Dogs killed and injured our entire flock of 55....crushed! - Page 4

Oh no! That might be construed as cruelty to the dog. ( ) Sorry, just couldn't pass that one up what with all the people who are so worried about "the poor dog" who kills chickens.

I'm so sorry for your loss.  How tragic. 

 

Electric Fence is the way to go.  I have 8 herding dogs that are in the same area as the chickens, they come into the pens and coop with me.    I wouldn't trust them if the chickens were free ranging if I was not in the yard.  Electric fence keeps their minds away from the chickens as well as the baby goats.  As long as I'm there giving directions and commands, they are awesome dogs, but dogs are dogs.  Herding is nothing more than prey drive with training.   I put electric on my fences on the outside as well as on the inside towards my yard, to keep my own dogs out.  Better safe than sorry.  I also use heavy no-climb fence that I use for the horses/goats.  Then put smaller wire on the bottom to keep in chicks. 

 

What's really criminal are the irresponsible owners who permit their dogs to run loose.  I had a neighbor with 2 large german shephards who kept trying to dig under my fence to get my goats.  I never worried as long as my horse was out, because she would kill them or any coyotes.  I keep the goats locked up in the barn at night though.   The dumb owner didn't seem to care until I kept calling the dog warden, but the dog warden could only warn.  He said he had to catch them on my property, my pics didn't count.  I finally put electric fencing on the outside of the fence.  Problem solved.

 

Electric fencing is cheap.  the more grounding rods you put in, the stronger the shock!

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I understand totally three years ago I lost my flock of black copper marans to a dog. I was heart sick and heart broken and swore I would never have another chicken. Here it is three years later and I am ready to start again, the heart ache can be terrible but I really miss the joy my hens gave me. So wait for your hearts to heal then start over the joy out weights the heartache.

Electric fence is not cruel. It's very effective. Though depending a situation, there can be problems with the fence getting damaged,shorted,and you have to stay on top of checking and mending, even doing daily patrol to brush all the crispy fried  ants out of the insulators that have shorted it out, lol. and having to do that with a mile of fence run on even a small farmstead can be a duanting and time-consuming task!

 

I used to instruct dog obedience training classes for pet owners. That 'poor baby, but I can't DO that to him,' owners that didn't want to give corrections fast and hard and consistently to get results, always had to be dealt with right off the bat. Part of my first session lecture was to the effect that the most cruel thing you can do to your pet is to fail to administer correction with enough force to get it across to the dog, so that it gorws into anunruly monster no bodt can live with. Where the dog already had behavior problems,which with pet obedience classes, there ware always plenty of those, the lecture was even stronger....you are here because you can't live with this any longer....well, know that no one else will either, and either you do what it takes to correct the dog, or don't waste my time and yours....just go let the vet humanely euthanize it now.  

 

If your electric fence not only keeps that dog out of your chickens, but may even TEACH it to leave chickens alone, you've done the kindest most humane thing possible for that dog.

  Just to keep the dander from getting on the rise around here, I think I would use the word 'shocked', instead of 'electrocuted'. That has such a sound of finality to it. Down here in Georgia when we use to use the "chair", we never said shocked.

 

 

I am so sorry for your loss! What a tragic event! We are expecting our very first chicks next month. We thought the "chicken experience" would be fun, and good learning for our preschooler. I feel predators are a real concern. The experience and knowledge posted by you and others makes me really think about coop strength. I'm sure you and your family will get past this horrible event with time and enjoy your new chickens.

Good point, lol! Actually, you may remember as I do, years ago, before there were all these handy livestock and pet fence chargers, when people talked about "electric fence", yeah, "electrocuted" was the right word...because it mean straight plugged into 120 volts! No kidding! Industrial complexes, prisons. they actually used that! And the idea got carried home and some people started using it to guard their properties! Even junk yards would have a couple strands barbed wire topper on fences, plugged into 120v! Bad neighborhoods, even, people used it to protect businesses and back yards...I actually remember some death occurances in the news when I wss a kid, back in the 50's from that.

Cities, counties, state, began to outlaw it. Unfortunately, there are still places where those law put into place againsy "electric fence" have never been revised to reflect changing times and development of these common livestock and pet fence chargers. Just recently someone I know in Beaumont. Texas, considered an electric fence for keeping strays and garbage hunting varmits out of their back yard, which opens into a wooded parkland, without building a solid fence that obstructs their view.....and learned electric fence of any kind is illegal there.

 

 

i can only imagine how tragic this would be to y'all.  i agree that to move forward is a good tactic for your son.  to dwell on the carnage can mess with our hearts & brains long into our future.  life can be like this.  to find a way to move forward is a good thing.  really sorry for your loss and for what those darling chickens suffered.

Go read that again. No one opened the pen the dogs tore through the fencing around the pens.