Topic of the Week - Dogs and Chickens

[KimMMXVIII]

View attachment 2950363
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

Super good questions!
My dog is 5 year old.
My chickens are 2.
My dog is a hunting dog.
When my chickens were small, I believe they had barely been with us for one week - the dog (Tina) broke into their house.
We didn't have a lock.
It was night, I saw that the door had been opened. I ran out there and caught her. I found both my girls SAFE! Roxette hid under some stairs which is where I took also found Tina (trying to catch Roxette).
Linnea was in a corner in the yard.

After this we knew she could not be trusted. She did try to attack Roxette one more time in those first months. I caught her, Roxette turned out fine.

After this I started trying to train her in the same way exposure therapy works.
It took me until now to trust her, I actually was notified on Instagram - a memory which was a photo of her on the porch with her harness on while the chickens were walking in the garden from last spring. Now she can walk with them ALONE!

So. Step one was walk her in on a leash while the girls ran free.
Step two was her walking free on one side of the yard and the girls on the other - me standing in the middle. Tina have respect for me, if I tell her to go inside or to stop walking she will. So whenever she started to look at the girl with *that* look (hunters will know) or she started walking towards us I told her to get back or go inside.
I never left them alone and I kept standing between them.

Roxette is braver than Linnea even though she is the one who got attacked a second time.
I gave Tina permission to smell Roxette - not longer than ROXETTE said was okay (she will tell me when she wants to get away from Tina or even myself). My goal was her recognizing that Roxette is MY BABY not food. I have lizards as well and this is how I introduce her to them as well. I would hold them and let her smell, if she got too excited (looking too much as if she was planning to take a bite) I pulled them away. Grunt at her and make an angry face. She then understood that this was my thing. Not hers.

So. That was 2021. 2022 I let her walk without me between us. If she walked closer than two meter (or close enough for the girls to tell me that it was too close) I told her to get back. She would.

After a while she started to STOP stalking them. She doesn't look at them or wave her tail at them anymore. I don't want her to be excited around them. I want her to ignore them.

I also must put forward that I know my dogs "triggers". Nothing goes between her and food. I never let the girls close to her if food is there. I never eat with all of them together. I either have the girls beg next to the table or Tina begging next to the table. She WILL snap at anyone (not humans but other dogs or cats) who try to take her food - or the food she thinks she have dibs on.

So yeah. Now they can all go alone in the garden, of course my door is open and I am probably just making myself a cup of coffee. When I first started to leaving her alone in the garden with them I would stand in the window watching what she did. Just to make sure she wasn't playing with me. She is sneaky like that.

Last week it was actually Roxette who jumped Tina! Tina got the closet she have ever been to the girls. She SNIFFED Roxette when both of them were next to me. Nothing bad on Tinas part, she was just as surprised as me! The only time they got within one feet of each other Roxette was the one to tell her off! Honestly I was feeling proud of them both.

Now I want to teach Tina to protect the girls. That is our next step.

 

[gimmie birdies]

My dog Duke is 11 and a German shepherd mix. He has never attacked a chicken. He really is not interested in chicks.

 

[ArtyChicken]

I have 3 dogs. 1 chihuahua and 1 Catahoula mix & they are great with our chickens. They are both older dogs & just never seemed very interested in them and now they all eat treats together. My other cattle dog/poodle mix Gilly is only 2 and last year, play time turned into a vet visit with staples on the back of the neck for one of mine chickens. Since then, when it's free range time for the chicks, it's Gilly's nap time. I think dog age has alot to do with it.

 

[TeaCosyMama]

View attachment 2950363
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

When we raised our week old chicks, they stayed in the house in a dog crate. Our five year old Boxer, Bucky, watched them grow. When we took them out to hold, we let Bucky see and sniff them. We would often see him lying down next to the crate and watch them for long periods of time. We didn't know if he thought they were little chicken nuggets, or little sisters. Now that they are grown and free range outside, Bucky ignores them while he's outside with them. They are also not even remotely afraid of him, and share there treats with him.

