Best dog breed around chickens? UPDATE post #117 Thanks all!

[bmelanco]

I scanned every page of this post and I am ashamed to say I’m the first to mention this; go to your local shelter and adopt a dog.

That said, all our dogs have been good with the kids and birds. The best is our current beagle mix. However, beagles do run all day and bark for most of it. When at the shelter look for the dog that isn’t jumping on the fence and barking and be wary of the ones that are hiding. The most important thing to make sure they work well with the birds is for the dog to know its role on day one. If it is to sleep outside most nights then it sleeps outside on the first night. Be sure it can’t get into the coop, watch the dog like a hawk for the first few weeks and correct its behavior.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Quote:
Props to you for bringing that up. Shelters are full of great dogs who need homes. I got my Pit Bull from the pound on her last day to live. That was about 10 years ago and she's been the most wonderful dog. Best $36 I ever spent!

 

[vtchickenlady]

Border Collie, hands down. Our boy Marty just turned a year old and he's wonderful w/ the chicks and my granddaughter. He's also learning how to put my mean old roo in his place (please no flack about the roo, I love him in spite of his antics).

 

[megcpat]

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I've been waiting for "the lecture." No one before felt the need to assume that we weren't looking for the perfect dog at the shelter. Every morning we look at the online descriptions of the dogs at the pound and once we headed down there to meet a dog we though might work - a two year old blue heeler. No luck so far. I came across this mind-set a lot in my years as a vet tech and it sort of frosts me - the idea that buying dogs from breeders is somehow evil because of all the rejected dogs at the shelters needing homes. I have always viewed searching out the perfect dog for one's wants and needs as simply one side of the same coin: if more people would do just this then there would be significantly fewer dogs who end up at the shelters. We're all on the same side! I have never bought a dog in my life - they all came home with me (or went to my parents, or my friends homes, etc) from the clinic where I worked, when owners failed to return for them after treatment. Now, we are looking for a very specific type of dog and have had no luck at the shelters so I suspect we will be buying a dog from a breeder, will be very happy with the dog because we have done so much research, the dog will be very happy because it is doing what it was bred to do and will never be taken to a shelter in need of a more appropriate home. I'm very excited about this and am having a blast searching for this new member of our little farm.

 

[SunshineSteedFarm]

Here are my past experiences with different breeds of dogs. It all depends on the training and overall personality of the dog.

At other families house
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Gator: He was a rescued Rottweiler/Great Dane. Sweet,sweet dog.Very loyal and would protect anything you would sit by him. Children, other young dogs, adults, chickens, etc. He wouldnt touch a thing. All you would do is stand guard and do the occasional lick to whatever he was protecting

Sadly, he is deceased.

Tara: A rescued Cocker Spaniel. She would kill a chicken in a heartbeat. She just loves to chase down things.

Bones: A rescued Red Bone Hound. An 90 pound, 7 month old puppy. Sweetest thing, he just doesnt know how big he is. He tries his best to stay still around the chickens, but he gets so excited, they all run off. He doesnt quite understand the concept of sitting still, but, he is a puppy.

Shaggy: A rescued Blue Heeler/Australian Shepard mix. Very loyal dog. Will follow you anywhere and will always be by your side. He loves to sit and protect the chickens.

Our House
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Spanky: A rescued Collie/Shepard mix: He is my dog.He hasnt been around chickens. But he has been around other small animals. He is a great protector and is extremely sweet and loyal. He is the one in my avatar

Oh and 2 horses make great protectors of chickens also. John and Annie love to follow the chickens while they are free-ranging. John is the one that likes to chase off Tara from the chickens.

 

[bmelanco]

Quote:
I've been waiting for "the lecture." No one before felt the need to assume that we weren't looking for the perfect dog at the shelter. Every morning we look at the online descriptions of the dogs at the pound and once we headed down there to meet a dog we though might work - a two year old blue heeler. No luck so far. I came across this mind-set a lot in my years as a vet tech and it sort of frosts me - the idea that buying dogs from breeders is somehow evil because of all the rejected dogs at the shelters needing homes. I have always viewed searching out the perfect dog for one's wants and needs as simply one side of the same coin: if more people would do just this then there would be significantly fewer dogs who end up at the shelters. We're all on the same side! I have never bought a dog in my life - they all came home with me (or went to my parents, or my friends homes, etc) from the clinic where I worked, when owners failed to return for them after treatment. Now, we are looking for a very specific type of dog and have had no luck at the shelters so I suspect we will be buying a dog from a breeder, will be very happy with the dog because we have done so much research, the dog will be very happy because it is doing what it was bred to do and will never be taken to a shelter in need of a more appropriate home. I'm very excited about this and am having a blast searching for this new member of our little farm.

I think the fact that you asked about breeders and admitted in your post above that your buying a breeder dog validates my assumption. As a former vet tech I’d assume you saw thousands of dogs so I doubt I’m telling you anything you don’t already know, but I’ve meet retrievers that are terrified of water and St. Bernard’s that thought they were lap dogs. Breeding, however, does work. The purpose of breeding is to produce the highest percentage of off-spring with the most coveted traits (tracking, retrieving, tunneling, fighting, etc.). What most people get from a breeder is an ordinary dog. At best they get a dog at the good end of the breeding pool that didn’t look like a show dog (the rest were sold to other breeders or for show) and at worst they get the short end of the ever increasingly shallow breed pool.

 

[megcpat]

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Wow, I bet he was a very interesting looking dog. I can't quite picture what that combo would be

Sounds like a very special fellow.

 

[M To The Maxx]

I highly reccomend getting a Yorshire Terrier (Yorkie). We have 3 of them. 2 girls and 1 boy. The girls love the chicks especially. The girls really don't care about the adults. They just want to cuddle with the little ones. Our male named Murphy helps me get the chickens back in the run after free ranging all day. He loves the chickens. GET A YORKIE!!! GET A YORKIE!!! GET A YORKIE!!!

 

[JakRat]

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Ours is so different!!! He was sooooooo good with ours. When they were chicks we held them around our two dogs and if they got to close or anything they got popped on the nose... When our girls got bigger he would actually herd them around and make sure that they stayed together. Now our dogs leave them alone because our chickens tell them whose boss, but if they get to far apart he will run over to it and do the "im going to put my neck on you to be dominant" thing but he has never gone after them... my little rat terrier does not like them because they are bigger than her now, but she used to bark at them when they were little to play with her. The best thing seems to be to get them used to the birds and to know their place around them everyday.

 

[beachchickie]

I would choose a dog according to his "work". Pit bulls that I have had never attacked anyone and had NO interest in birds of any kind or squirrels for that matter. Another dog better never set foot in the yard, however. My Rhodesian Ridgeback same thing. Healers job is to herd I have seen them be trained to watch ducks and chickens but I had one that supposedly killed a neighbors chickens. She nor I saw it she assumed that it was the dog and I could not prove otherwise. My Weimeraner would kill anything that moved and that was smaller than she was. She is a hunting dog. I would love to get another Weim but I have chickens now and would not chance it.