Breed of dog that won't hurt my birds

[pollitaroja]

I have 2 large mutts the female,Hazel is a very gentle dog with any animal. The male is younger and very playful. They don't attack, only play and chase but I keep an eye on the boy just in case.Specially with the chicks, he thinks they are squeeling toys. And like all of the other comments I agree is very important how you train the dog

 

[Stephanie739]

My thoughts exactly! I have beagle mixes and they won't harm my chicks. In fact one of them, loveesss the chicks and tries to take care of them. I posted a story recently of "Munchie." He stood guard over my young chicks when a large black snake was in the coop. He also herds them back towards the coop if they wander too much. The other two dogs, related/same breed, don't pay much attention to the birds, but won't hurt them.

I am a firm believer that it is not the bred of dog that matters but the training the dog receives that will make the biggest difference in the end. I would take a good look at your overall lifestyle and pick a dog that fits in well with your life and your family.

 

[BaileyJean]

I agree with everyone, in that it is the training of the dog, not the breed, that will make them good around the birds. We have a Lab, a jack russel, and a Rottie. We had to teach them that they were not allowed to touch the chickens, and they are great with them now. I now leave my dogs out with the chickens when they are free-ranging because they keep predators at bay. Just work with your dog, it takes time, but it is well worth it

 

[gottsegnet]

I have English Shepherds and they have been very good, but I second the note on training. We had a problem with our female killing chickens last year but were able to retrain her. Her killing was a combination of two things: 1) she was a young herding dog that needed to learn to use a little less force when working with birds and 2) we got a whole bunch of birds from someone and hadn't introduced her to them. She had always been fine with the chickens and we never thought about introducing her to new birds. She killed some of the new chickens, but never touched the old ones.

She's perfectly trustworthy now. In fact, half our flock went into her whelping area and while she chased them all out, she didn't hurt any of them. She helps keep the foxes and coyotes away and even runs around barking at hawks.

 

[JKBateman]

Thanks for posting this. It was extremely helpful!