Topic of the Week - Dogs and Chickens

[wamtazlady]

My cats were taught by a very protective Mama hen with 10 chicks that they should not mess with her chicks ever. That lesson carried over to the other chickens.

My bichon frise yorkshire terrier cross had to be taught. She wanted those chickens. I had to keep her on a leash until she learned to not chase. It does help that the Cochin rooster was bigger than her so intimidating with just his size. However I took my dog to a friend's house and apparently she felt those chickens were fair game for chasing. Now I keep her leashed when we visit.

 

[HeatherlovesherBirds]

I have had 3 dogs that were allowed near my chickens... during free ranging and my lab husky mix was the best... the chickens loved her she was old and tired. She would nap in the yard with the chickens walking all over her... the chickens trusted her followed her around everywhere like mother duck I never trained her she was just a gentle giant. She was put to sleep due to serious health problems I miss her everyday. We got a black lab puppy.. she was not so nice she grabbed one of my baby silky chicks and was going to kill it. I had to pry her mouth open to get the chick out ... I whipped her ass and told her no.. she has never touched one since... and infact she protects them. She has killed many critters trying to get to my chickens and even some that just wanted to eat the chickens food and not the chicken. Then we got our yellow lab full blooded who follows our mix lab around and have never had any issues with her other then eating chicken shit... which turns my stomach, because ten minutes later she is trying to force kisses on her humans.. even if she had a chance she wouldn’t hurt a feather on them and I never had to train her she is just a 100 pound love bug... she once tried to kiss a chicken and the chicken retaliated.. imagine that A 10 pound birds scaring the crap out of a 100 pound dog. So I think it just depends on the dog and the dogs personality.. and wether the dog cares about making you happy with him / her.

 

[50-45-1]

Best livestock guardian dog i ever had was a purebread austrailen shepherd. He was smart, wanted to please me, and knew what belonged in the yard and what did not. Simple as that. He was rewarded and praised by good behavior and scolded and punished for bad.
Smart dog , figured out what his job was.
He is now passed, but the three dogs i have now were trained by him.
I feel that is the best way to train a new dog. Let them learn from one who can show them the ropes.
To all you folks that think you have to spend a small fortune and have a specificaly breed of guardian dog, here is proof its not so.
Momo was free, 2 of my current mix breed dogs i found on craigslist pitbull/aussie & blue healer/border collie, and my third dog, a german shepherd/black lab i rescued from a bad situation and she was 5 years old at the time. Caught on to the routine in 2 weeks.
My dogs are outside all day with free range chickens, no supervision. I go to work.
Trail camers has video of them chasing off coyotes, bobcat and fox many times.
This is Mo, best guardian dog ever!

 

[topochico225]

My chickens trained my dog!

When he was very little, he sniffed one juuuust a little too much and was rewarded with a hard peck smack dab on the middle of his head. He never touched them again after that.

Unfortunately, he’s 15 now and has developed dementia so he forgets he’s not supposed to chase the chickens. Can’t trust him alone outside with them anymore

 

[african chickens]

my dog has always been good around the birds i would never trust the neighbors dogs though since one is chained and the other is fenced neither can get to the birds but the guineas love to fly onto the fence or just out of reach of the chain

 

[Oldegarlicshnapp]

This is from the perspective of a hobby keeper who lives in the suburbs with small dogs. It likely doesn’t help on a property with other dogs that can punt mine away.
My dogs are a pure mini poodle (9 y/o) and a Maltese poodle mix (4 y/o).​

- How do you/did you train your dog(s) not to kill or mess with your chickens?
In my case it depended on the obedience and natural instinct of either dog. The Maltepoo is very obedient and developed a bit of relational stress toward the chicken after I told him to stay away.

My poodle is the problem since it’s in his breed to kill small animals. Someone here spent hundreds on rare baby tortoises and this dog crushed them up like chips.
He would get a panicked and deeply interested face around my bird. So I had to try associating that interest in a negative way by yelling and averting his attention. Eventually he became nervous around my young bird and didn’t stare, but was frustrated and blew it off.

When he attempted to smell her later on though, it was at a slightly older age where she bit his nose. Even though he could kill her easily, that kept him from her ever since.

