My dog just killed my chicken :(

[Melabella]

one more thing I left out when re reading my post. One way I made it painfuly clear when handling the birds and letting the dogs know they were mine was to always be mindful of my body placement. when they became too interested in smelling, looking when I was handling a bird, I would turn the bird away from them, wether it be an arm in the way, a turn of my body, and again if their intensity increased, or they became fixated, the touch from me, with leash, an arm, or if I was standing, a small "kick" let them know, and redirected their direction at the bird, and back to me. It worked wonderfully, and I bring all this up as encouragement that it can be done, long, consistant and it takes time. Perhaps you may never be able to fully trust your daschsie off alone with them, or maybe even not off leash, but the air of the relationship can change. The important thing is for you to stay calm, and assertive, and teach the dog over and over you are the one in command. The minute you become excited, and give chase of the dog, the chase will be on to the hens.!


good Luck!
MB

 

[CAjerseychick]

All sound advice. A note of caution, I agree that any dog can "snap" no matter how previously trustworthy they are or how they regard you as Master (its not about you afterall), you can somewhat "proof" you dog to be more or less safe around chickens..But 100%. Dont think so.
Th LGDs are a little different b/c you are using their natural drive as guardian and this is their overriding drive.... (but I think even then a few chicks get lost in the initial training)...
Anyway my thoughts on the matter (you can read thru my posts, I have 3 dogs with various degrees of chicken safety) in this that I didnt see posted-- was that-- always give your chickens an "out"-- an escape hatch for them-- Mine have a treehouse in the oak tree in the little backyard they range in during the day and a little fence that the dogs have been trained to respect (if they ever violate the fence, I will put hotwire on it). My chicken killer dog sadly, climbs up the ladder to the tree house easily, but respects the fence. (Tree house might have some protection if for example a fox got through the dogs)... Also the coop door is too small for her to fit through (she is a giant schnauzer, another terrier with strong prey drive) Just thinking that you should have access to places high off the ground that your dauschund cant get up to for chickens....
So sorry for your loss, my child was heart broken during our losses as well(we lost 4 but all d/t our stupidity and not being careful with the dog)....

 

[Folly's place]

The puppies I have raised have been very trainable with the chickens; Two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, a GSHP, and a Dalmation. My adult rescues, all terrier types, are another story. I now have really good fencing to keep the dogs in; got tired; and quit trying. Good luck, Mary

 

[bcboy]

I am very sorry for your loss.

I have posted this on other threads, so sorry if this is repeat but I really believe that any breed of dog can be trained to be around your animals safely if you work on training them well in overall impulse control. Here is the method I use to train my dogs:

I have a pit-bull mix and three pugs. The pit and two of the pugs are rescues from urban shelters with mixed histories of abuse. All four dogs are out in the yard with my 5 chickens everyday without any problems. In fact I once had a chicken attack a dog but never the opposite. Everyone guaranteed me that the pit would kill my chickens but she has never been a problem. I live in a duplex and my former tenets had a dachshund that we also trained to be around the chickens. She took the most time out of the bunch but did very well in the end.

Here is what I personally recommend: The most important thing to focus on overall is improving your dogs impulse control. No matter what your dog has a natural prey drive but more than that they are pack animals that want to please their master. Good basic training makes teaching them anything else so much easier. Make sure that you can snap your dogs attention back to you even when they see something they want. (I can't snap so I use an "aht." noise - this means sit and pay attention to me) One of the best ways to work on this without a live animal present is during feeding. Do you free feed your dogs or do they eat at regular times? I would recommend taking them off of free feeding if you are doing that. Focus on training your dogs so they they will not eat anything unless you give a specific command. I set down all four bowls of food and make the dogs wait. They do not eat until they hear their own name and see a hand gesture. Also work on them stopping eating at a command and willing stepping away from their food. I say "Name, wait." and they stop and sit until told to continue. These skills help with impulse control in many areas of training. It may seem unrelated but to a dog, the one who controls the food is the ruler of them all.

