Sponsored Post Keeping Dogs and Chickens - Tips for a Harmonious Introduction.

[my3chis]

My problem is that my dog is smaller than my chickens so the rooster chases him any chance he gets.

 

[N F C]

Good article, thanks!

 

[Ezs Choukies]

I second that, well written and thought out. Very helpful information.

 

[ShrekDawg]

My dog used to bark and stare at the chickens through the window and door (they are in the backyard) but then he stsrted ignoring them. He also used to bark the few times we let them free range, not sure if it's prey drive or like "Mom! They're not supposed to be out!" And then he stopped barking but barked when they got brave and moved to a new part of the yard they had never been. But now he recognizes that they can be out. Heck, yesterday we had a hawk attack (thankfully everyone is fine, just shook up. One lost a ton of feathers, evident by a large pile of feathers near the woods, but I can't tell which one and see no injuries. But he didn't even know anything was going on!!! Only reason I knew was I saw the hawk in the tree and thank goodness! Maybe it wasn't so good teaching him to totally ignore them lol

But anyways, I never introduced him as chicks because I was scared he would hurt or kill them. They were inside until 3 weeks then in the garage until 7 then outside. He doesn't seem to care.

But the problem we are having is he is a TERROR when outside!!!!

I tried working with him for a day or two for only a few minutes, which really was no where near enough, and I got too close too soon and he dragged me to the pen. When we were on the side yard or corner a decent distance away he was doing very well and focusing but then I got much closer, next to the deck, because my dad and uncle were inside and had thought I should, which is when he dragged me to the pen because they flapped a bit.

And my brother has let him loose in the backyard once or twice, with a leash attached, and the first time he broke loose and was running laps around the pen!!! The terrified chickens were huddled in the corner, running corner to corner, we finally got a hold of him. Then another time my brother had his girlfriend over and told her to watch the dog, which she didn't, my brother went inside a few minutes, and he took advantage and took off and ran laps around the pen again.

Now whenever the chickens see him, even if he's at the corner, they start flapping around.

But twice my dad has let him out when they were free ranging and he didn't seem to react. But thankfully he is on a long rope when he goes outside since he runs away and the yard isn't fenced and so the rope doesn't go anywhere near there or even the corner so he could go around the front cormer hut couldn't get there. He didn't seem to react but I know he would kill them. I freaked out when I found out and ran out and brought him back inside.

I think I will have to start working with him again because I would like for him to get used to them or at least them to him.

I will have to work very very slowly with him though. He is smart and learns sometimes on the first try or first few tries but I will go incredibly slow anyways even if he seems to understand.

What I was doing was something called LAT which is look at that and I am going to apply it to his reactivity with certain dogs too. But basically it is you go a safe distance away where the dog does not react to the stimulus then you teach him to look at the scary thing then look back at you. The key is he has to look back at you. Then he gets a treat. (Or a toy, praise, whatever he's motivated by). But you have to teach him the game first which I did once last year and will need to retrain. It was suggested to get them to look at a piece of paper you hold up then hide behind your back and reward but he didn't care about papet so I used a favorite toy. He looks at it then at me he gets the reward then I hide it and do it again. He learned fast. Some dogs may take longer. I also use clicker or marker training for a lot of things, makes it easy. You gotta load the clicker first, click and treat for nothing so he knows the click means he did it right then when he starts perking his ears up or looking at you or whatever when he hears the click he's ready to use it for training. But it's great cause you can mark the exact moment when he does the correct behavior which makes training go much faster and smoother imo. So I click when he does what I want aka look at it then back at me. You can start just rewarding for looking at the object then later add you. I'm too slow or clumsy with an actual clicker so I just click my tongue. Anyway, I take him outside and have him look at the chickens then at me. In fact he was doing so well he didn't care at all about the chickens and it took effort to get him to look at them because all he wanted was food! That is good. I also made him sit or lay down, give paw, etc., some sorta trick. When he refused to look at me, take the food, or do tricks, I knew I was too close. There are also BAT and CAT. I don't really know how they differ from LAT besides that I think with one if the dog is good then the scary dog moves away and another if the dog is good then you allow him to move away from the scary thing. And one, it might be related to moving away, I think you look for calm behaviors in the dog and rewars for those instead of looking at you. A lot of people, from what I read, combine the 3 (there is even a 4th I can't recall) or find that one worked while another didn't. You can Google the difference and you will find charts, forums talking about the differences, articles, etc. etc. But of course I can't recall any of them now.

