How To Train Your Dog Not To Kill Chickens

[Dianne1928]

I have actually tried this method years ago. It only worked for a short time. A trick I saw a lady use one time seemed to work real well with her parrots, cats, and dogs: She would take the parrot and allow it to bite the cat while holding the cat. She would take the cats and do the same with the dogs. The cats never bothered her parrots again and the dogs stayed clear of the cats.  The thing that worked for me recently, was to buy a remote-controlled shock-collar. Yeah, sounds cruel, but it works fast! Two mild shocks to our pi-tbull taught her to NEVER chase after a bird again! I bought mine off Amazon, and you can either use a sound or a shock to frighten the dog with it. Good luck! 

 

[Phoenixxx]

Winter is over and we've been doing free-range training. Athena is so fast now that I can't catch her, let alone get a hand on her nape to pin her when she does wrongly. I use a 30' lead on her and when she gives chase I can catch the lead and either hold it until she abrubtly hits the end or give it a jerk and sharply say "no!" This is taking a bit of persistence but it's working; the last time the chickens were out she only gave chase twice. The second time I was nowhere near her so I just hollered, "no!" whereupon she stopped dead in her tracks and waited for me. When she runs off with a baby now she'll "drop the baby!" more readily on command so there's improvement there as well. She does have a very gentle mouth so they are always unharmed

I acquired a second kuvasz puppy recently. She has more of the herding instinct. The first time I let chickens loose after getting her, she ran them all back into the coop! When she used to chase, it was either to herd or to engage play (she'd stop short of the chicken and go into the invitational "your turn!" crouch). The pinning by the nape and saying "no!" worked on her pretty quickly; the last time I had the chickens out she either ambled amongst them calmly or just flat-out ignored them. When she goes into the coop, it's for a drink, some chicken snacks and maybe a snooze in the straw!

 

[TalkALittle]

Ideally, you would be correcting before she gives chase. You will have better results if you correct the intent to chase rather than the chasing itself. Look for the subtle signs that come before the chase, tensing, hard stare, stalking posture, alert ears and tense mouth, etc.

I would again recommend the use of a remote collar. It would not be even remotely (pun intended) acceptable for one of my dogs to take a bird in their mouth, regardless if they don't actually harm it or even drop it when confronted.

Do an internet search on "crittering" with a remote collar. Look also for videos on boundary training with a remote collar, many of the principles are similar to how you would train for crittering.

Get a collar with at least 100 levels of stim so you only have to use as much as effects you dog's behavior. Condition the dog to understand that the stimulation means the same as leash pressure. Once that is done you will be able to communicate with the collar even more effectively and timelier than you could with a leash.

A good resource is www.loucastle.com as well as www.dogtra.com and Robin McFarland's site www.thatsmydog.com

 

[gone to seed]

...

I can't imagine this would really work, especially with a hunting breed.

I have herding dogs  and one of them was obsessed with the baby chicks (AKA: tiny self propelled squeak toys). The hens are around 18 weeks old now and though she doesn't nip them any more she still tries to "direct" them. Our other three dogs (and our cat) can be outside with the hens  but I would never trust this dog  unsupervised.

At the risk of sounding harsh, you need to get better control over the dogs. Get a book or find a trainer who can help you teach your dogs the "drop" command. Meaning that the dog stops doing what ever it is they are doing and drop to a down position immediately  and stays down until it is released. It takes some real effort but in the long run your

 

[Phoenixxx]

Ideally, you would be correcting before she gives chase. You will have better results if you correct the intent to chase rather than the chasing itself. Look for the subtle signs that come before the chase, tensing, hard stare, stalking posture, alert ears and tense mouth, etc.

I would again recommend the use of a remote collar. It would not be even remotely (pun intended) acceptable for one of my dogs to take a bird in their mouth, regardless if they don't actually harm it or even drop it when confronted.

Do an internet search on "crittering" with a remote collar. Look also for videos on boundary training with a remote collar, many of the principles are similar to how you would train for crittering.

