Topic of the Week - Dogs and Chickens

[sumi]

Picture by @Minidinochickens​

Most chicken owners have a dog or two in addition to their flock. Some keep and train their dogs as livestock guardians or flock watchers, while others find they can't trust their dogs with their birds. Keeping these two species together can be done very successfully though. I would like to hear from all you dog and chicken owners what advice you have and what your experiences were when it comes to keeping dogs and chickens together, or at least in harmony. Specifically:

- How do you/did you train your dog(s) not to kill or mess with your chickens?
- What is the best/most effective way to deal with/retrain a dog that killed birds already? (No cruel or inappropriate suggestions, please… Let's keep this thread friendly and informative)
- Tell me about livestock guardian dogs (LGD's)
- Are some dog breeds more or less prone to be a problem around the flock?

For a complete list of our Topic of the Week threads, see here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

 

[neophyte17]

I have an alsatian sheperd who is good but dont trust him 100%. I have an Anatolian and he was good with the chickens from day one. They walk, scratch at the ground and even lay around him. If he sees any other animal around, he chases them away

 

[PingoBags]

I have a labrador which can be used for waterfowl and upland game.

When the chicks were in the brooder, he showed a lot of interest but was never aggressive towards them so I would let him have
a nosy but with me by his side.

Later when they were in their coop, I would let him investigate while they were in the run.
This went on for a couple weeks without an issue.

Once the chicks were brave enough to free range, the only thing between him and the chicks was me.
Any time he approached them, I would say no in a firm voice. It was clear to me from the start that he didn't want to hurt them,
he just wanted to be friends.

He has never been aggressive towards anyone or anything in his life, that's why we got that breed of dog.
He never gets chained up and is allowed to free range with the chickens unsupervised. He shows zero
interest in them. I've watched him from a window while he plays with his sticks in the yard, he acts like there is no chickens there.
I have seen him chase porcupine and raccoons up a tree though, so that's a bonus.

 

[Blooie]

We had a much beloved English Setter who trained herself to respect the chickens. She was an active hunting dog, and a superb pointer and flusher. I've posted about this before on other threads. When we got our first chicks, she shared the "office" space with their brooder and paid no attention to them.


Our first batch of chicks....Molly didn't even notice they were in there. Oh,and as an aside, I no longer raise chicks in the house under a heat lamp..ever!


The first day the run was completed...oh, she went crazy....as if she'd never seen them before. Of course they were running around, squawking and flapping in their new larger space. At first she stood stock still, then her leg came up and she pointed them until she quivered. Then she paced the full length of the run and tried jumping on it. It held firm. So she tried digging under it and hit the hardware cloth apron. She broke and bloodied a toenail for her trouble. She yelped, she limped away, looking back at the chickens like it was all their fault, and never ever bothered them again, not even when they were free ranging. Do I recommend this as a way to train a dog to be safe around chickens? Nope! I ain't that stupid. But for us that was all it took and she was 100% reliable around them from that day on. It wasn't unusual to see her and few chickens getting a drink of water, side by side, out of the pan in the yard when they were free ranging. I guess it's true that sometimes the lessons dogs learn themselves are the ones that stick, whether it's a good habit or a bad one. If there's a savory roast on the counter and Dog steals it, it's an instant reward. He's learned to look for food on the counter and you're going to have to train that out of him. Barking at the mailman or the garbage truck? Well, they went away, didn't they? So Dog has learned that he's a protector. We had a Golden Retriever, Captain, who made the mistake as a puppy of lifting his leg against a tree at the top of a large hill. He lost his balance and tumbled down the hill. Until the day he died, that dog never lifted his leg again...he'd squat to pee because he decided it was safer! We are blessed that the lesson Molly learned was that chickens can hurt!


I loved this shot.....Mathilda was so NOT afraid of Molly that she'd run right under her legs. Look at the expression on Molly's face!


Laying in the run with a group of chicks behind her, waiting for me to finish up my chores. Totally relaxed, and the chicks didn't mind her a bit.


I call this shot "Bookends". This is Tank, the Light Brahma, and Miss Molly relaxing in the yard.

I'm afraid that not all dogs can ever be trusted around the chickens. That, in addition to our travel schedule, is one of the reasons we didn't get another dog after Molly died last fall. If you have a well trained dog who looks at the chickens as a treasure to be protected, know it for the value that it is! If you have one that you just don't trust 100% around the chickens, never let your guard down. And if you have one that you know will go after those birds every chance it gets, for the love of Mike keep them separated with solid barriers that cannot be breached.

