Anatolian shepherd killed one of my hens

[Betsyg16]

First off
I’ve raised chickens for a lot of years.
Recently built a house on 27 acres. I acquired 2 Anatolian 6 month old puppies. I really thought I was past the worry stage. They were doing fine. The dogs were fenced Separately though until recently. I decided it was safe. I watched them for days, together. Then it happened. The female Anatolian was bored and started chasing the hen. I didn’t see it but it was brutal. I had to put the hen down.
So now what? My fear is I’ll never be able to trust her again. The dogs don’t roam free. But they have plenty of space plus everyday they get walked and run loose. I’m guessing the advice will be to completely separate.
It just defeats the purpose of a guard dog, doesn’t it?
My dogs are not inside, they are outside.
Betsy g16

 

[Yardmom]

I'm don't have experience with Livestock Guardian dogs, but my understanding is they need a lot of training for understanding who they are guarding and who they are guarding against. 6 months is still very much a puppy. Puppies are still learning how to function in their jobs (or families) Many dogs are not considered adults until over 2 years.

 

[FarmerGirl101]

Assuming they are 6 months currently, this is way too young for a LGD to be fully trained and reliable. It can take up to 2 years old for them to be fully trained. You need to read up on how to train a LGD and/or find a local trainer/mentor who can help you with developing your LGD.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I have sent you a pm. Look at the top of the page for a little envelope with a number 1 on it.

 

[Seaslug]

Did someone sell these puppies to you as livestock protectors as 6 month old pups? Were they already living with livestock at the time?
I thought that dogs that are kept with the livestock 24/7 typically start with livestock at the same key socialization period that puppies typically are brought into their forever human homes (8-10 weeks.) If they were being raised to be with livestock 24/7, I would think that the breeder would have had the puppies with livestock from that time on until you came to own them. Was that the case?

 

[Betsyg16]

Did someone sell these puppies to you as livestock protectors as 6 month old pups? Were they already living with livestock at the time?
I thought that dogs that are kept with the livestock 24/7 typically start with livestock at the same key socialization period that puppies typically are brought into their forever human homes (8-10 weeks.) If they were being raised to be with livestock 24/7, I would think that the breeder would have had the puppies with livestock from that time on until you came to own them. Was that the case?

No. I had a friend that had 11 puppies. She doesn’t have chickens. It was 6 hours to go get them. It was my idea to get them as guard dog. I thought I had researched enough, but obviously I had not. I am keeping them completely separate at this point.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Try the "see-no-touch" mrthod with your pup if you can. Do you have something like a grow-out pen you can put him in that's adjacent to the chicken run, where he'd be separated from them by a fence? It needs to something safe that he can't tear through, dig under or jump over. If you have something like that, maybe you could put him in it for an hour or two at a time once or twice a day. He will learn to be near the chickens without being able to harm them, and they will ignore him. This exposure will eventually become boring to him and he will learn to leave them alone too. I had good success with this with my highly reactive Sheltie. It's a good way to start.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Under Predators and Pests there is a thread titled, Anyone Trained Their Dogs to Stay Away from Chickens Like This? (I think this is the title anyway, stand by, I'll confirm and see if I can link it.) There's a lot of good info there. I corrected it.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Here you go:

Thread 'Anyone trained their dog to stay away from chickens like this?'

Sep 23, 2025

My dog has killed SO MANY of my chickens, and I am at my wits end. I have heard of training methods using an e-collar, which I have and he is trained on in other areas of his life, and I am wondering, has anyone used an e-collar to teach their dog not to kill chickens? In more depth, the method is this: put a chicken in the yard, and then release the dog while you hide and watch. Once the dog tries to go after the chicken, you shock him on a very high level with the e-collar. Basically he will associate chasing chickens with pain, and he wont do it anymore. Does this work? Is it "abusive"...

• ChickenShepherd_6116
• Replies: 80
• Forum: Predators and Pests

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[Penpal]

Train your dogs to a "leave it" command. You can find how on the internet. Once they are reliable on 'leave it', you can work on them with the chickens. Using clicker will probably be the quickest way to get them to understand, but they will need practice before they can be reliable enough to even introduce the command with chickens.

I would also recommend that you let the puppies take turns being in the house. You may one day need a guard dog in the house. One may become injured and need to stay still. They will get old. They may need to go to the vet and will need experience and behavior modeling to be indoors (with strangers). (In fact, you should be taking them to the vet. Just walk in, go to counter. Dog sits. Say hello, turn around and leave- as a start.)