Do ckickens and blue heelers mix?

[hawk]

Was curious in anyone knows how, in general, blue heelers do around chickens. Herd them or eat them?

 

[cmjust0]

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I was just curious as to whether or not your dogs showed a strong prey drive and a tendency to 'eye' things before you trained them not to chase poultry..

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I think that's probably because we're not understanding each other..

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Depends on the dog. For instance, LGDs are notoriously 'stubborn' and 'hard headed,' which can make them challenging to train for obedience. They're stubborn for a reason, though...they need to be able to think for themselves because they need to be able to work by themselves.

Afterall, a guard dog that won't go after predators unless directed to do so is worthless.

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See, here's where I think we're misunderstanding one another.

I'm not trying to give herding breeds a bad name -- I love herding breeds. We have three, and they're fantastic dogs. I wouldn't give any one of them up for the world...if they our killed chickens, I'd be mad, but I wouldn't trade any number of chickens for my dogs.

And, for the record...at no point did I say anything about any dog killing children. Not sure where that came from...

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IMHO, training (or, correction at least) may be important, but it's not everything. To say that training is everything is to say that breeding means nothing...

Thing is, I can disprove that pretty easily by noting that you could perhaps train a Yorkie to be just as alert and have a desire to be just as protective as a true LGD, but when a coyote comes walking up...it's dead. No matter how much training you put into it -- DEAD.

You can't train a small dog to be bigger...only breeding does that.

Breed matters.

 

[Ray Babbit]

I grew up on a farm in Nebraska complete with 3 Blue Heelers, 10,000 acres of crops, up to 500 head of cattle, about 1,000 hogs, 10 cats, and a small chicken coop that was my Grandmothers. Let me start by saying that our Heelers pretty much ran everything, and there is no way the farm could have survived without them unless we hired about 10 people to take over. Our Heelers always applied only what force or tactic that was needed to handle the task at hand. I have seen them go from winning a head to head confrontation with a bull that wants to kill everything by biting-nipping it's lips and or face when it charges to 3 minutes later they are rounding up baby chicks that escaped by gently steering them with their noses instead of their teeth. Grandma put a wood box by the coop and in the event that a few fuzzy chicks got out one of the Heelers would carefully pick them up one at a time and gently put them in the box. Once they were all in the box she would go find Grandma and show her the chicks in the box. Grandma would put the chicks back inside with the others patch a small hole in the wire and go about her business. I don't ever remember the dogs ever injuing a single chick. The dogs would even take turns going to make sure the chicks woke up to eat several times during the night so Grandma didn't have to do it. The next morning we would be helping them load hogs and often times there would be a street style knock down drag out brawl with the one hog that refuses to go up the ramp. If you have never seen a hog that decides it's not going up the ramp argue with two Heelers that are going to get that hog up the ramp no matter what it takes, well lets just say you could sell tickets to the event. 5 minutes after the hog is in the truck complete with sore butt and face you will see one of them trot through the farrowing house to make sure all is well in the nursery. The other one patrols through all the hog barns just to remind everyone who's boss. While all of that's going on the third Heeler has checked the cattle, kicked a bull's rear end and double checked the electric fence. Then for an afternoon encore they might kill a Coyote they spotted crossing the road and top that off by bringing an abandoned baby rabbit to Grandma up at the house so the cats don't kill it. Here is the amazing part of it all..... I don't remember anyone ever teaching them anything besides their name and what no means. They learned pretty much everything else by watching us, They watched Grandma for Chicken handling, They watched us for pig moving and loading, and they watched the eldest Heeler to learn how to peel the lips off a bull. Some of my cousings occasionally got nipped on the heels which was what Grandpa called a warning shot, but that only happened when they were fighting or doing something they were not supposed to do. Now I am not saying all Heelers are like ours in any way, but they had morals, compassion, and knew right from wrong better than most people. Every one of them would have fought a Mountain Lion to the death protecting every living being on the fram right down to saving one of those little yellow fuzzy things that chirp alot. Heelers are all not going to be like the ones I grew up with and may not be for everyone, but our farm would not have survived without them. We loved everyone of them and treated them like a true family member. At the end of the day you could find all 3 of them in a pile on the bed sleeping with Grandma. Sorry to be so long winded, but I hope you found my Heeler story to be a good read. By the way the Heeler my wife and I have had for 6 yrs. has now learned to flush the toilet and figured out on his own that pulling that handle means a cold drink. He also turns the light on when entering a dark room...... and how did he learn this stuff? Simply by watching my wife!
Ray