Anyhow, sorry for rambling and ranting haha

I do think that this method takes longer but I think it is well worth it and is better in the end for the dog and the chickens. I think it would go faster and smoother too than just taking the dog next to the chickens and waiting for one to be calm rather than actively training. That could take forever or be never. However I do think this is a good article and I am sure they didn't mean just let em loose and did mean training but couldn't go into the specifics in this short and sweet article. I also think this works better than just using a very long pole to keep distance between the dog and chickens like some people do and imo definitely works better than corrections or only correcting simply because first of all, if the dog gets corrected near the chickens he's going to possibly associate them with negative things and behave worse around them and second of all, that tells him what he is not allowed to do but does not tell him what he IS allowed to do, thus creating a "behavioral vacuum". I like the idea of having him focus on something else instead of the chickens and slowly be able to work closer to them. That is good distraction training for the dog too. And the neat thing with this stuff is if he doesn't do what you want you can just simply withhold the reward which is powerful. I find sometimes, not so much near the chickens yet, if I don't reward my dog for something he will try anything to do get the reward and eventually offer the right behavior. Oh and another thing I did which I think helped is to play with him near the chickens. It creates positive associations but not even so much that for my boy, with him it just helped him ignore the chickens. He was so focused on playing and having fun that he wasn't focused on charging the chickens.

And speaking of that, I think exercise helps. They often say the same thing for meeting people or dogs or going to a pet store, a tired dog simply cannot react. Mine rarely gets exercised which causes all sorts of problems. we're going work on that though.

I am hoping with this method I can eventually get him close to the pen if not free ranging.

Besides running laps around them he would also briefly pause and lay down on the dirt real low and stare at them, tail low and going, and I think sometimes maybe play bow? Not sure if he wanted to play or if it was prey drive.

My boy is half Black Lab and half Great Pyrenees so I am hoping the Pyrenees can override the Lab. Especially since he acts a lot like a Pyrenees. He just turned 4 in March. The chickens we got in October and they are now 23 weeks old as of Monday. We should have introduced him sooner but I am hoping to still be able to train him. I doubt I could ever trust him to free range with the girls (though he is very lazy and just lays there guarding the property) but as long as we can get to where he doesn't charge their fence and terrify them even off leash I am fine with that.

Eventually I would love a second dog, preferably an English Shepherd, Australian Shepherd, another Lab or a Golden, or a true LGD. I know that a bird dog with them is a bad plan but those breeds are also gentle and nurturing and I'm hoping that if I started work as a puppy they could be trained to leave them alone at the least. But I would love an English Shepherd or LGD to place with them and genuinely protect them and/or protect them from our current dog even but 2 dogs isn't possible right now, both financially and in the amount of work (since I don't even exercise our dog now), plus Gator barks at everything and I just don't think an LGD is the right fit for a suburban life. But maybe an English Shepherd would be since they're more a general purpose dog. But I think a second dog will habe to wait until I have my own place, preferably in the country with a lot of land and my own little farm. And I would probably also get the dog forst and raise it up and/or train it before bring the current dog out.

Sorry for babbling haha neat article

 

[mama hubbard]

I have a 5 month old great pyrenees that is great with the chickens. In fact, we have caught him trying to herd the chickens back to their pen, and he has already kept the coyotes away. The problem I have is that he makes his way to the nesting boxes inside (and the hole is already so small I can't believe that he fits inside) and eats the eggs. I tried mustard and tobacco on the shell this morning but he still ate them. How do I stop this behavior?

 

[ksguy]

We are exceptionally lucky that our 11 year old Black Lab mix is great with our chickens. We introduced them to her as chicks, and she was a bit iffy. But as they got bigger she cared less and less about them. Now it's to the point where she'll lay in the yard while they wander around her. Occasionally she'll playfully "chase" one around the deck for a few steps but quickly bores of it.

My wife and I joke that the reason she's good is that she gets a fresh egg on her food every few days, and she knows the eggs come from the chickens.

Occasionally she'll get territorial, like if one wanders up to the back sliding door and pecks the glass while we're sitting nearby. She'll kind of give her low-tone "woooof" at the bird, but I think it's more of a "hey this is my house" than anything else.

Here she is, just sniffing around. Neither one cares about the other.



We did worry that the chickens might not fear an actual predatory canine since ours is so chill, but that has not been the case. When they're in the run, and a strange dog ran up, they FREAKED OUT and went into the coop. But they just ignore Sarah. It's great.

 

[lilmillefleur]

 

[KrisCVT]

So adorable!!!! Though I must admit I first thought "why are they posting a picture of a deer???"

Omg LOL we always joke that both dogs are our little funny-looking deer!!

 

[Diney]

We have a year old black lab, Bailey. She loves our chickens. The chickens were probably 2-3 months when we got her. I am not sure if she thinks she is a chicken or what. She doesn't understand why they don't want to play with her and she tries to trade them with her bnes. The chickens will be out digging around in the leaves and she digs with them. It is pretty cute. Our rooster doesn't ever get upset by her either.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Omg LOL we always joke that both dogs are our little funny-looking deer!!

LOL It's the silhouette too!!