I would introduce the dog to the chickens on a leash and just sit and be calm. As soon as she starts to fixate on the chickens in any way other than simple curiosity or barks or is excited (even happy excited) I would scold her with the same word every time (you only need to say it once, firmly) and immediately take her inside. It is important to take her in even with happy excitement. You are training her to ignore the chickens not to like the chickens and there is a big difference. With my dogs I brought them back when they were calm and started all over again. and again and again. lol. I allowed them to glance at them or sniff them but anything else was a no. It took a bit of patience but within a few days all of the dogs ignored the chickens and now find very little interest in them at all other than a sniff here or there. I never yelled or hit them or used a choke or a shock. I just said no and took them away immediately at any sign of fixation or barking. Patience is the key and consistency. It sucks because sometimes you are busy and don't want to deal with it but starting and stopping will just make it worse. I leave them all together unsupervised regularly.

Putting a fence between your dog and the animal without training them how to behave around that animal is only going to make them want to get it.

Here is my pit, Lou, with a silkie chick who fell in love with her.

Excellent post ChickensRDinos!!!!

 

[aztec11867]

i have an older german shepherd who must go because no matter what i do he will break into the chicken coop and kill the chickens. I have invisible fencing around the coop and he wears 2 shock collars, he does not care, he just ignores the shock and will dig to china, he bites the chicken wire until he gets into the coop. he is completely obedience trained on and off lead, and he knows we are very upset when he does it, but no matter what he cannot control himself. my dtr wants to raise a lamb this year and there is no way he could be trusted with it. His prey drive is just too much. Its sad but no one is interested in a 7yr old german shepherd with bad hips and a taste for livestock.......sometimes you just do what you must do.

 

[Mattemma]

I would just keep that old GSD inside the house.Maybe you will find someone to take him in,but like cats they can be hard to rehome. I would not trust my puppy around the chickens either.To her they are total chew toys.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Sorry to hear about your German Shepard, aztec. When I was younger, I lived on a beef farm. We had a Gerrman Shepard Smokey. He was a great family dog. My dad tells the stories about Smokey, as I was pretty young but do remember him, just not what happened to him as Mom and Dad kept that from us while we were young. In the end Smokey got to running with other neighboring farm dogs and they were seen taking down our neighbor's sheep. Just like a pack of wolves. Our neighbor recognized our dog, told Dad and my Dad knew he had to put him down. Trying to figure out when to do it, because he loved the dog and it was a job he wasnt looking forward to. that very same week our gas man, delivering deisel fuel, ran him over in the driveway by accident. Dad said he felt so bad and was just a wreck getting out of the delivery truck. And here my Dad was almost smiling relieved in a way that it was taken care of and he didn't have such a job to do himself. The driver, he said, must have thought he was nuts. IDK if this story helps you in any way but your story reminded me of this one. Good luck with everything.

 

[johnnybee]

Old school conventional knowledge from an owner and breeder of dogs.
You are not going to stop a dog from sucking eggs or catching chickens. It ain't gonna happen, if one starts it's happened and nothing I know of will change it, I've tried it all including putting a dead chicken around it's neck. Just get rid of them in the method you prefer. I love dogs but chicken catching dogs, have got to go, be re-homed or put down.
Dogs are a pack animal, no equals, you are either higher or lower than them. If you can't control em you are lower.

 

[nzpouter]

really...? All my dogs are fed raw, some did have accident when they're pups but none makes a habit out of it.... they're really not that hard to train, all you need is consistency, common sense and patience.

 

[Fentressfarmer]

My heeler just got another one of my chickens yesterday this makes 3 in two years, I have my dogs in there own yard and she only kills them when they come in the yard. I let my girls free range on our 8 acres but am I condemned to keeping them cooped up I've tried training my dog to not be interested in the chickens but I'm afraid that kill instinct is to ingrained in that little head of hers, but like I said it is only when the chickens come into her yard. My sexlinks and production reds stay out but those little leghorns keep flying in the yard am out of ideas any help would be appreciated! Thanks