Get a collar with at least 100 levels of stim so you only have to use as much as effects you dog's behavior. Condition the dog to understand that the stimulation means the same as leash pressure. Once that is done you will be able to communicate with the collar even more effectively and timelier than you could with a leash.

A good resource is www.loucastle.com as well as www.dogtra.com and Robin McFarland's site www.thatsmydog.com

Yes, if I see her thinking about chasing, I say her name using the warning tone and go for the lead just in case. We've also been practicing "stay" with the chickens milling about. She is getting better and better every time with all of it so I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing with her. I won't use another shock collar. They already have those for their fence and I think adding another one and zapping them within their boundary will confuse the heck out of them and just cause more problems. I'll check out the links

 

[kkrogman]

Dogs learn by experiencing consequences. Your dog has learned that unpleasant things happen when he chases baby chicks when you're around. He's learned those consequences don't occur when no one is around. He's learned to associate the consequences with you. You want him to associate the consequences with the chickens. This is the exact situation where a remote electronic collar would work best. Take yourself out of the picture. Watch from a window and apply a correction for arousal and predatory behavior towards the chicks.

I do suggest that you have him wear the collar (without the battery in) for a while so that he doesn't associate the correction with the collar. It's like when you put on a watch for the first time. You are very aware that the watch is on. If you got a zap to your wrist, you'd likely associate it with the new watch. But if you wear that watch every day for a week you begin to not even feel it on your wrist. If you reached for something and got a zap you'd be much more likely to associate it with the thing you reached for rather than the watch. Same thing with the collar. Dogs can become "equipment wise" unless some simple steps are taken to prevent it.

I agree with this somewhat. When I am around my Shepherd just lays around and watches our chickens and ducks like they are part of the family. So yesterday, we left the chickens free range with the dog out while we went to work. I came home to 29 dead chickens. Our dog went into the coop through the small chicken door and killed all the chickens she could find.

Is a shock collar the only way to fix this?
Also, we have 16 ducks mixed with the chickens and she didn't hurt any of them. The chickens were around 7 weeks old, so the ducks are twice the size. I don't understand? Was it the size and sound they make? And she has never showed any interest when we are home.

 

[rdcowman]

our 3 dogs have killed 6 chickens in 2 different times. they some how got the door to the coop open and got them. i have fixed it now so they can't go in there, but i would love to have my chickens outside and not worry about them. We have 2 labrador retrievers, one is pure bred, one is a mix, ages- 12 and 4. and the other dog is a German shepherd who is 2 yrs old.
Help?

 

[TalkALittle]

our 3 dogs have killed 6 chickens in 2 different times. they some how got the door to the coop open and got them. i have fixed it now so they can't go in there, but i would love to have my chickens outside and not worry about them. We have 2 labrador retrievers, one is pure bred, one is a mix, ages- 12 and 4. and the other dog is a German shepherd who is 2 yrs old.
Help?

What's your current level of control over the dogs? How likely are they to comply to your commands if there is something they wish to do better?

 

[rdcowman]

we have control over them. they now there commands. the german shepherd (jewels) and the mix lab (charlie) chase cats all the time. we have a bunch of cats. if there chasing something something that we don't want them to do, charlie and jewels sometimes listens. the 12 yr old (junior) has arthrities so he can move if he wants to but he is usually in the house. wants he grabs onto something that he wants he doesn't let go, so he's not a huge concern.

 

[TalkALittle]

If your dogs grab things they want and don't let go and you can't prevent them from chasing or call them off chasing small prey then you need to do more training with them. If they truly "know their commands" then they are just deciding not to comply when it doesn't suit them. They need to practice and be held accountable for trained behaviors frequently. They need to experience a meaningful consequence for non-compliance to known commands. Consequences need to be relevant to the dog and delivered in a timely manner.

How much is asked of these dogs in other situations? If there are relatively no expectations or limits put on these dogs in everyday, day to day activities then they are probably in the habit of deciding what to do for themselves and following their impulses. Household rules and structure, mental and physical exercise to meet instinctive needs, instruction and guidance through training, requiring and rewarding appropriate behavior and providing unpleasant consequences for non-compliance together create a dog that is able to control their impulses and defers to your direction.