Dogs, how do you stop them!

[Bonza Chooks]

We have a dog and 7 chooks, we have had a few issues with my dog and the girls in the past. And eventhough we haven't had any major problems recently, I see a lot of photos of chooks and dogs together, I've also seen people talk about how their chooks like to boss their dogs around, I was wondering if there is some way to train your dog to stop bothering your chooks. Please Help!
Thanks

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! Lots of on leash training time, making the birds untouchable and boring. The right dog, and fencing to protect the birds. Some dogs will be fine, others love chicken and need to be separate forever. mary

 

[Bonza Chooks]

Thanks for the help! I'll do that.

 

[Michael Apple]

Just like I tell people who ask me about obedience training, it must begin with training the dog to lie down immediately upon command, no matter what activity is happening around it. Once that is accomplished, the rest of training can proceed. High drive dogs need to be trained in this order.

 

[Bonza Chooks]

My dog is generally well behaved, except for when he's getting attention from other people. I guess we'll keep working on it! Thanks

 

[islandgirl82]

Patience and consistency with obedience training. I was blessed with a dog who has a gentle nature to begin with and was protective of my starter flock the first day I brought them home as chicks and he was well trained before I started keeping poultry but it took a good year and a half of working with my neighbors to train their dogs to the point of me not having a panic attack every time I saw them coming down the driveway.

Ignoring the chickens when they were around and getting the dogs' to focus on something, anything else played a huge roll. I also gave the neighbors feathers from my girls so the dogs could investigate without being in contact and if they went to bite the feathers they were firmly told to "leave it" and praised when they ignored them.

I still don't leave my flock out to free-range when I'm not home because although the dogs listen now when they're told to "leave it" or "go home" or whatever else I tell them to do and they seem more interested in cleaning up chicken feed and droppings

, I still don't trust them when I'm not right there to supervise.

 

[gawildlife]

The best way is raise a pup with your stock so that it is accepted as part of pups pack. Of course as pack leader you have to lay down the law to pup at the very first instant of crossing the line. Most dogs raised this way can be safely trusted but there is one type that can never be trusted and that's the stock killer. For some reason some dogs come out wired to kill and nothing can ever change that. This isn't the pup that plays to rough or the one who chases and barks but the mutt who goes berserker on a flock or herd and kills everything in sight. This animal must be put down along with its progeny as it has been proven to my satisfaction to be a heritable trait.

 

[Bonza Chooks]

Thanks so much for helping guys!

 

[islandgirl82]

How are things going between your dog and your flock?

 

[Bonza Chooks]

My dog is almost always fine with the chooks when we are outside with them. But whenever we are with them and not him, he puts on his jealous face. I would never have him in the same area as my girls, there always has to be a fence. I would just like to be able to have, my chooks out in the larger area of the garden, and not worry about my dog getting them. I know that I couldn't trust my dog with them by himself, but it would be nice to come home and not worry about them.