Aren't dogs and chickens great?

Adorable! Good job!
I am slowly socializing our best behaved dog with our chickies, both at home and on the farm. The dog (Chilly) is young and drivey but very obedient by nature, yet I am not letting her loose around them so far. I prefer to do it slowly but surely, there is no need to rush. I prefer to desensitize her to poultry completely rather than try to restrain her, no matter how obedient she is.

My soul dog, a Weimaraner (over the rainbow bridge now) was PERFECT with all of my pets (despite the fact that she was trained for hunt tests) - she used to lick my rabbit until he looked like he got rained on,
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she was absolutely ok with my friends' geese and swans, but sadly I didn't get into the chickens while I had her. (I just didn't know how marvelous they are!) I am sure she would have loved my chickie babies also.
 
is that i brittany spaniel in the first pic...looks exactly like my sisters...hers is sooooo hyper...they r bird dogs arent they??..so i would definetely be afraid to leave her alone with ur chickens..lol....

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my cocker spaniel loves the chickens in one of our coops but hates the chickens in our other coop. in the coop he likes he goes in there with me and lays next to the chicks. once when i was letting them free range my showgirl pullet started running down the road and reese my dog got up and started chasing her. i was freaking out but once he got infront of her he stopped and nudged her chest back up to our yard she ran back to the others and he walked back over to me and layed down. he almost gave me a heart attack but i would still never trust him with our chickens in our other coop. hes always running arounf the fence barking and growling at them.
 
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She is a Britney, but she's far from hyper. She's excited about them, but she doesn't hurt birds, just chases them if they run. We had chickens at work and she chased one til it stopped, them she pointed at it. My chicks aren't scared of her so hopefully they won't run.
 
A couple of years ago I got a rescue dog from the local Humane Society. She is a 4 year old chocolate lab we named Cee Cee (for Chocolate Chip). She had been picked up as a stray and we quickly discovered she was already trained to be a wonderful, wonderful pet.

Cee Cee gets her run of 30 acres in rural southern Wisconsin and dearly LOVES to chase chipmunks, squirrels, raccoon, opossum, birds, rabbits, and Bell, the outside cat we've had for years longer than the dog. Even the local skunk was chased at least 3 times this year that I know of. Phew!

Having a chasing dog was my major concern with my decision to get a dozen chicks. As predicted, Cee Cee got overly excited when first introduced to the baby chicks in the sun room. Once they were moved to a pen in the garden shed she would run back and forth barking at them until she was removed from the shed.

Needless to say, I was leery of letting my pullets and cockerels free-range with the dog around. The first time I let the chickens outside they took off running around the garden shed in excitement. Cee Cee took off as well, but instead of chasing them, she sped to the front of the flock as if to stop the 'escape' and herd them back to me. I called her back, told her how wonderful she was, and let her know the chickens were allowed to wander as they pleased.

That was the first and last time I worried about her chasing chickens. Now the hens walk up and over her. The only time she concerns herself with the chickens is when they let out a loud refrain of chicken chatter. Then Cee Cee races over to make sure everything is all right with 'her' chickens. Sure gave her a workout when the roos started their mating antics . . . lots of noise for sure.

With the rooster and Cee Cee both on guard, I'm not worried about anything getting to my 'girls'.

Love, Linn B (aka Smart Red) Gardening zone 5a - 4b in south-est, central-est Wisconsin
 
I have a Golden Retriever and a Black Lab/Pointer mix. Both were interested in the chickens when they were newly hatched but once they were turned out in the back yard, both dogs felt like the chickens were taking over and they were not to fond of them. I bought a Speckled Sussex which was about 2 months older than the rest of my flock and the first day she was turned out in the back yard, i let the dogs out and both dogs locked eyes on her, and vice versa. What happened next was nothing short of hysterical. The Speckled Sussex pullet literally chased the two dogs around the back yard and finally back into the house. Now that they are all nearly full grown, the dogs dont care much about the chickens and will lay in the yard with the chickens literally pecking at the Goldens tail as she wags it about.

Our two cats however, they still get a wild hair once and a while and will stalk up on a chicken, but our Speckled Sussex and Blue Maran will Whoop, and i mean WHOOP the snot out of the cats if they get close enough. Cats which ventures into the back yard from the neighborhood....they learn quickly to stay out of our yard. The Blue Maran will stomp on and flog a cat in a heartbeat.

Only thing the Chickens are truly afraid of are Hawks and Airplanes.
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Gee. I guess some dogs click with chickens, and others don't. Most of the stories I hear are about a tragedy: "sweet, wouldn't-kill-a-fly" Fido suddenly decided to cut the throat of every chicken in the backyard. And then there's the normal occurrence of some stray mongrel wiping out a flock of free-range bantams, or murdering the arch-rooster of a gamefowl farm, or carrying off a chick or two on days when squirrels and garbage weren't plentiful.

But, in my opinion, if you've got a dog that gets along with chickens, don't hinder the relationship. A dog can be a very good guardian for our feathered friends
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i agree our huskey loved our birds for about 6 months then one day killed 6 of them. over the past 8 years she has killed probley around 15 birds. yet our cocker spaniel loves them yet i would never leave him alone with them. i hate when people think their dogs wont kill your birds. i had to yell at a 10 year old girl at a 4h parade thing because her little dog kept getting loose and attacking my sister and i because we were holding our showbirds. well her dog after the 8th time doing that bite off my birds tail through a cage because she didnt think her dog would hurt it, so she was letting it sniff my bird through a dog crate while i was talking to someone. then my friend was watching our birds while we were out of town. she brought her dog with one day and thought her little nonsense wouldnt harm them so she brought her dog in the coop and it killed one of our birds!!!
 
My dogs saw a chicken through the glass door and they actually lunged at the door repeatedly and whined and clawed at it. I have jack russell terriers. Even a 7 week old one I had born here when introduced to a chicken decided to chase it down. It's a hopeless situation.
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Jack Russels are very high strong, but I wouldn't say it's hopeless. It would take a lot of work and patience but it can be done. My Bella (sheperd/hound mix) is always "on the hunt" bundles of energy...chases everything (even up the 6' tree...yes, she climbs the tree chasing squirls)...always seems like she is on crack or something they way she has so much energy. She gets this, what I call "kill moods", when she sees squirls are anything really. I just sat outside on the backyard with her on a leash until she was able to relax around "the girls", when she was no longer "Bella the hunting dog" I would give the girls treats to get close...etc, etc.... Many hours and treats later (for both chicks and dogs) we have a happy home! lol
 

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