Can A Dog Be Trained Not To Steal Eggs?

[deb1]

My dog, Keiba, is good with my chickens. She doesn't bother them except to eat their poopl

We have discovered that she does have another problem. Today we found a total of three eggs that she destroyed. We caught her in the act of eating one.

Is there anyway to correct this behavior? I am thinking that I might have to chain her up until we get our new run built. But I hate to do that.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[ducks4you]

Nope. My dog, Rose, gingerly picks them up, carries them away and eats them. But, "Mr. Kitty" ("Artemus") gets an egg every day he asks for one.
You're just gonna have to be quicker than the dog.

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Perhaps "load" a few eggs and leave them in the usual place. Blow out the eggs and inject them with hot sauce, or some other foul tasting thing, and then just leave them.

You may have to do it a few times, and consistantly to get them to think it happens every time.

meri

 

[SproutGirl]

What if you put a bunch of crushed red pepper in the nests? That wouldn't affect your birds, but your dog would get one burning snout-full and never come back!

 

[Skyesrocket]

The easiest way is to move the nesting area, or block off the nesting area so the dog can't get to it. After a while they forget all about looking for eggs.

 

[deb1]

The hot sauce trick sounds interesting. I don't want to harm my dog but darn, this is frustrating. I might give that a try.

My husband is going to build a bigger run so that my chickens won't be running free in my backyard anymore. I actually like having the birds free range, but I suppose I can't do that any more.

The hens like to lay in some tall grass that we have let go. I am not certain how to pen that off so that the chickens could get in, but the dog couldn't. I will have to look into that.

If I sprinkled cayanne pepper through the grass, it won't hurt my birds?

 

[thebritt]

We had to construct a gate that allowed chickens through, and humans, when the gate was unlatched. Our dogs can't fit thru the chicken openings, so that put an end to that!