 

[fordmommy]

You should be able to break the dog from attacking if it's an obidiant dog. Does your dog listen and obey?

 

[aussieheelr]

I have a blue heeler. I've had him since he was 8.5 weeks old and he's now 16 months old. We've been working on his listening the most. He has a 8'x16' foot yard that is seperate for the chickies. I have to have him out for a bit first so he can get calmed down then let the chickens out. I sit with him for about 30 minutes at first making him set by my feet while the chickens get into their running arround thing. Then he's good to go.
However he is exceptional. His buddy, Sadie the border collie, is not aloud out. She's my DH's dog and only listens to him. Before we let the chickens range she 1/2 tore up the pretty white trim on the red coop. The one day she was aloud out with them she waited for Henrietta to get just close enough then grabed on to her. She did let go and didn't break the skin but I can't trust her.
Pirate (blue heeler) just loves to be with me. So once he figures out Mommy thinks it's ok for the chickens to be out and everywhere he knows not to herd them and would just rather be with Mommy. But I wouldn't let them be out together if I weren't out with them both, I trust him but not that much.
Do know that this took some time. Lots of time spent with Pirate growing up and introducing him to the chickens. I tought him a command of "Be Nice" which is his kiss command when he gets nervious or excited instead of nipping. He had to learn this with our foals and it transfered wonderfully to the chickens.

We think he might be mixed with Catahoula, his bark has a bit houndish. lol

 

[RGEISENDORF]

My Border Collie is fine with the Chickens. He is 13 weeks and the breeder we got him from had chickens... this probably helped. He herds them... follows, lays down, follows but then if they get moving real fast he will leap and twist-that puppy thing just kicks in and he can't help himself. I just say his name and he stops and lays down. He is left alone with them while they free range all day. No problems yet..... good luck

 

[hawk]

our 2 year old heeler came from a rescue so she may have a little mix in her, we're not sure, she does like to herd things including our 3 kids, just not sure if we could ever trust her with the chickens.

 

[mmwb]

It sounds like, with good training and supervision, yes. Generally speaking, I would say no. Herding dogs tend to naturally nip at what they are herding. If the dog gets a taste it will likely be bad news for the chickens.

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

I have a 4 yr old blue heeler, 4 yr old aussie, and 8 month old red heeler/shihtzu mix.

I keep the chickens in one fenced in area and the dogs in another. My dogs would chase the chickens like the cats that run.

My blue heeler tried to snatch a chick out of my hands when the chick was 5 wks old.

All she was able to get were tail feathers. I knew after that, that I would never trust the dogs with the chicks.

 

[Heelers&Chickens_OhMy]

Well....I just HAD to say....

Heelers and chickens can get along. That being said, my heeler is incredibly well trained. He will stop eating food on my command. Rusty is fed a raw diet....which includes the chickens that I raise in my backyard. He gets a kick of out chasing them, but hasn't actually hurt one yet. I can trust Rusty & my girls alone in the backyard together when they free range.

That being said, my roommate's dog - the pit bull - broke one of my girl's legs and I culled her to put her out of her misery. All depends on the training of the dog.

ETA: Check out my BYC page to see the chicks and my heeler. I also foster for a heeler rescue - one of my fosters couldn't care less about the chickens...the other is still learning