I was reading here and somehow ended up clicking a youtube of Cesar Milan (Dog Whisperer) supposedly training a lab that had killed two chickens not to kill chickens anymore. The comments below the video were many people ranting that his tapping was somehow dog abuse! Wow, just wow. Anyway while I think he has a lot to teach and the commenters were way off base, I don't think he could possible have trained the chicken killing habit out of that dog in the few minutes of the video clip. This got me thinking though, that maybe others would benefit from my dog/chicken intro experience.
When my two goldens, male and female, first saw chickens they were extremely excited and I could see the "bloodlust" in their eyes, especially the female who is an accomplished rodent hunter. However I firmly told them "NO!" whenever they showed interest, and the female still needs reminding at times but they can now safely roam freely with the chickens. BUT I suspect this technique would NOT work with all breeds, in fact my house dog, dachshund, I do not consider trustworthy with the chickens. Her small size makes it unlikely she could actually do much BUT she can't overcome the desire to hunt/chase the chickens.
When my two goldens, male and female, first saw chickens they were extremely excited and I could see the "bloodlust" in their eyes, especially the female who is an accomplished rodent hunter. However I firmly told them "NO!" whenever they showed interest, and the female still needs reminding at times but they can now safely roam freely with the chickens. BUT I suspect this technique would NOT work with all breeds, in fact my house dog, dachshund, I do not consider trustworthy with the chickens. Her small size makes it unlikely she could actually do much BUT she can't overcome the desire to hunt/chase the chickens.