Spontaneous Dog attack??

We have a bluetick/beagle hound mix who is around a year old. We got him from the local animal shelter, where he was placed by his previous owner (a hunter) because he did not show any interest whatsoever in hunting.

We have had him since last august (8 months) and he has been mostly disinterested in our chickens. The only time he made a run (very brief, and very playful, no teeth involved) was when my kids were trying to catch a chicken and were chasing them. I have let him in the yard unsupervised with the chickens 5-6 times a day almost every day in the past two months with a single incident.

Today, out of the blue, he killed two of our chickens and severely injured a third, my husbands favorite. Prancine is an mixed chicken, she lays green eggs but looks like a golden laced wyandotte. Mystery egg from a friends farm.

Anyway. I have no idea why he would attack the chickens, other than some suppressed predatory instinct? He is an overly-submissive dog (due to likely abuse from his previous owner) and so I wonder if that might work to our advantage in training him to leave them alone.

What I'd like to know is this: Has this happened to anyone else? What did you do? What would trigger this?

Around a year plus is when dogs start coming into their maturity and start exhibiting more adult behaviors like prey drive or dog reactivity. Your boy is right in that window.

You could and should start trying to train him to leave the chickens alone, but he will probably never be truly trustworthy with them now that he has killed some.

Sadly, once a dog gets a taste for blood, they are driven for more. As stated above, now is the crucial time for a dog his age to develop his instincts and tastes. Never leave your dog alone with the chickens out again. I, myself, have just had to invest in thicker fencing for my chickens now that my dog has developed a taste for chickens.

Thank you. I appreciate the insight. I definitely will never leave him unsupervised with the chickens again!!! That's just common sense. He is a really, really sweet dog. I will work with him and keep him away from the chickens for good!

JadedPhoenix said:

Sadly, once a dog gets a taste for blood, they are driven for more. As stated above, now is the crucial time for a dog his age to develop his instincts and tastes. Never leave your dog alone with the chickens out again. I, myself, have just had to invest in thicker fencing for my chickens now that my dog has developed a taste for chickens.

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I have to respectfully disagree on the "taste for blood" idea that gets passed around a lot. Plenty of dogs eat raw meat, including raw chicken and are fine around birds and other animals. Also, you can train dogs to kill or chase some animals away from a farm and still protect the animals that live on the farm. Hunting dogs can still be fine around other pets. It is a matter of training your animal in the behavior you want and helping them to understand which animals are a part of their family.

I think this is simply a matter of training and is not too late for a positive relationship. These are animals so there is always a little bit of a risk but I do not think there is any reason to think she is going to turn into a bird-gobbling monster now.

I would work with her on impulse control exercises around the birds and also not around the birds. Anything where there is something she wants to eat, have, or do but is made to wait calmly and patiently is a great training exercise. Rinse and repeat lots and lots everyday. Take her out on a leash and have the birds and the kids run around. Have her interact with the other animals in a variety of situations and make sure that every single time no matter what the birds or kids do she remains completely calm and ignores the birds. All excitement, even happy excitement is an immediate correction.

Be aware, but I think with time and effort you still have can have good odds. I would assume that either she got way too playful or something caused the birds to startle which caused her to react impulsively.

Sorry for your loss. Good luck.

I totally agree with "chickensrdinos" I have fed my dogs raw chicken for 13 years never feed dog food and have had chickens free ranging for 4 years and my dogs are loose and never have they bothered the chickens. They do not relate the raw chicken they eat with a feathery bird.
I think the reason dogs kill them is just an instinctive prey drive and yes if they succeed in the kill it pumps them to do it again, not the taste of blood. Wild animals of course also have the prey drive but that is pushed by the fact they have to kill to survive, domestic animals who are fed without hunting for their food only have the prey drive either because of a breed characteristic
or some just have it and besides it's FUN, LOL!

Feeding raw is completely different than a dog that has chased down and killed a chicken. It's not about getting the "taste", it's about them realizing, "Hey I can chase this down and kill it, what good fun! Plus it turns into food!"

I was mostly responding to the taste of blood and someone mentioned raw feeding. Over the years I have heard 100 times that because I feed my dogs raw chicken they will be chicken killers and I guess I am a little defensive because that isn't true and so I right away bring it up

I agree also that maybe the chickens for some reason got spooked and started running and flying around and that triggered the dog to do it. Even mine sure pay attention and have even started to go after them if they see them running, natural to want to chase.

I hope her dog can be trained and so sorry this happened........

Problem here is more age related. Dog is still within age bracket where it explores stupid. Work on reprimanding dog for showing improper interest in birds and you will get him back on mission. Good coming of this is dog learned what distressed chickens sounded like and will have better idea what is going on if they are attacked by something else. My dogs go bonkers when birds start making distress sounds which cuts down reaction time if something like fox or owl gets a bird down. My dogs used to harass and killed at least a chicken or two.

SavageDestiny said:

Feeding raw is completely different than a dog that has chased down and killed a chicken. It's not about getting the "taste", it's about them realizing, "Hey I can chase this down and kill it, what good fun! Plus it turns into food!"

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I think if you read my full post it is clear that I also address this issue, giving multiple examples of which raw food is only one. Sure, dogs can act impulsively and chase a prey animal and find this fun. But dogs are intelligent, social animals who are highly trainable, easy to motivate and very adaptable. Either way, I do not believe that a "taste for blood" whether actual taste for blood or symbolic of a prey drive is something that can not be solved with training.

It is likely an impulse control issue which is why I suggested impulse control training.