Anyone have REAL free range chickens and a dog too?

[kota1369]

This dog was with you for 3 days and retreived a chicken and brought it to the house! Why would you want to get rid of a dog that did exactly what you would want it to do?
He new that bird was not supposed to be there and took it to you unharmed! Wow! That is awesome. Sounds to me like he already knows the birds are his pack and he needs to care for them.
Yes you are going to need to work with him more as he is a new addition. But, sounds to me like he already has a clue. When my chickens are loose I have 2 cocker spaniels I let out with them to keep an eye out. It gives me piece of mind knowing someone will raise holy h@#% if a stray dog, cat or anything else shows up. Gives me the alert so I can get out in the back yard.

4 dogs and 4 city chickens

 

[kota1369]

I also have a rottweiler who is not allowed loose with the chickens yet. She used to charge the coop full bore. She would get corrected for the unwanted behavior and has been taught to ignore the chickens. Before I got chickens she never barked at stray dogs or people close to my fense. After she learned to ignore the chickens if there is a stray dog within sight she goes crazy. I had a stray at my fense a while back ago and he quickly decided my chickens were not worth the hassel of a ticked off rottweiler and 2 cocker spaniels trying to kill him through the fense. I went outside as the dog took off and let me dogs know I appreciated that now be quiet. Its over and the neighbors don't want to hear you bark any more. We will continue to work with her around the chickens. On leash she has had them within a foot of her and she never even looked at them. She is a work in progress... but as motherly as she is I expect her to be trustworthy with them by the end of next summer.
Good luck to you.

4 dogs and 4 city chickens

 

[Keri78]

I haven't read through all of the posts but here's my 2cents. I have a friend that completely free ranges her chickens and they too adopted an older mastive type dog(HUGE)! Anywhoo...as soon as he caught eye of the chickens he immediately ran and killed all of them!!! BUT....this was his first day on the farm and ever since then(it's been yrs. now) he lives very happily with all of the farm animals including the chickens absolutely no problems. It just takes time and it's not a good idea to turn them loose on the first introduction. I would also say that if your dog has his own designated "space" and the chickens intrude on his space then by all means he may defend his territory. I would work towards doing away with "his own seperate space" and this way all territory is "shared space" and it doesn't belong to one animal. I have a VERY fiesty cockapoo that is 9 yrs. old and set in her ways. This June when we got babychicks she was sooo funny around them! She honestly didn't know whether to "mother" them or eat them!

As they grew she liked to chase them so I kept her on a leash for a few months while the chickens free ranged in the yard. I taught her on the leash to not pay any attention to the chickens. I would randomly walk her around the yard with the chickens and every time she would look at them or pay them any attention I would give her leash a jerk and say "no". Eventually, she got so I could leave the leash on her as a reminder and she could be loose with the chickens and she didn't pay any attention to them. She continued to like to run straight into the flock and watch them all scatter when I would first let her out of the house and that was it...just sheer doggie entertainment!

: But this bad habit ended quickly one day when one of my roo's decided that he had enough of running from her and turned and began chasing her around the yard instead!!!

Well, I say all of this to say "Keep at it!" a dog is a great asset to have around to gaurd your flock and it just takes a little time and training. Blessings, Keri