are your dogs and chicken friends

[kiwicampbell]

My dog (Australian Shepherd/Poodle Cross) has never hurt a chicken. She does love to herd them though. She has a natural built in herding thing that is astounding to watch. If a chicken moves out of the group (Curious Georgie and Mrs Pott are prone to this) then she will go off around behind them and herd them back to the flock. For a while she was constantly trying to herd the two flocks together if they were out free ranging at the same time but now she knows who belongs where she just drives herself insane trying to keep both flocks individually together. I never leave her out with them unsupervised though as her overzealous herding eventually annoys the birds and I don't want that to end up with her nipping or chasing...

Our best guard dog is the one guinea in the flock. She was a rescue and she can hang out with either flock (she only ever sleeps with the main flock though). The one thing she can not ABIDE though is fighting. If the two roosters or even two hens from the two groups start fighting, guinea gets in between and referees. I have video of her telling the roosters off and eventually dragging poor Barry off around the yard by his hackle feathers because he would not stop. Noone is fighting on guineas watch....unless Mum has mealworms guinea is eating that is!!! Then the fight can wait....

 

[new chick 203]

Yes, friends. it's a mutually beneficial relationship. Lily protects them and the chickens make poo that Lily likes to eat.

 

[Dukeofhawg]

Both of my big Labs ignore the chickens like they are not even there. Every once in a while a dog will take a sniff at one of the girls and get pecked... the dog cries and runs off... I was expecting it to be difficult to train labs not to chase birds, it's not.

 

[MomsCorner]

We have 4 dogs. Of the 3 smaller dogs, 1 completely ignores them, 1 is trying to figure them out and the littlest is jealous of them. Now the Basset Hound in the picture is a whole different story. The Peeps have been outside in their coop now for 2 weeks. It took us the first week to get the Basset to stop baying at them constantly. Now he just likes to run from one side to the other with periodic looks in my direction to see if he is going to get hollered at to slow down at which point he will drop his head down and walk to his destination.

 

[annewandering]

We havent gotten our chicks yet but I am concerned about our dog. He is a Pyrennes/Mastiff mix. We have had two cats and he does not hurt them. What he does is lick them. I mean he really LICKS them. They like it and walk away when they get tired of him.
What concerns me is if he will do the same with the chickens. He is really big so I am afraid he would hurt them accidently.

 

[TimBaumann]

One of our dogs is too old to care about my chicken (he probably doesn't even see them anymore) and the other (Husky X Border Collie) killed my first four chicken and hid them in the yard. We had to build a small electric fence to keep him away from the new chicken. My dog goes nuts about birds. He even caught some very unfortunate sea birds. He has an incredibly strong prey drive. He is a wonderful dog very happy, playful and loving but when he sees a small fluffy animal his instincts kick in!

 

[JacobMaxwell]

I'm very lucky my Akita Mac behaves around the chickens. Yes he will chase them occasionally, but it doesn't go anywhere. They will squat for him and he will give them a good licking. He loves to visit them in their coop and will steal he eggs if I don't keep an eye.

I'm lucky about the egg part, since my dog only licks the pooh off the egg. She doesn't understand that the delicious treat she sometimes gets is contained in these small brown shells.

 

[JacobMaxwell]

We havent gotten our chicks yet but I am concerned about our dog. He is a Pyrennes/Mastiff mix. We have had two cats and he does not hurt them. What he does is lick them. I mean he really LICKS them. They like it and walk away when they get tired of him.
What concerns me is if he will do the same with the chickens. He is really big so I am afraid he would hurt them accidently.

A secure run will protect your chickens from any dog or other predator. You can let the chickens out for an hour or so in the evening before the sun goes down. Just put your dog inside when you do this.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Our dog tries to play with the chickens. The chickens just FREAK out!

Its actually kind of funny to watch! LOL

 

[raskal825]

The older dog will tolerate them but the younger one just wants to play with them by fighting like she does with the big dog.