German Shepherds and chickens - good combo?

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Mine pretty much started eating poo the first time she smelled it.
Ohhhh...you mean trained to not eat chickens .....a couple FIRM no's pretty much did it.

German Shepherd's with kids and as family companions ? YES, absolutely. I have had shepherds all my life. Unfortunately my 14 year old shepherd killed one of my hens who flew over the fence a couple of years ago but then my golden retriever did too. The shepherd did it on purpose, the golden by accident. Not their fault, fence was too low and has since been corrected. I have never been able to mix my dogs and my chickens but others on this site have.

I have a 7 yr old female German working line GSD and a 6 yr old male American showline GSD (both neutered). They are both great around the chickens. My 1 yr old Australian shepherd is a little more interested in herding chickens (and llamas but that's another story), but I hope he mellows with age. We only got chickens 1 1/2 yrs ago, so the GSD's were mature by then. They have had lots of training though and I think that helped. I leave all three dogs outside with our freeranging flock and have not had any trouble since I once corrected the female and the Aussie who were sucking(?) on a chicken. No harm was done and they have never repeated it... I do love our GSD's...
Patty N. ;-)

I have a 2 year old female that I had a problem with for the 1st couple of days, but she seems fine now. She has an enormous prey drive and would try to get into the run. At 1st, instead or training her I simply kept her away from the chickens. That was a mistake. Today she tried to get to them while I was feeding them, and I punished her once. Since then she has not tried again. She looks at them, but has not made another move towards them. They are also a lot more at ease with her around. It's amazing what a difference 1 day made! I would not trust her with them free ranging though. That might be too much temptation. Personally, I love the breed and would give up the hens before I give up Heidi, though. She is extremely well bred, though. Her sire was imported from Germany and her dam was imported from Belgium.

The herd.

I am new to raising chickens, and have a female Austrailian Cattle Dog and a white German Shepherd... I also have a step dog, which comes by, twice a day, for a visit, and sometimes, stays for hours. It is a female, which appears to be a Black Lab/Bulldog mix, which caused me concern. Well, I was wanting to let my chickens out, without having to babysit them, constantly.
I spent about a week, with all of the dogs on leashes, and close supervision, during the morning and evening release, just to allow the dogs to get used to the chickens.
I also know that dogs are triggered by erratic movement, so I knew that, sooner or later, the dogs would make a lunge for the chickens. After all, they are the intruders.
So, I would fasten two dogs far enough away, so that they would not be bothered by the chickens. Then, I sat with a single dog, and gave them enough leash, to make a move.
As soon as the chickens got close enough to the dog, and it made a move for the chickens, let's just say that I corrected the dog, with extreme predjudice..... It only took one time, for each dog.
For about a week, they all considered the chickens to be toxic, but now, the chickens graze within 2-3 ft. of the dogs, with no problem... The shepherd still tends to move away from the chickens.
For the last week, I have allowed the chickens out, from daylight to dark, with no problems, and no supervision.

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And you kiss that mouth!!!!

Hi,

New to this site & keeping chickens. We have owned GSD's for quite a few years though.

We have 2 GSD girls & 1 GSD boy. One of the girls we have had for about 3years we rehomed her as a adult dog, she is fine with the chickens but hates cats, I can trust her to wander around in the chicken pens and not bother with them. The other girl we have nt had for that long, she again has been rehomed as an adult dog and I would nt let her anywhere near the chickens, she would definatly have them. She will chase anything, hopefully over time and with patience she is going to get better. The male we have has just turned 2 we bought him at 9weeks old. He is from pure working lines but he knows when he is told to stay or told to leave he does it and he get rewarded for that. I can happily wander in with the chickens and he'll help me round them up.

I think it's in all dogs nature to chase things it really depends on how you teach them, I do think that it is easier with a pup because they have no previous life to revert back to. If you get the dog used to chickens from the start then it should nt be a problem.

Em x

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DDAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!