Dog killed chick

[Mamato6]

I don't know if this is the right forum to post in because it's not exactly a predator but Tuesday night our puppy killed one of my 10 week old chicks. I am beyond devastated. What would you all do to/with said puppy. My husband wanted to shoot her right then and there. His reason being is that even though he thinks she was just trying to play with it (she's about 4 months old and plays rough with our 2 yr old gotti Pitt and 7.5 yr old Pitt) he thinks that she'll just end up doing it again. And although I hate her right now I'm an animal person and don't like to see them die, but at the same time, I don't want I don't want to keep my chicks cooped up all day (their run is a decent size for now, there are 10 pullets- 4 are 10 weeks, 5 are 9 weeks and 1 is 5.5 months- the run is 6 x 6 with an additional 4 x 6 underneath the coop but they're only going to get bigger) we live in an area where no predators have been spotted nearby (the only things I've seen are blue jays, cardinals, road runners, bunnies and deer) I just really don't know what to do. My 7 and 9 yr old girls were bawling even harder when they thought that my husband was going to put her down because we just lost the chick and they love the puppy and didn't want to lose her too. On the other hand if we give her away to someone without smaller animals or chickens they will still be devastated. *sigh*

 

[Kiki]

Dogs are chicken predators. Your dog is still a puppy and hasn't been trained to leave the chickens alone. You will have problems with all of your dogs if you don't work with them all and teach them daily to stay away from the chickens.
The best thing you can do is keep the dogs away from the chickens...always.
Build a secure coop and run and never leave the two out together at the same time.
This happens ALL the time.
Sorry for your loss.
Use it as a learning experience and make sure it can't happen again.

 

[masmom]

Dogs are chicken predators. You dog is still a puppy and hasn't been trained to leave the chickens alone. You will have problems with all of your dogs if you don't work with them all and teach them daily to stay away from the chickens.
The best thing you can do is keep the dogs away from the chickens...always.
Build a secure coop and run and never leave the two out together at the same time.
This happens ALL the time.
Sorry for your loss.
Use it as a learning experience and make sure it can't happen again.

Great suggestion and advice.

 

[Mamato6]

Dogs are chicken predators. You dog is still a puppy and hasn't been trained to leave the chickens alone. You will have problems with all of your dogs if you don't work with them all and teach them daily to stay away from the chickens.
The best thing you can do is keep the dogs away from the chickens...always.
Build a secure coop and run and never leave the two out together at the same time.
This happens ALL the time.
Sorry for your loss.
Use it as a learning experience and make sure it can't happen again.

Thanks. And yeah the other two are older and awesome with the chicks, they don't even bother with them except to sometimes sniff them lol. Our 7 yr old Pitt has seemed to always want puppies and when we got the chicks (at a day old) she tried licking them like they were her puppies. But we actually had been keeping an eye on the puppy when she was outside but Tuesday night my husband told my son to let Daisy (the puppy) out and without even thinking he just let her out and didn't watch her

 

[rosemarythyme]

You have two choices essentially. 1) Work on training the all dogs until you know they are safe around the chickens. 2) Size up the run and don't free range the chickens, so the chickens never mix with the dogs.

I went with #2. I don't feel that my chickens are deprived, my run is roomy and has all sorts of things a chicken would enjoy scratching at or jumping on.

 

[Mamato6]

You have two choices essentially. 1) Work on training the all dogs until you know they are safe around the chickens. 2) Size up the run and don't free range the chickens, so the chickens never mix with the dogs.

I went with #2. I don't feel that my chickens are deprived, my run is roomy and has all sorts of things a chicken would enjoy scratching at or jumping on.

how big is your run and how many chickens?

 

[centralcaligirl]

Dogs are chicken predators. You dog is still a puppy and hasn't been trained to leave the chickens alone. You will have problems with all of your dogs if you don't work with them all and teach them daily to stay away from the chickens.
The best thing you can do is keep the dogs away from the chickens...always.
Build a secure coop and run and never leave the two out together at the same time.
This happens ALL the time.
Sorry for your loss.
Use it as a learning experience and make sure it can't happen again.

X2

One of my dogs is fine with the chickens, the other is not, and never will be. The day we moved the pullets out to the coop he just kept circling the run, salivating the whole time.

As soon as I saw the look in his face, and the saliva dripping from his lips, I decided that either the dogs will be out, or the chickens will be out. Never are they both out at the same time. No matter how much I might want to try to train him, I know I can't ever trust him around the chickens.

 

[Eggcessive]

You might borrow a shock collar to use a time or two to train the pup to stay away from the chickens. We had a problem with only one of 4 dogs roughing up pullets who had flown over our 4ft fence into our yard. It only took 2 shocks, but I would place the chicken in a crate or cage when the dog is near the chicken, but unable to hurt it. Our dog would not even look at our chickens again, and we later had 3 yard chickens who have always been safe.

 

[GGBEAR]

You just need to train them to stay away mine wont go near them unless I say apart from the odd cheeky sniff

 

[Cluck-a-biddy]

I would not fault the puppy. She was just doing what's in her nature. Just keep your other precious ladies safe in their enclosure and resign yourself to the fact that they can't be let out.

We have a good-sized run for our chickens. It's 8'x24' with a 4'x5' walk-in coop towards one end, and we may extend another 8' beyond the coop area when we get some time. I would love to have my girls free-roam, but where we live, we have all sorts of predators. And our dog is one of them. She is a big border collie/chow mix (so the pound people told us). She was salivating and jaw-clicking when we were raising last-yr's batch of chickies inside, so we knew right away not to let her near them. She likes to hang out around the run and watch the chickens, and only occasionally does the salivating now, but I know she'd eat them in a heartbeat given the chance!

My girls live a happy healthy life inside their run. I give them excellent food, and stuff to forage on. And we put up all sorts of wood rails and things for them to hop up on, and bales of straw that they love to climb on and peck at. They are definitely not deprived by being inside a secure "compound!"

My son had one of his big dogs kill two of their chickens on different occasions. She wasn't after them to eat them, she just wanted them to be her play toys. She just didn't know that that's not what they're for! They did not do anything bout it, as far as the dog was concerned, because she didn't do it with malice. It happened when they were re-building their run and the gate wasn't secured. Now they just make sure that the pen is secure so she can't get any more of them.