How do I train my puppy to guard my chickens?

[Peregrine]

I am so sick of loosing chickens to raccoons! My husband and I agreed that even though we are "cat people", we needed an outside farm dog to guard our chickens and hopefully in the future, other livestock. So when I saw free puppies, half Border Collie, half Great Pyrenees, I grabbed the opportunity. How do I get him used to the chickens? Can I train him to both guard the chickens as well as herd them with commands? Do I need to train him to chase raccoons? Any basic dog care tips would also be helpful.

 

[luvmypets]

If you have a puppy (sounds like the cutest thing) you want to associate them with the flock... Introduce the pup and teach him to respect the birds. If he goes for one scold him appropriatly.. Teach him birds are friends and anything that attacks raccoons, hawks etc arent
Hope this helps, Luv

 

[CityFarmer202]

He will need to spend all day out there with the chickens. I you don't trust him to be nice to them, make him an area where the chickens are around him, but he can't hurt them. Spend time letting him run around with them and stop him and punish him if he tries to hunt them. You could also muzzle him while he is untrustworthy so he can't hurt them. Remote control shock collars help with the punishment side of things so the pup doesn't have to associate your hand with bad things. You will also have to be careful when guests come to your house and try to look at your birds...he could think of them as a threat to his flock and bite them to get them away. I would get a dog kennel to keep him in when their are people over...signs warning people you have a guard dog, enter at own risk, etc will keep accidents at bay Good luck!!

P.S. Since he is part border collie, he may want to herd them, which can be stressful to the birds. Pyrenees's where bred to guard livestock, and naturally want to do that kinda thing, but border collies where bred to herd sheep, so he may try the herding thing. You'll have to teach him that herding is not ok.

 

[Peregrine]

Thanks, these are both helpful. Right now he's on a run with access to our porch to stay out of the rain, but as soon as we build him a dog house we'll put him on the run in the chicken yard, but in a corner where the chickens can still get to the coop to lay eggs without having to go through his area. I like the idea of putting him in a kennel when guests come. I will have to put a latching door of some sort on the dog house. My plan is to have him on the run during the day, then at night once the chickens are locked in the coop let him off so he can chase off any raccoons.

It will be interesting to see which side of him comes out more, since the two breeds seem like opposites. I purposefully picked one of the puppies that looked more like a border collie, so that he'd be a little smaller and not have quite as thick a coat for the hot summers here in GA. He certainly seems to love to chase things.

 

[CityFarmer202]

your welcome I hope everything works out for the new little puppy!!!