I feel bad about all the dog attacks so here is my 2 cents

Well I have a Rott, rat terrier, and a min pin that stay in the house. When I let them out they go straight for the chickens.............poop!! I haven't had any problem's with my dogs tring to mess with my chickens. All I have to do is say no ma'am and that's it. My rott is to busy trying to keep them all together when they are free ranging. I am trying to train him to help herd them up at night. He is doing pretty good so far. It is easier to train one when they want to learn, he is so excited to help.

I did the same thing with my two Labs.
As pups I put them on leash and sat with the chickens.
Pretty much anything they did shy of ignoring them got them a correction in the form of little yank of the leash.
At that time I would very sternly tell them "those are my chickens." Then I took them off leash and just verbally corrected them. They got it. Never hurt a chicken in more than a year now.

We had a rottweiler when we first brought home baby chicks, and we didn't know how it was going to work out. Would he eat the chickens? We didn't know.

Our rottweiler fell in love with the baby chicks! He stared at them in the box ALL DAY LONG. It was hilarious, he was obsessed with watching the baby chicks. You distract him with a treat for 10 seconds, and then he was right back to watching the chicks.

Once the chicks grew up, he completely lost interest. He left the chickens alone.

But if someone brought home a chick...he'd be obsessed with it.

I had a cat that left us last October that I trained to leave "Mamas babies" alone. Boy did he want those little chickies. His tail would twitch as he watched them dart around on the lawn and everytime he looked as if he wanted to eat one I would say very firmly, "No, those are Mama's babies".

He learned his lesson well, and never tried to ever get one. When I let the growing birds out in the garden each spring he would hang out with them and eat their food, catch birds, and drink their water.

I even saw them walking over the top of him on occassion. He did, however, know the difference between a chick and a quail baby...... oops. They must have different smells.

While it's important for all pets to get along, I still can't see the sense in free ranging chickens unless you're willing to accept some losses. Even if the dog doesn't get them, chances are a hawk, raccoon, coyote or other wild animal will. I don't understand why you'd put temptation in your dogs' way, or the potential to be blamed for something another animal did.

barnyard, that's gross that your dogs go for the poop. Do they roll in it? Eew!

Our current dog doesn't care about the chickens. Chickens bore her.

For about a month I was dogstitting a mini-doberman pinscher. She also didn't give a rip about chickens. She just wanted to steal the table scraps thrown out to the chickens!

However, when our neighbor dog-sat someone else's dog, that was bad news. The dog killed a barred rock hen, and nearly killed the barred rock rooster, Screebert. Screebert was saved from the jaws just in time!

Well done Henry. If more people took responsibility for their animals and actually trained them, we wouldn't see the problems that are reported on the forum all the time. All four of my dogs are breeds noted for a strong prey drive and I never lose chickens because of them. They chase the coyotes away and generally keep my flocks safe. Not a perfect system because dogs can't fly after hawks, but there is nothing better than a well trained dog on a property.

Quote:
I think most that free range do accept the fact that the potential for loss is there, but compared to keeping them penned up, its a risk worth taking.
I have three dogs and they also protect the flock, its not my dogs, but some irresponsible neighbours that I worry about.

I was raising 12 chicks from hatch. They are all free range chickens. When Momma Hen got tired of them, they were fair game for the hawks.
It wasn't long before they got smart and would crawl under the fence to where my dogs are for protection. One is a Great Dane and the other is a Golden Retriever. Precious, the Great Dane takes great pride in caring for these pullets now 5months old. She'll lay out there and I'll take a peak to see the chicks are walking all over her. The Golden could care less. Because of this I decided to praise and reward her by letting her be momma. There are new chicks in the brooder next to her bed. SHE is momma. And SHE takes care of my girls for me. She keeps the hawks at bay. And when something does get into the coop ( where she can't get to) at night. She freaks out until I investigate. I love all my critters. And as for those Basset Hounds. I WISH I COULD AFFORD A COUPLE. I love the lemon. MY VERY VERY FAVORITE BREED. I HAD ONE AND HE DIED. I MISS HIM SO BADLY IT STILL HURTS. It's a shame that the initial cost of getting a basset hound is so high. I guess that's part of the reason I'm so into my chickens. If they have one at the feed store its only $2.75 out of pocket. And that's on a whim!

“Rattle Can”
A couple folks said they wished they knew of a sound that there dog would hate. If you take a empty soda can and place about 5 pennies in it then tape shut, you can make a rattle can. Use it any time your dog dose something you do not want to see.( Barking at the front door is a great one, chasing chickens) My dogs think chickens make this noise and once when the hunting dog was going to get” one or else” the evil chickens THROW one at her, she is sure of it.

To use a can tell the dog NO. If the dog keeps at it shake the can hard, but do not yell at it. As soon as the dog stops, stop shaking the can and tell the dog how good it is. Most of the dogs I have worked with will stop what they are doing to see what in the world is making the noise. I have worked with dogs that would go insane at the sight of a squirrel and not come back to the owners for anything. After a couple days with the can the dog would look and shake, but not run after them.

The only dog that did not respond to this was a dog that was brought into the shelter because the owners where afraid of it. We tried to work with it but when it was going to go after something a train would not stop it. This dog was put down because of aggressions that could not be curbed.

This is a fast stop to a problem but does not replace dog training.

Shelly