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

[Jenn1018]

I’m in almost the same situation. I got my GP at 5 months old. Up to that point she was living and working with her parents and a littermate. She was around every barn animal imaginable only supervised by her parents. She did great with my chickens for 6 months!! Because of this I trusted her. I thought because she had worked with her parents for such an extended period of time and had done so well she was okay. Then bam she decided to “play” with 2 chickens last week. Chickens were okay. No blood. She is 11 months old. So we are now starting over with training. No access to birds unsupervised EVER. She must be on a leash around the birds and be rewarded for IGNORING. This is the behavior you are looking for. She will never bond to your chickens. You want her to ignore the chickens and by doing that she will in turn be protecting them. No chasing or playing around livestock. If you want to play with her take her away. I’m not a fan of bring them in the house until they are old enough. I know many people do it. Personally this doesn’t make sense to me.
I’m hoping mine will someday be good with my chickens again but she has a long way to go. She has way too much puppy in her and like yours until that puppy is gone it won’t happen. Good luck! Feel free to keep in touch!

 

[Jenn1018]

I should add that even though I think they should be outside, at 3 months old she is nowhere close to being big enough to protect herself from coyotes. If you are in a predator heavy area you are taking a chance and need to know that. When we felt the coyotes were close we did bring her in right before we went to bed, put her in a crate and she went right back out the next morning. We did this until about 6 months old. Not every night though.
If you want to tether, rope won’t do it. She’ll chew through it. Having said that I would only do it for maybe an hour supervised if the chickens are around. Her best training is going to come from you not a tether so being around while she is tethered to give her guidance would be better.

 

[Adolfus Nile]

She had an accident last night, she was able to open the coop door up and ate a duck out of the pekin coop, very unfortunate. Hopefully the last casualty

 

[PhantomSlayer]

I have no experience with a LGD i hope to eventually convince my parents to invest in one cause I'm all invested in training one because we have foxes and coyotes ontop of bald eagles and red tail hawks but I heard you should do some good play sessions to run out a good amount of energy before training around birds. Goldshawfarm on youtube is still training his second dog and shes over a year old and still not 100% to be trusted with birds. It takes alot of time and training

 

[ShrekDawg]

She should be penned up at night but not where she can access the birds.

 

[DonyaQuick]

She had an accident last night, she was able to open the coop door up and ate a duck out of the pekin coop, very unfortunate. Hopefully the last casualty

I hate to say it but that doesn’t really sound like an accident to me…a death from rough play out in the open might be an accident but this sounds more like the puppy has decided the birds are food and went looking for one like a predator would. I know this puppy is still very young but this is a really bad start for any dog meant to be around birds, and this second event will absolutely have reinforced the bird-is-food association. The puppy needs to be in its own kennel type setup to protect the birds from it and to protect it from predators. If you don’t want to lose more birds like this, you need a setup to make no-unsupervised bird-contact a potentially permanent or at least very, very long term arrangement. I would also take a close look at whether the puppy is eating properly, since that could be driving the bird-eating in the first place. If your puppy is as stubborn as my pyr was about food quality (mine was the sort that would go in hunger strike for more than a day if she thought there was any chance of a taste of treats or people food) then you may have an uphill battle there too. If she isn’t eating her own food at a good rate, she will be hungry and will be always looking for other food opportunities.

 

[Penpal]

Since the puppy has maliciously taken a duck, I would bring the puppy back to the breeder and get your money back.

Then, I would look for a breeder who has chickens. A reputable breeder of very large dogs will not let a puppy go before 16 weeks of age. A serious breeder will have the animals that the dog will protect on his property so that the puppies will accept the chicken/duck/sheep/alpaca as family.

 

[HoneyBadger302]

We bought her from someone local that had a pair of pyrenees that produced a litter. Both of their dogs dont eat their birds. But we sent a sample in to get the genetics of the dog to see the purity. I think i can dedicate the time to training her

Have you talked to the breeder? They might be a great resource - a reputable breeder will help you work through this if you're willing to put in the time and effort.

In my experience, some dogs are just going to see poultry as prey, and even for the LGD breeds, birds can require some special training to avoid it. You would likely receive some better advice on a Great Pyrenees forum on training her, as the LGD's have unique training needs.

I have two dogs, and plan to keep the chickens completely separate. My Pyr mix chases small animals outdoors (she's 7, has always just been a pet), and I have a Doberman puppy. I am thinking I will have the chickens out back, next to the backyard fence (my property extends a ways beyond my currently fenced area), where the dogs can see them and are close enough to help deter critters, but can't take it upon themselves to just go breaking into the coop, either. I'd RATHER have the chickens inside the fenced yard, but I wouldn't trust the dogs enough at this point, and I want to retain the luxury of shoving them out back without me now and then lol.

Puppy will require a fair bit of training. My Pyr will as well, but will be a bit easier as we've gone through a fair bit of other training, she's e-collar trained, and has been around farms and stables a variety of times. Puppy has been to those, but just for exposure, not enough to have any kind of reliable reactions.

 

[1cock2hens]

Is your pyrenees mixed? A Properly bred pyrenees with good temperament typically has no interest in things like chickens, they have a very low prey drive compared to most dogs.


I properly socialized and bred lgd is generally fine left outside from an early age. Both of mine where born in pasture with sheep and everything else. From day one my anatolian mix male has been outside with my animals, he was 8 weeks old when we got him, I personally think it's important to get lgds young so that they imprint on you and your animals, instincts are strong in good lines. My new lgd has been here on the farm for just a few days, she just turned 12 weeks old and i honestly wish i would have gotten her earlier. I have her on a lead out in the barn so she has access to everything she could want but isn't going to run off and I can lock her up at night till shes big enough to protect herself. She's pyrenees x anatolian x akbash mix. Bigger than my pitbull and basset hound already

 

[Adolfus Nile]

Is your pyrenees mixed? A Properly bred pyrenees with good temperament typically has no interest in things like chickens, they have a very low prey drive compared to most dogs.


I properly socialized and bred lgd is generally fine left outside from an early age. Both of mine where born in pasture with sheep and everything else. From day one my anatolian mix male has been outside with my animals, he was 8 weeks old when we got him, I personally think it's important to get lgds young so that they imprint on you and your animals, instincts are strong in good lines. My new lgd has been here on the farm for just a few days, she just turned 12 weeks old and i honestly wish i would have gotten her earlier. I have her on a lead out in the barn so she has access to everything she could want but isn't going to run off and I can lock her up at night till shes big enough to protect herself. She's pyrenees x anatolian x akbash mix. Bigger than my pitbull and basset hound already

Im getting a genetic test done. I'm worried about the two birds she killed but shes been doing really good with our training. I have hope that she will be a good protector of the birds.