It is very difficult to build a predator proof pen. When we first started our goat herd I spent many hours on the internet trying to determine what was the best pen to build to keep the predators out. Let me state here that we have not found a pen yet that will keep predators out. The first attempt was a 6 wire high tensile pen with about 10 joules running through it, enough I thought to keep any animal in or out. Wrong, within a week we had a stray dog inside of it, luckily I saw him quickly enough and ran him off.

With that said, the best investment that we ever made was in good guard dogs. Not every dog will make a good guard dog, and the ones that do typically require a little work.

We once drove from Kentucky to Mississippi to pick up a guard dog. We got him young and brought him home. It was cold outside so we decided to keep him inside for a little while until we got him used to the place. when it was time to put him outside, he had already decided he wasn't a goat guard dog, he was a people guard dog. It took months and a lot of fence work to get him to stay with the goats. After we got him to stay in with the goats, he started to go through his puppy stage and would sometimes play a little to ruff with some of the younger goats. Finally after working with him for serveral months, he gre out of the puppy stage and has turned into one of our best guard dogs.