- 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)
No idea, but maybe this helps? At one point the poodle started taking my hen’s fertilized eggs. I was distraught by this, not angry, because my rooster was gone and this was his batch. Maybe it’s his breed, but this poodle is good at reading whatever I put out. Probably smells it on me or something. He then brought me the egg and put it down unharmed. It could be that more intelligent dogs like most shepherds can be a bit easily dissuaded.

- Tell me about livestock guardian dogs (LGD's)
N/A. Although my Maltipoo had a phase of protecting my birds from the poodle. He puts one arm up and keeps it there, pushing the other dog’s chest away like a bouncer.
Another time he did not understand what chicken breeding was. He assumed it was an attack and this black dog chugged over like a hero— right under a swarm of foraging bees. Needless to say it was a rough day.

- Are some dog breeds more or less prone to be a problem around the flock?
It would be a far reach to say the Maltese is alright to have with a coop at home. I don’t have others to compare, etc. . Poodles though are genetically wired to hunt for small animals.

 

[Solanacae]

I have two Brittany’s, and because they are hunting dogs, we were a little concerned that they would go after the chickens. We did some aversion training to help them understand how they should treat them. While we would hold the chicks, if either dog showed an interest, then we would growl at them. When we took the chicks outside to let them roam around, we would keep a close eye on the dogs. If they started to follow a chick, we would growl and use firm (not hard) fingers to ‘bite’ the dogs on the loose skin on their neck/shoulder area.

One learned really well that chickens were to be left alone, and she ignores or avoids them. The other has a more stubborn personality and will slowly follow the chickens around, and point at them if they stop walking. We don’t leave them alone together on purpose, though there have been occasions when one of the kids let the dogs out and our escape artist chicken had hopped the fence and was wandering around without us knowing it. Aside from one occasion at the beginning of our aversion training where we had a very scared and tired chicken with a crack in her beak, the training has been effective. We teach our dogs to ‘leave it’ and that has also been a helpful tool if the stubborn one isn’t within arms reach. I don’t entirely trust the stubborn one to be alone with the chickens in the backyard, but as we have reinforced our expectations with him over they few years we’ve had the chickens, he has settled down. He still is interested in them, but less inclined to start chasing if the chicken starts moving more quickly.

I don’t have any experience with LGD’s, nor have I had to reteach a dog that has killed a chicken.

I did have a problem with a mini Aussie that we were dog sitting though. We had let the chickens out to forage but one of the kids let the Aussie out without us realizing it. By the time we realized the problem, the dog had terrorized the flock and had nipped out a few feathers from some of them. One chicken had almost all of her tail feathers and the skin on her lower back ripped off. Fortunately she healed, but it wasn’t pretty and we had to work really hard to make sure we kept the wound from getting infected.

 

[Bonkerelli]

Guess I have been blessed with dogs that do well with chickens. Out of my 3 dogs that been with my flock (2 died from unfortunate circumstances unrelated to this topic), one was an old Boston Terrier and the other 2 were pit bull mixes.

Personally, I do not think there is the best "breed" of dog for keeping watch or getting along with chickens. It really depends on the dog's personality. With my previous dogs and current dog, I had NO clue how they would be with my chickens. Yet, they were/are obedient dogs and I rarely have an issue but I always keep an eye out.

As a disclaimer, you shouldn't 100% trust your dog with chickens. Something could always trigger that killer instinct in your dog. A separate area for chickens gives more of a piece of mind just in case something goes wrong.

 

[Overthinker]

Not enough pics

 

[MaeM]

It REALLY depends on the dog. Just like chickens and humans, dogs are individuals with their own personalities. Mine has always liked to hunt smaller animals, so I thought there could be a problem when I got baby chicks... The dog certainly showed interest in them, but I taught him that these small animals aren't a target that I'd be glad if he hunted them.

I said "NO!" every time he sniffed them/put his mouth near them/tried to play with them. After many "NOs", he learned that he doesn't have to get too close to them. Now, the chicks are full-grown, free-ranging chickens and I don't have any issues.

Honestly, if he'd have killed any chick, I think I'd have rehomed the chicks somewhere safer. I don't want to have chickens in cages and I don't want to have a leashed dog. Even if the dog could be retrained (which I'm not sure of), I'd never trust him again.