Beware of even the "Good Dog"!!

I think it's hard to undo hundreds of years of breeding in bird dogs. I'm keeping my springer spaniel totally away from my chickens. Sometimes I think she wants to protect them by keeping them away from the fence and sometimes I think she wants to eat them! It's hard to tell. She's so jealous of the attention I pay them, that it's probably the eating them that's going through her little brain!

 

I'm still planning to free-range mine when they're about 5 or 6 months old. I just won't let Lucy out when they're out. At least not off the leash. I tried training her, too, and she still acts like a maniac around them. She never barks at anything except now the chickens. And she does her little talking thing. Ar-row-row-row! Hard to express that in writing! lol

 

you can't realy count on dogs that you have to train to not attack chickens, that instinct is still there. Luckly my dog has a stange distaste and fear of birds, well the big ones anyway, he would not mind eating a chick, and still stalks them when mom is not around or if they get too close. Try and introduce your dog to a chicken that can defend itself, like a rooster, might think twice about chickens as snacks

 

Do you hunt the dog, or is it a pet? I've seen many people that get the pretty bird dog, don't train it to use their natural instincts to make us happy, then go crazy when they see a pet bird, ducks at the local pond, ect. Because the only feathers they have seen were on grandmas hat.

I would reccomend the book "Gun Dog" by Richard A. Wolters, to anyone with a bird dog.
There are hundreds of years of breeding in getting a setter, pointer, or spaniel to find us birds, not kill them.

Any of my Brittanys could fetch an egg or retrieve a bird and hardly ruffle a feather, so I would certainly believe you can train your pooch.. After all you have a gentelmans field dog, bred to be gentle with birds.

 

My father used to raise English Setters. They are amazing dogs. I didn't know how lucky I was as a kid to be raised around all those puppies. He used to ship them all over. I would think you could train it to be gentle with the chickens.

 

My dog (who my tiny parrot can perch on) saw the chicks outside for the first time today... The were in their run... She was practically DROOLING for them!! She was running back and forth VERY intent on "getting" them!

But you know... I can't blame her... those hunting dogs have it bred into them... (She must have thought they were chalupas!)

 

My heart goes out to all of you with dogs that "like" chickens. It must be terrible to see the dog you love kill or hurt the chicken you love.
Now on the other hand, I have to protect my dogs from my chickens. I let little Minnie (all of 3 pounds) follow me into the chicken pen. Next thing I know my huge rooster attacked her. She was terrified and screamed and tried to rum from him but he just kept right after her. Other than being totally scared out of her witts, she was ok. She has not since wanted to visit the chickens with me. Now if I took all 11 chihuahuas into the pen, with the pack mentality, that rooster wouldn't have a chance. I probably had the same feelings you had when your dog got your chicken. If that rooster had hurt my dog, I would have chained him up too.