Great Pyrenees puppy we got killed a chicken. Is it a lost cause or how should we train her?

[Adolfus Nile]

Alright what im going to do for now is I'll let her come with me to put the birds up and let them out for the day as well as any chores. She also runs the yard at night where she can see them in the coop. I have a tie out coming in the mail and I should be able to let her outside on the tie off where I can see her interact with the chickens. At this same time we'll be learning some obedience and I'll use the obedience training to train her to get along well with the birds.

 

[DonyaQuick]

My pyr got bitten on the nose by a hen as a pretty young puppy and has treated them like omnipotent feathered gods ever since. Never a hint of wanting to grab one even when she was tiny. She just wanted to sniff and eat their poop. However, she was always supervised with them as a puppy and she isn’t and has never been with birds 24/7 (but her parents do live in with poultry 24/7). Unfortunately, you may indeed now have an extra training challenge since the puppy has learned chickens are food, unless it’s possible the bird died first and she just started chewing on it. Doesn’t mean impossible to work around, although personally if my pyr did that when I wasn’t watching she’d never be unsupervised with birds again, but I may be excessively paranoid there. Any chasing behavior with birds should be nipped in the bud asap though.

 

[Penpal]

Livestock guardian puppies are not normally sent to their new homes until they are 16 weeks old. This is in part because such a large breed takes a long time to physically grow and they should be with their mothers. The other part is because they are such large dogs and take longer to mentally mature. She is too young to understand rough play. If she was with her littermates at this age she would be learning bite inhibition on them, and be corrected by her mother. Instead, she is learning bite inhibition on your chickens.

Keep her outside of their pen for a few weeks and keep in mind that she is much younger than you think.

While not a good "obedience" dog, she should be learning basic commands like sit, come, wait, and leave it. Clicker training would be advantageous.

 

[Adolfus Nile]

Livestock guardian puppies are not normally sent to their new homes until they are 16 weeks old. This is in part because such a large breed takes a long time to physically grow and they should be with their mothers. The other part is because they are such large dogs and take longer to mentally mature. She is too young to understand rough play. If she was with her littermates at this age she would be learning bite inhibition on them, and be corrected by her mother. Instead, she is learning bite inhibition on your chickens.

Keep her outside of their pen for a few weeks and keep in mind that she is much younger than you think.

While not a good "obedience" dog, she should be learning basic commands like sit, come, wait, and leave it. Clicker training would be advantageous.

I'll look into clicker training. We had been teaching her "sit" and "no" so far with some success in both. I expect that a tie off should come in the mail today and my plan is to tie her off in the yard. The gate will be open so the birds could have access to the dog if they wanted(but they'd be too nervous to get close). I'll make sure to watch the new arrangement for a few days before I let her use the tie off while im gone.

 

[Penpal]

While you are gone, I think she would be better off in the house. Because she is a puppy, but also because bunchers arrive unexpectedly. Bunchers are people who steal dogs and puppies right out of your yard and sell them to laboratories and puppy mills.

 

[ShrekDawg]

While you are gone, I think she would be better off in the house. Because she is a puppy, but also because bunchers arrive unexpectedly. Bunchers are people who steal dogs and puppies right out of your yard and sell them to laboratories and puppy mills.

Not to mention coyotes or something could come by and she wouldn’t be able to defend herself or run being chained.

 

[Mosey2003]

It takes two years for them to be mature and ready to do their jobs, but nobody peddling pups ever mentions this to people. Keep her with you while you do chores, let her see you taking care of the animals, keep her in the house with you and in time she will understand that you care about the chickens, and she will too. LGDs work because they care about what their people care about, you can't just leave them with animals when they're puppies because...they're still puppies lol. And poultry really is hard for them to resist.

 

[Mosey2003]

Tethering is also a really bad idea, they end up more aggressive towards what they want because they can't reach it and it's frustrating being teased all day. Treat her like a regular puppy until she's old enough to be responsible.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Oh... Someone mentioned something above that I also wanted to second... I was going to buy one of those wireless fence systems for my property. A professional dog trainer told me it would be a waste of money with a Great Pyrenees. These dogs are very independent thinkers and those systems would be worthless on a dog like mine. She'd run right through it... She is a very high energy dog (thanks to the Husky in her). Her natural herding instinct is a good way to burn off energy but I have to always be cognizant that the Husky in her also has a prey drive. If I do let her around my birds or livestock outside of the backyard, she is always leashed...albeit with a long lunge line but I never leave it to chance that she won't take off or do something unpredictable.

 

[Jenn1018]

Not to mention coyotes or something could come by and she wouldn’t be able to defend herself or run being chained.

Definitely this!!