 

[Sammster]

My dogs (goldens) grew up around our pet parrot. Every dog in our family (I'm including granddogs who visit) are carefully and gradually taught to respect our parrot. But, the granddogs visit with supervision. That said - my OWN dogs are completely trustworthy around my chickens. But, my chickens will never be allowed to free range around the granddogs.

 

[Chikyboy]

My dog is about a year old. He is fine with the chickens. He doesn't attack them. if anything, he tries to play with them. My hens submit to him lol. And earlier today I had my newly hatched chicks outside with him. One of the chicks ran towards him, and he thought it was playing. He was jumping back and forth, all excited lol.

 

[TinyRaptorDodos]

We have three dogs… one is a bird hunting breed but she is elderly and only cares for their food. (Black dog, 40 lbs)
The second IS a livestock mixed breed but has a little bit of husky and German Shepard. She does sometimes try to herd them and will freak out more than usual if any predators are near the coop thankfully.(Tan dog, 60 lbs)
The third is a village mutt… she has a few worrisome breed but she also has small dog breeds and pitbull, she tries to play with them. LOVES the chicks since they try to cuddle under her and she thinks they’re chasing her.(darker brown dog. 23 lbs)

The second dog did eat my rooster as soon as I got him, she’s never had issues with my birds but something was off about this one apparently, she was very concerned about his smell and he probably attacked her when she got too close.
As for retraining her? We leashed her to a shelf leg by her bed for the night and she hasn’t even chased them since.
My grandfather had a dog that killed chickens so he tied a chicken bone to the dogs collar for awhile, it couldn’t get away from the bone or the smell so as soon as it could it wouldn’t go near any chickens.

Here’s to hoping we don’t get any repeat incidents! Don’t think there should be any thankfully

 

[ChickyWhicky]

My dog lives outside and free ranges with the chickens. He is a 6 year old German Shorthaired Pointer. He is our unofficially official LGD. Of course thats not his title or job but he does a dang good job at pest control. No critters around our property thanks to him. He is a hunting machine and our flock is much safer with him around.
As far as HOW we got him accustomed to the birds.... We held and interracted with the birds (when we first got them as chicks) and had him watch. A few "leave it" commands and he caught on quickly that these birds were not for him. Lots of praise for good behavior. He is very obedient and follows commands to the tee, which helped. Once he knows something is off limits, thats it.
We can often find him having a nap in the sun surrounded by chickens. I have caught him trying to get them to play toys with him. He will drag a rope over or fling a ball in the air, put his tooshie in the air and run around "chase me!". He has even helped us find missing birds multiple times.
I couldnt ask for a better boy.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Updated pic of Brunson.

 

[ChicksnMore]

I've had 4 big dogs over the years that help with the chickens. One German Shepard, one Akita, one Australian Shepard and one German Shepard mix. All were raised with chickens and learned what's expected when still stumbling, clumsy babies. My first big dog with chickens was the pure German shepherd and he did kill a chicken when he was still a little puppy...he was about the same size as the chicken he killed...the chicken might have been bigger then him by a smidge. Really young puppy. I made the mistake of thinking he was too little and clumsy still to worry and left him alone with the chickens loose. I ended up minus one chicken and a fat fat happy puppy. He managed to eat an amazing amount of it. I started leashing him, letting the chickens out to free range and just saying his name sternly if he even looked at them. It took a long time but he eventually stopped showing excitement about them and never once needed spanked to learn. He did end up with a life long addiction to eating chicken ...he loved to follow the birds around with his nose close to their tush and eat as they pooped. But he never killed a bird again and could even be trusted locked up with them. Not sure if my training would have worked if he'd been older, but maybe. My other dogs were never given the chance until I was sure they knew what I expected of them with birds. They've all been wonderful flock protectors. Not because they care about and try to protect the chickens though. Instead it's just because they know all the animals that live here are family and anything that doesn't live here is ok. But that's been all I need here. They've all been great protection.