RIP, Miss Molly.....we all miss you like crazy and so do your feathered friends!

 

[kgb6days]

I have two boxers. Neighbor's chicken flew into our fenced yard (before we had chickens) and the only thing we found was a chicken wing and foot and a feather sticking out of one of the boxer's mouth. I don't trust my dogs and keep my chicks in a run all the time. Maybe one day but ......don't feel confident in it

 

[I Love Layers]

First of all my biggest pet peeve. Unless your dog is at least 1/2 of an actual LGD breed. IT IS NOT AN LGD! If they chase something away especially labs, it's usually because they either want to play or investigate. And this is what I have learned and what dog trainers have told me. And experienced dog people.

I have an LGD from the day we got her you could barely drag her back into the house because she just wanted to sit out there and watch them. As a 4 month old puppy!!!!
My relatives had a lab and who they adopted, they've had hunting dogs their whole life but decided they wanted to adopt a lab after their previous one died. The lab they adopted had been through 4 different homes, been abused, and like most hunting dogs never properly trained. They wanted to get some ducklings, and chickens, and so the day they came to get them they brought him. My LGD was out there by my free ranging chickens and we were watching the ducklings outside. Suddenly the lab grabbed one of the ducklings in his mouth! My cousin and I reached for his collar pulled his jaws apart, and said no and gave him a good whacking on the nose. No I don't consider this abusive and the fact that he has never touched a bird again proves that it worked.

Once a dog has tasted poultry it's pretty hard from getting them not to do it again. There's the chicken and collar method, which I've heard is effective but your dog may stink

My LGD will be turning 4 in March 2017. She is 1/2 Great Pyrenees, 1/4 Border Collie and 1/4 Australian Shepard. She sleeps outside in our North Dakota winters, cause what's the point of having one if it sleeps inside. The day we got her she was 4 months old, I had my first poultry 2 Pekin ducklings about 2 months old. She trotted away from us and sat down by the cage they were in. We literally had to drag her away. Every night she goes down and checks the animals, she was never trained to do this. There's many other things she does. LGDs are very smart also, I had set a trap in the spring just to thin the coon herd down and my dad got to the trap first, he knocked on the kitchen window and I said that's Shadow, my cat, he agreed, but the whole time our LGD was throwing a fit! Barking and growling when my dad opened the trap up that cat ran like I've never seen a cat run before! Turns out that was not my cat. Since she's also half herd dog she works really well when we put our cattle between the cattle guards. She knows they cannot be in our driveway or yard so when she sees one she chases it out.


If you are looking for a dog and you have poultry or any livestock I recommend an LGD they are great family dogs but also very good with animals.


EDITED: Be prepared to pick our porcupine quills and have the pungent smell of skunk on your LGD though

 

[I Love Layers]

Mine doesn't like water on her head so I got out of the car and was flinging water at her and she ran into the car

 

[AustralorpsAU]

- How do you/did you train your dog(s) not to kill or mess with your chickens?

We let or chickens free range while i held my dog on a lead! Eventually i would let her off and then just get her to sit next to me! Then she just stopped being interested in them! I still keep an eye on her during the day when the chickens are out but she is pretty good NOW

- Are some dog breeds more or less prone to be a problem around the flock?

I definitely think so! My dog is a bullmastiff x bull arab (which are bred for pig hunting) so she hunts kangaroo's and stuff but she can't help it it is in her blood. Other breeds definitely wouldn't be as hard to manage!

 

[Chloza]

We have a staffy cross kelpy and when we got her she was a tiny puppy and the chickens were bigger than her. she tried to mess with the she got pecked by rose (Our old chicken) and she soon grew to like them

 

[Glennlarch]

Our dog is an English Springer Spaniel. We got her as puppy from a well known good breeder. We have always taken the time and effort to obedience train our dogs. We lived in the city till 6 years ago when we moved to our acreage and started our chicken adventures. Our first birds were 7 hens and a rooster about 1 yr old. Springers are bred as upland game bird dogs which concerned me. The first time the birds free ranged I had the dog on a lead, and spent the time training here that the birds were part of our " pack" or family and they were not toys or food. Once I was confident she would listen to me and not let her instincts take over it was off leash training. Now I can leave her out there with the birds and not worry at all. The birds are part of the family. I believe the time it takes to train your dog is well worth it. It pays off many times over.