Blue Heelers - Will they kill my chickens?

[bambi]

OK.... I can not get the quote box around the statement, sorry if this causes confusion.

 

[diornisextant]

Any dog is capable of killing chickens and willing if ill trained.
Tell your neighbor the dogs need to be kept on their property and put up a fence to be sure they are not on your property if they are not properly contained and trained. Tell your neighbor you will expect replacement of the chickens if the dogs enter your property to kill them and contain your chickens. If they go over there the dogs have every right to kill them . Get animal control involved if this doesn't work. Both parties need to be responsible for their own animals.

 

[P-Funk]

Kuntry, I took matters into my own hands and GOT A DOG. After my neighbor wouldn't control his own. Gus is a Decker Rat Terrier. This pic should say it all. He'll sit outside all day and watch the girls.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

I have one and I can tell you he did get a muscovy duckling (tiny, day-old) that had escaped the pen...but he (the dog) was only about 3 months old at the time. I was outside with him and he got it. He is a herding and does have some instinct to herd things but I've had him since he was 5 weeks old and worked with him on a daily basis to mind and not bother the birds. My chickens are not allowed outside (unfortunately, we just have too many predators, even with a good LGD and a noisy Heeler). I do let my ducks & geese out when the weather is nice and he's never bothered them....but I think that's because he's scared of them! LOL

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Ooooooooooo, he is ADORABLE. So handsome. He looks like a great protector.

 

[P-Funk]

Yes, Terriers have a prey drive. In this case it's a good thing. I got him @ 2 months and he just turned 5 (months). He was smaller than the big girls (pictured above) and didn't know what to think of them. Yes, he used to chase them around the yard, which lasted for about 2 seconds. Just curious, and also incredibly intelligent. And oh, ya he's tearing the fuzz out of a toy fox we got at Petsmart, he picked it out.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
LOL @ tearing the fuzz out & he picked it out. If you think about it, take a pic on one of his fuzz tearing days and post it here. I would love to see that.

. I wanna see fuzz all over the place. I miss those days when my dog did that.

 

[Sphinx]

My neighbor has three heelers (not sure which kind). She's worked extensively with them and her flock to get them to not mess with her chickens. Unfortunately, most of our chickens were killed recently by a predator (couldn't have been by her dogs, but for the sake of brevity, I won't explain unless asked). Until she fixes her run, she's been leaving her heelers to guard her chickens and things have gone really well- no more predators, no more chicken deaths.

I personally wouldn't be comfortable leaving my chickens alone with a dog, but I've seen it work out well.

 

[ChicKat]

It's hard to believe that people still think beating a dog with a chicken and tying the dead chicken around the dogs neck is a good idea. ---

Blue Heelers are working dogs. They are highly intelligent (ever heard of Skidboot?)--- If people don't handle them right, or if people don't challenge them to work then they will misbehave.

Look at my page for pict of our two Heelers w/chickens and there is a link to Instinct to Insync. Among the points that the trainer makes is that 1. the dogs aren't after chickens due to hunger (unless I suppose feral) and 2. The dogs can be trained. Our dogs are very valuable as working ranch dogs, our dogs are very well trained. one of the skills essential to a Heeler is the 'off' command. They are cattle dogs. (Australian Cattle Dogs is the correct name).

To the Original Poster....yes, you would have to keep your chickens safe just as if a rabid coyote came into your yard...unfortunately because your neighbors dogs could be untrained and mishandled. Heelers really aren't cut out to be city dogs. -- (Sorry all you city dwellers that cannot really provide the environment that these dogs need). I advise having a talk with your neighbors to acertain exactly what their dogs are like. If your chickens were next to our dogs---they would be completely safe.

 

[eggscetera]

My sweet blue heeler/aussie mix would herd my chickens and defend them from visiting dogs that started chasing them. But then they were her herd. I'm not sure about strange dogs of any breed.