are animals & have no idea that other species(especially prey species like sheep) are part of their "families"

I have a rescue BC who comes from multi generations of excellent working sheepdogs, however she prefers the taste of the sheep to the herding of them & this is why she is with me. She is also a cat chaser(my older dogs are cat proofed having lived with two very savvy cats in the past)so no cats for me here now, it wouldn't be worth the risk.

You cannot 100% train out instinctive behaviour in animals, my Cavaliers have never been encouraged to hunt, but they have all been excellent mousers after seeing the cats hunting. Now it is 100s of years since Cavaliers have been used as mousers/hunting dogs, yet mine still have the instinctive desire to hunt !

There are several types of electric collars, some owners will have a vibrating collar on a deaf dog to get their attention if the dog isn't looking at them.

Another type is an electric fence, if the dog goes to go over the fence it gives him an electric shock. There is also one were you have a control in your hand, when you press a button it gives a dog a shock.

Others are spray collars, they spray water, air and something that is really cruel to the dog, citronella into their faces.

if a dog is looking at something when they are given a shock they can blame what they are looking at, if these dogs were looking at sheep when they were shocked it could have made the intent to kill worse. There are many cases were dogs with these collars blamed something else when they were shocked.

Those that use them say they don't hurt the dog, they say that they are no worse than an electric fence, these do hurt if you touch them so that is a load of rubbish. It is a bit like us saying after we beat our child/dog up we didn't hurt them.

Thank you mattie for that explanation, none of them sound like anything I could ever use, treats and when needed a sharp no have worked OK so far, that and keeping prey away from the dogs.

Although having said that we have had wild deaths but it hasn't stopped me loving the dogs they don't understand I am a vegetarian and abhor killing, so they work on instinct.