And we have left them alone with other people's chickens and ducks ,they never touched one. I know my dogs.
Biggest mistake a dog owner can make is your quote of I know my dogs. Dogs are animals - period. They do not think like humans. I worked with dogs for many years, training dogs for everything from a family pet to a professional police K9. I bred, trained and rescued dogs of all kinds. I owned a Belgian Malinois, not a common breed as a pet but still take can make wonderful ones with proper training and supervision. Q was a great dog I trusted him with my life and more than once did he prove his worth as a protection/companion dog. Until that one day, he killed a baby goat and then turned on me - the human who had raised and trained him from a pup. He had ME on the ground and I was screaming out commands at the top of my lungs until something clicked. He simply turned and walked away leaving me on the ground. Next came the hardest decision I ever had to make, he was humanely euthanized. This was my baby, he slept with me, let me know when my blood sugar was out of whack and protected me from harm. Dogs are dogs are dogs, they are an animal and in the scheme of things have only been domesticated a short period of time. How many times have you seen stories of dog attacks where the owner says "he never did anything like that before". I lived it, I know it happens.