Can chickens and dogs get along?

[Flockincrazy]

Hi total newbie here. We have 6 beautiful baby chicks well more like teenagers now. But we also have a lovely little French bulldog and I want to know if anyone has a dog who gets along with their chickens? Is it possible? Only hearing bad story's of dogs injuring chickens?

Hi and welcome to BYC i have 2beagles that I have put in with my chickens ducks and rabbits and they will simply lay down my female beagle would sooner groom my chickens than hurt them i have put them in the run and forgotten them overnight and went out to let my flock out and the dogs were laying in a nest boxes with about 10chicks sitting on top of them you just need to expose your dog to your flock regularly and safely and love on the chicks in front of your dog so he knows that they are part of your family and not to be harmed

 

[SillyKlucker]

Hi total newbie here. We have 6 beautiful baby chicks well more like teenagers now. But we also have a lovely little French bulldog and I want to know if anyone has a dog who gets along with their chickens? Is it possible? Only hearing bad story's of dogs injuring chickens?

we got our chicks around 4 days old. I held them around my dogs for a few weeks. Then let them hang out in a cage around the dogs. Quickly we realized Zooey (in the pic) loves the girls. She is super gentle and sweet with them. She watches over them and lets them peck at her feet and ears. It’s super cute! My other dog is also a pit mix but he is an old man and just watches them from the porch.

 

[darbymomma]

I think it's all about a well trained dog and exposure therapy. When we first got chicks, our poodle was very interested. We would let her sniff them and watch them in the brooder. We had a tote with chicken wire wrapped around it so sometimes we would catch her laying with her nose pressed against the side watching.

As they got older we have let her sniff them and be around them, but always supervised.

Now the poodle is 10 months and then chickens are 5 months, and they tolerate each other pretty well. When our hens are free ranging in the evenings, the dog is outside with all of us. My husband and I will do chores while they're out and don't really worry. She still tries to play with them bc she is a puppy but she only wants to chase them. She will run into their area and they will spook and fly off. We generally call her down for that. As she is still a puppy, we don't stray too far, because although we don't think she would aggressively attack, we worry that she may try to play too hard.

Now, she is excellent at helping herd them back into the run. We can tell her okay, lets put them up and she will round them and hard them right into the run. Its actually comical.

Hope that helps!