How do I safely introduce my Westie to the chickens??

[joanm]

He certainly looks like he’s behaving. I think my dog was just curious to know what the heck the chickens were, when she satisfied her curiosity, she lost interest. And yes, he is a handsome pup!

 

[LynnGrigg]

First of all, I can't stop laughing because everytime I scanned the forum and saw your topic, I thought it said WEBSITE instead of Westie. lol! I know we love our birds but I was thinking -wow...someone is teaching their chicks to surf the web -hahahahaha!

Anyhow, we have three Jack Russells. One of them shares half the chickens' fence line. He's one who doesn't dig and doesn't seem to have a killer instinct but we never know. If he does get in, I won't have a chicken left. I'm taking a big risk here. Your dog is a TERRIER. I wouldn't introduce any of my terriers to my chickens directly and I wouldn't have a chicken left if my other two were sharing that fence line. They would dig under and destroy. My dogs were raised with cats and are gentle with them but we still supervise them when they are with the cats.
Terriers were born and bred to hunt. They are an excitable breed and the instinct is usually strong. Be very careful!