Both my dogs initially went after my chickens. I had never owned dogs before nor had I ever taken them to obedience school. I thoroughly trust both my dogs with my chickens now and I leave them all out free together all day, even when no one is home. It helps greatly with predation. I'd had issues with neighbor dogs and bobcats before I left my dogs free in the yard with the chickens.
My old dog is a lab mix, and the younger one I bought from a breeder in California, she is half German Shepherd and half standard poodle. The breeder told me she would never bite, and never play tug of war, and she hasn't. But when I first got my chickens 4+ years ago, both dogs would jump on their pen, the GSD mix tried to dig under the run to get to them. I knew I was going to have problems if I did not get the situation under control. I first kept the dogs in their own run and let the chickens free range, and I would take the dogs 1 at a time with me on a leash whenever I'd be out in the yard. The chickens always follow me around. I'd pull back on the leash and tell the dog "No" if she took too much interest in the chickens. I also would carry the chickens to the leashed dogs for them to sniff. Within a few weeks I had both dogs out off-leash when I was with them and they would be fine. They pretty much ignored the chickens unless a hen squabble would break out and then they would start running toward it, but a voice command was enough to bring them back. One time we thought all the chickens had gone in for the night so we let the dogs out with no supervision. after a while I heard a racket. One of the hens was still out and in a panic. Shasta would capture it and then let it go, it would scramble off, and Shasta would bounce around and chase it like she was trying to get it to play. It was a self-propelled fetch toy! Poor hen. She was slobbery but not a drop of blood on her. She gave a bloody egg not long after, but other than that has been just fine. I decided I'd not let the dogs and chickens out together without supervision.
then 2 years ago my dogs were in their run, the chickens were free-ranging, I was laid up with a leg infection and could not walk. I heard a terrible racket, like a HUGE dog fight; I did not hear the chickens. Luckily my son was coming home from school at the same time. He saw Shasta chase a pack of neighbor dogs out of the yard, one of them was holding part of a barred rock. They had dug under our fence and killed 3 of our chickens and injured a few more (one of the hens was ripped to shreds). Alex cleaned up the slaughter so Olivia would not see it when she got off her bus. He said Shasta was gently nudging one of the dead hens with her nose and whimpering. She was dead but did not have any apparent injury; it was Olivia's favorite hen and the friendliest of our flock.
Shasta had scaled a 6 foot fence, we saw where the wires of the dog run fence were bent. She had used her teeth to scale the fence to save her chickens. She chased off a Rhodesian Ridgeback, a German Shepherd, a mean big black dog with a blue tongue, and a Jack Russel. The black dog hag killed several of our hens before this event, always when our dogs were either in the house or at the groomers. After that event, I decided to just let my dogs stay out. We have never lost a chicken to them. Shasta will investigate squabbles and she will even separate squabbling hens by getting between them. Willow is old, and the hens climb al over her, literally. They follow Shasta around the yard. she helps dig them holes for dust baths. They like to follow her into the orchard and woods and feel safe around her. Both those areas I will lose chickens to bobcats if they don't have a person or dog with them. (I have 3+ acres almost up against the Seattle Watershed and we get all sorts of wild animals - click on "my coop" and you will see. We have several tagged big cats living in the neighborhood as well, but I like to pretend they don't go on my property. Footprints say otherwise. We do have a problem with bears, they climb the fence quite often. They have kept their raids to my orchard, blueberry patch and this fall my veggie garden (which is next to a coop.) My next door neighbors had their coop ripped apart and most of their chickens killed this spring, another neighbor had their coop destroyed by a bear in broad daylight. My coop is fort know, and they have not bothered with it. When my fruit trees are ripe, I do keep my dogs in because Shasta will go after them and I fear for her safety. I can call her back from a rabbit, but nothing will hold her back from a bear. Her poodle dad is a bear hunter in Oregon. It must be in her blood!
My old dog is a lab mix, and the younger one I bought from a breeder in California, she is half German Shepherd and half standard poodle. The breeder told me she would never bite, and never play tug of war, and she hasn't. But when I first got my chickens 4+ years ago, both dogs would jump on their pen, the GSD mix tried to dig under the run to get to them. I knew I was going to have problems if I did not get the situation under control. I first kept the dogs in their own run and let the chickens free range, and I would take the dogs 1 at a time with me on a leash whenever I'd be out in the yard. The chickens always follow me around. I'd pull back on the leash and tell the dog "No" if she took too much interest in the chickens. I also would carry the chickens to the leashed dogs for them to sniff. Within a few weeks I had both dogs out off-leash when I was with them and they would be fine. They pretty much ignored the chickens unless a hen squabble would break out and then they would start running toward it, but a voice command was enough to bring them back. One time we thought all the chickens had gone in for the night so we let the dogs out with no supervision. after a while I heard a racket. One of the hens was still out and in a panic. Shasta would capture it and then let it go, it would scramble off, and Shasta would bounce around and chase it like she was trying to get it to play. It was a self-propelled fetch toy! Poor hen. She was slobbery but not a drop of blood on her. She gave a bloody egg not long after, but other than that has been just fine. I decided I'd not let the dogs and chickens out together without supervision.
then 2 years ago my dogs were in their run, the chickens were free-ranging, I was laid up with a leg infection and could not walk. I heard a terrible racket, like a HUGE dog fight; I did not hear the chickens. Luckily my son was coming home from school at the same time. He saw Shasta chase a pack of neighbor dogs out of the yard, one of them was holding part of a barred rock. They had dug under our fence and killed 3 of our chickens and injured a few more (one of the hens was ripped to shreds). Alex cleaned up the slaughter so Olivia would not see it when she got off her bus. He said Shasta was gently nudging one of the dead hens with her nose and whimpering. She was dead but did not have any apparent injury; it was Olivia's favorite hen and the friendliest of our flock.
Shasta had scaled a 6 foot fence, we saw where the wires of the dog run fence were bent. She had used her teeth to scale the fence to save her chickens. She chased off a Rhodesian Ridgeback, a German Shepherd, a mean big black dog with a blue tongue, and a Jack Russel. The black dog hag killed several of our hens before this event, always when our dogs were either in the house or at the groomers. After that event, I decided to just let my dogs stay out. We have never lost a chicken to them. Shasta will investigate squabbles and she will even separate squabbling hens by getting between them. Willow is old, and the hens climb al over her, literally. They follow Shasta around the yard. she helps dig them holes for dust baths. They like to follow her into the orchard and woods and feel safe around her. Both those areas I will lose chickens to bobcats if they don't have a person or dog with them. (I have 3+ acres almost up against the Seattle Watershed and we get all sorts of wild animals - click on "my coop" and you will see. We have several tagged big cats living in the neighborhood as well, but I like to pretend they don't go on my property. Footprints say otherwise. We do have a problem with bears, they climb the fence quite often. They have kept their raids to my orchard, blueberry patch and this fall my veggie garden (which is next to a coop.) My next door neighbors had their coop ripped apart and most of their chickens killed this spring, another neighbor had their coop destroyed by a bear in broad daylight. My coop is fort know, and they have not bothered with it. When my fruit trees are ripe, I do keep my dogs in because Shasta will go after them and I fear for her safety. I can call her back from a rabbit, but nothing will hold her back from a bear. Her poodle dad is a bear hunter in Oregon. It must be in her blood!
