Neighbors dog

[annie511]

So our only neighbor can't contain his dog... or just doesn't try. He came onto my property and killed half my flock for sport yesterday evening. We live in the country too so it's not like I was waving the girls under his nose.

O I could cry. 5 dead. 5 alive. And Stella is missing. I wouldn't be surprised if she got away. Not sure if she will come back. 1 of the 5 alive has a pretty nasty bite on her back.

I worry about foxes and such and take precautions against them. But what do I do about a vicious dog that comes over?

 

[Howard E]

I guess I should tire of suggesting it, but electric fences. In my setup, the chicken house / coop the birds stay in is only half the protection. The other half comes from electric fences. My neighbor's dog came, hit the fence and left and to my knowledge, has never been back. I know it was out in the neighbor's garden the other day, no more than 100 feet or so from where the birds were out running around..........the dog never came over once. For the most part, dogs are in for the "thrill of the kill". A dose of 10,000 plus volts takes the thrill out of it entirely.

If a person has tried electric fences, and they failed, I'd like to know why. If they have not tried them, and have had predator losses or losses to dogs, I'd also like to know why they have not tried the electric fence option.

 

[katefollot]

Legally (at least in VA), you have full right to shoot any domestic animal that is chasing and or disturbing your livestock. On the other hand, it's not the dogs fault that their owner is a piece of *** who doesn't even bother to try basic animal management techniques, and seeing as you're out in the country, you will end up with a lot of dead dogs on your hands. I feel your pain and I'm very sorry for your loss. Highly recommend electric fencing, if you want to make it a large enough area to where it doesn't make sense to cover it, but you're afraid of them flying out, you can always clip their wings a little bit.

 

[PD-Riverman]

Haha I was wondering what SSS meant too. If I shoot this dog I'm gonna go drop it on their front porch. No shoveling for me

You can do that, then when you come home one day your chickens are dead, or your barn is burnt down or your house or windows are busted out or tires cut etc, etc, etc---I think you get the picture. That's where the last 2 S.S. are the smart way to go----neighbor does not know where the dog went, so he does not sneak over time after time to get you back.

I would never kill a dog and tell about it. Well I did one time-----trying to find the owner of two pitt bull dogs that murdered my 300+lb sow---but no one came forward. The 114 buzzards that showed up for the feast----eat my murdered sow and the 2 pitts.

 

[Lonesome Dough]

The WESTERN AG REPORTER newspaper here in Montana sells S-S-S bumper stickers referring to the rancher hatred of wolves but it applies to many varmints both two and four legged. Myself I follow S-x-S just shoot and shut up, shoveling leaves too much forensic evidence.

 

[centrarchid]

I have been through what you describe many times through the years and tried a lot of approaches. First was notify neighbor. Next was to shoot dog and practice SSS which only worked for that dog. Then I started talking to dog owner and other neighbors, before shooting dog and not practicing SSS. Latter approach more effective. This area has high dog density so still had problems so I started putting up fences to exclude dogs. Losses to dogs took a nose dive. Still lost a few chickens to wild predators and to dogs when chickens went beyond fencing so I got dogs of my own. Cost of keeping chickens sky rocketed with that but losses dropped greatly once I controlled for threat caused by my own dogs. Break point on cost for a small flock will be with the fencing in the form of poultry netting.


It is never just the dog you know, if one dog can get to your birds then others and wild life can as well. I have lost 30+ birds to one dog visit so can feel your pain. Getting nickled and dimed by wildlife will happen at some point as well. Extreme weather events can be even more trying when you have immature birds.

 

[PD-Riverman]

So our only neighbor can't contain his dog... or just doesn't try. He came onto my property and killed half my flock for sport yesterday evening. We live in the country too so it's not like I was waving the girls under his nose.

O I could cry. 5 dead. 5 alive. And Stella is missing. I wouldn't be surprised if she got away. Not sure if she will come back. 1 of the 5 alive has a pretty nasty bite on her back.

I worry about foxes and such and take precautions against them. But what do I do about a vicious dog that comes over?

You have options, forget it and keep replacing your chickens every time it happens or Keep the chickens well penned up or call the police/dog pound and go to your Neighbor and make them pay for your loss even if you have to take them to court with all the pictures that you took of their dog killing them-----No pics or actual seeing their dog do it---probably a hopeless case, make a trap to catch their or other dogs, Or SSS and forget it.

I made a simple trap using a 6x10x6ft high dog kennel I picked up for $60 and caught several dogs in it in a little over a week. Had no idea there was than many loose dogs wandering around my chicken pen area.

 

[Labradors]

What is SSS?

 

[centrarchid]

Shoot-Shovel-Shutup

 

[annie511]

Their free ranging days are probably over. I only let them out for a couple hours in the evenings when it's nice and I'm home. I'm outside with them most of the time. But I wasn't home last night and my husband let them out. They love getting out of the run to play in the grass and eat some worms.

We told the neighbor next time the dog is in our yard he's DEAD. I have pictures of the carnage but not of the dog. I'm just so mad