Anyone have REAL free range chickens and a dog too?

[joletabey]

My neighbor totally free ranges her little flock and she has two dogs who are actually afraid of the chickens-

 

[ChooksChick]

My dogs and chickens have a 1/4 acre fenced yard in the middle of town they share, no pens, no supervision. They all roam all day...well, the dogs mostly sleep, but they're out there with chickens walking on them while they do.

It all depends on how the dogs were introduced and desensitized, how much prey drive they have, and no one can tell without working hard with a dog and seeing what it takes.

I have described how we did it in several other threads of this kind if you search- I trust my dogs to protect my birds, and they would never eat them any more than they would each other.

Good luck!

 

[jerseygirl1]

I agree with Nostalchic - that is great that he retrived your chicken. My GSD does it all the time, has never hurt one.
In the land of dogs, I don't think there is a dog in existence (if so, a very rare species) that could be let into a run full of chickens or area with chickens and just walk away..........................haha.
If he's only bugging them and not hurting them, I would think that he needs instuction from you to teach him not to go any further,
If not, you may end up returning a lot of dogs.....................

 

[Plain Old Dee]

Quote:
I agree. We had a German Shepherd/Mastiff mix pup when we first got chickens. He got in the pen by digging under the fence one day and was happily chasing the birds. He never put his mouth near one, but he did manage to kill one...by stepping on it. We put an electric fence wire around the bottom of the pen about six inches up from the ground. I went inside and scattered some scratch for the hens. Bear wanted in with me, and went to the spot where he had been getting in. He bumped the wire with his nose and jumped straight up in the air. He was so scared he peed - the stream hit the wire, and he got zapped again...

He never bothered another chicken after that - even when we let them out of the pen.

Our blue heeler, her story is in an earlier post on this thread.

Our boxer mix - we think her other half is either hound or pit bull. She's very muscular. None of those breeds is known for being good around small animals - but she's such a coward!

Our little Lhasa mix - his other half is some sort of terrier, we think. He's the most aggressive dog we've ever had around chickens. Fortunately, he's very old and not any bigger than they are.

We'll just keep our dogs in the yard when we can't watch them. I'd rather not take chances - I have too much invested in my flock...

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Yeah, I have a couch potato dog too but he's good with the chickens when we're out. The CAT (I have other names for her right now, but can't post them on a family-friendly forum) is also in the house, though I'd dearly love to kick her butt out. She's my chicken killer.

 

[chickcritty]

I have two dogs - a Weimaraner/Doberman mix and a Chihuahua mix and they get along fine with the chickens now, but it took some time. The dogs are house dogs and don't spend that much time outside - they go out to do their business, chase squirrels, if they hear noises, etc. The chickens are in the backyard free ranging all day. The dogs were not puppies when we introduced them - they were several years old. It took several weeks to get the dogs ok with the chickens and for a couple months after that I wouldn't leave them alone together. Now dogs, cats and chickens co-exist peacefully and they all enjoy chasing the squirrels

I think it depends on the dog and it can definitely take some time, but it has been well worth it for me.

 

[Wildsky]

Quote:
You need bigger chickens!

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
You need bigger chickens!

My rooster weighs 13 1/2 lbs. Most of my hens are in the 6 to 8 lb. range. The cat weighs 3 lbs. MAX. How dang big do my chickens need to be??

 

[Sjisty]

I have a 12-year-old Aussie who thinks she is the mother to all chickens. Our newest addition is a Gr Pyr puppy, who is also just fine with them. The chickens and dogs (and ducks and turkey) all free-range together in our rather large fenced back yard.

 

[kitaye]

We have two dogs. One Shepard cross follows the chickens around looking for poopy treat (eww!), or get into their food. The small dog only stood toe to toe once. Our dominate hen pecked her on the nose. Now they follow her around the yard, just to bug her.