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

[ShrekDawg]

Sooooo cute

 

[Chicky Woos123]

Awesome article!! Thank you. I think I can work with my greyhound-boxer mix Dixie. Hopefully she won't try to attack them!

She's a bit on the iffy and secretive side,so,I'm hoping that this article will help her to protect them instead of go on point(try to hunt them!)

Here is a pic of Dixie-

 

[Nardo]

Great article.
I have three dogs and none of them seem to mind the chickens at all, although one female likes to sort of 'herd' the hens at times. The hens may feel pestered, but they never seem to feel threatened. They do flap around and get noisy when the dogs tear past or through them as one dog chases another.
The dogs also do love to 'clean up' after the hens and that is really gross.
Anyway, here are Merlin and Emma, at different times, moving around the girls.

 

[Chicky Woos123]

Great article. I have three dogs and none of them seem to mind the chickens at all, although one female likes to sort of 'herd' the hens at times. The hens may feel pestered, but they never seem to feel threatened. They do flap around and get noisy when the dogs tear past or through them as one dog chases another. The dogs also do love to 'clean up' after the hens and that is really gross. Anyway, here are Merlin and Emma, at different times, moving around the girls.

I wish that my dogs were like that. I really am going to try to work with Dixie, but there is no chance with Macho. You are very lucky to have good farm dogs!!

This is Macho-

 

[CenLaChicken]

Good article. Thanks! We are slowly introducing our 8 and 9-yr old Standard Poodle and Lab to our new chickens, allowing the dogs free access to the chickens while cooped. Letting the chickens free range in the yard while the dogs are in the house. Looking forward to the time when we can all be in the yard together. Shouldn't take too long. Our dogs are very well trained and docile.

 

[Tika75]

Our older dog, Cleo, I don't worry about around the girls. Our younger dog, Bunny, is different though. Bunny is always trying to "sneak" up on the chickens. When she has gotten too close they have pecked her. If they happen to surround Bunny she freezes and shakes. The girls will also chase after her if she is bothering them too much.

Any ideas on how to get Bunny to leave them alone more?

 

[jhhess]

I have the opposite problem. My dogs are terrified of my chickens. I have to supervise the CHICKENS when my dogs go outside. My little dachshund has been pecked several times and now she won't go out if she even suspects there is a chicken in the backyard. Funny, but not exactly.

Janis

 

[Chook Newby]

Hello KDOGG331. I am new to chicken keeping and got my 4 girls in Feb this year. I have 2 small dogs... a King Charles Cavalier and a Jack Russell x Dacshaund. Both bird hunting dogs and one is also a ratter. I got my chickens at 4 months of age (4 Light Sussex, so big birds). The day they arrived my dogs went nuts!!!!!!! Runnning aroung the cage and barking. Because the chickens had already experienced being around dogs they got used to them pretty quickly so they were ok. But the dogs were not! OMG I was so stressed for the first week that I had the chickies.

For the first 2 weeks straight, every afternoon after work in almost 40 degree heat, I worked with the two dogs to teach them that the chicken were family not food. I used positive and negative reinforcement. One method I used was tying my dogs up to the clothes line while the chickens free ranged in the yard. My dogs are free to roam the yard and house as they please so this was very new to them and they didnt like it. I also used blueberries as treat for good behaviour (for the dogs and the chickens). I did use smacking as well (which I didnt like doing) but there were a couple of occasions where is really was needed. I also put the dogs on long leads and walked them around the chooks.

Then one sunny Sunday morning 2 weeks later, everything just clicked! It was wonderful. I still supervised the dogs when ever they were outside with the chickens and corrected them if they looked like they were getting too close. It has now been 7 weeks since I have had my chickens and all my animal babies are best friends. I didnt take as long as I thought it would to train the dogs however thats not to say it will only take others that long. I believe the key is consistancy and patience. If you can work with your dog every day for an hour of so, it will pay off eventually. I had no idea what I was doing in terms of training the dogs to be around the chickens but I just tried different things.

Here is a picture of all my babies having a feast of lettuce... Good luck with it

 

[Yrat]

I agree with the occasional smack as well. Some people will argue over it vehemently, but dogs are physical by nature and learn their lessons when they get a good teaching from the pack leader. Think of what happens in a pack of wolves when a lower ranking member of the group steps out of line.

We've had our dog, Simba, for just over a year, an extremely high-energy pit bull that we rescued from a kill shelter in Manhattan. He had been surrendered and adopted out twice to two different families who both brought him back after they couldn't handle him. We saved him on his last day before the needle, and brought him back to a nice rural setting with a huge yard and acreage where he could finally get some of his energy out. This is not a dog made for a city apartment!

I had no idea what to expect from him in terms of his behavior towards the birds (chickens, turkeys, and ducks). I was expecting to lose a bird or two before he learned. I kept the birds in their pen when I had him out the first few times, and played with him next to the pen. He showed some interest in the birds, but cared more for the ball/frisbee/half-a-tree that he would carry around.

After about a week, my first test was to play with him and then stealthily let the two ducks (pekins) out. When he actually noticed they were free and out of their pen, he ran right at them, but not in an aggressive way, more of a, "hey, what are you? let's play!" way. Thinking I was about to witness the worst case scenario, I gave him a good hard kick as he ran past me toward the birds, which stunned him a bit. I think my message was clear, the birds are paws-off, and ever since then he is absolutely great with them. We never had any incidents (except for an accidental collision or two during crazy-sprinting-zoomies time) and he actually herds them a bit and runs to check on them when anyone alarm calls. As seen in the pictures earlier in the thread, he is also very protective of the chicks and poults that I hatch, and they are easily within his reach in various brooders without lids, but he only watches them and sneaks a lick in here or there.

Don't get me wrong, he still loves to antagonize them from time to time. He is very intelligent and I suppose he gets a kick out of seeing them panic a bit. Nothing mean, just going out of his way to run a *bit* too close on his way back with a ball, or slowly walk-stalking the ducks relentlessly around the yard. Sometimes he will sneak up on a scratching hen to smell her butt when she's not paying attention, the closest he can get to getting a good whiff of chicken, before she looks up and freaks out. It's all quite funny to watch.

I suppose we might have lucked out a bit with Simba, but I believe that all dogs can be trained to accept a flock of birds. They just need to be around them long enough to lose interest. If you keep them separated, it will only make it harder.

 

[Birdbrain Farm]

Simba looks like a very happy boy. I also have a Pitty, Bruno. They have the same smile. Our daughters have tortured Bruno from puppyhood, hugs,kisses,putting clothes on him,trying to ride him.When they put the chicks on his head and in his bed he didn't seem to notice.