Chicken Killing Family Dog

[ChickenRazz]

Last year one of my toy poodle (named J.J.) killed a red bantam rooster I had. Getting rid of the dog is/was not an option. ( I raise poodles and he is one of my best studs.) I decided to try the ole "tie the dead chicken to the dogs collar" trick...low and behold...it worked! Gruesome as it may sound to some. You should have seen the look on this dogs face when he tried to walk away from his "kill" and was unexpectedly "followed" by the dead rooster. At first he walked...then he ran...spun in circles...ran some more then hid under the house. The bird was attached with twine ...within an hour or so the dog reappeared ...roosterless...having chewed through the twine. So after J.J's escape from the "zombie dog chasing rooster" he has lost all interest in chickens...he takes the long way around their pens. And turns the other way if the are free range... That rooster was a pain anyway...he was very aggressive. IWe were happy to be rid of him...although I would have preferred to have him in the freezer.

 

[kickinchicken]

I see that some folks are old-fashioned and in their ways in saying to just get rid of the dog,

but I am with several others on here who say to at least try to retrain your dog.

ALL DOGS have prey drive...they are canine. Its what they are. We, as human, designed them for this over thousands of years. Its only recently that we are now not in need of these great skills and predispositions. A bird is prey, unless its a raptor.
Your dog needs you to lead the way. Be the pack leader and show him what you want. If these killings happened unsupervised, then you will just need to be there at all times while you train your dog. You can also divide up your yard for the dog and the hens. I live in a suburban area and my back yard is only about 2,500 sq.ft. The dogs have their side and the deck and the hens have the rest. I let them free range when I am home and can look outside to observe. the dogs can't get outside to the yard unless we open the deck gate.
I understand how upsetting this can be, but just work with him. He might surprise you.

Good luck.

 

[jamesrm]

When I had a pet dog doing this several years ago, I took a dead chicken and wrapped some light exposed electrical fence wire, attached that to one side of the charger. I suspended the bird, so when the dog touched it he completed the circuit. The dog thought the chickens were sons of zues after that and left them be.

 

[Rocky Top Chick]

Quote:
Exactly correct. Don't blame the dog. It is our responsibility to take care of what we bring home.

 

[redhen]

My dog killed all of my ducks.. it was a nightmare.
But i never once blamed her... why would i? It wasnt her fault... (it was my foster sons for leaving the deck gate open...)
It makes no sense to blame an animal for being an ANIMAL...

 

[Ryu]

I posted on the Buckeye thread in the Breeding section how I fixed our chicken killer/potential chicken killers. One was a Beagle we adopted because she was a chicken killer, one a rescued lab cross trainedto hunt birds, and my two--Rhodesian cross and a Dalmation 'city' raised dogs.

It wasn't hard, took total maybe an hour and it's been three years and we haven't had a dog/chicken incident. Our chickens free range the farm, and the dogs are out all day and night with them.

found it:
Not to get too far off topic, but we have 4 dogs. Two outside (Beagle and a Lab mix we hunt pheasants with) and two inside (Dalmation and Rhodesian/German Shepard mix) at night/outside most of the day. The Beagle was a rescue because she was a chicken killer as was going to be shot by her former owners. We decided to get chickens a few years down the road, and sure enough she killed one that got out of it's enclosure.

I saw an episode of the Dog Whisperer (I know some don't agree with his methods, including me sometimes.). I did what he did on the show, and it worked! Our chickens are now free range on the farm and we haven't had a death since training. It took just under an hour to train all four dogs. I spent 30 minutes of that with the Beagle--stubborn dog, but that was it.

Basically you get them in the calm/submissive state (I asked for down and made them stay.) Then presented them with a chicken (one of our clamer 'pet' roos). The chicken was scared out of it's mind, but didn't run away, it just walked around me. When a dog would start to get excited, I put two fingers on the side of their necks and made the 'shssst' noise. They calmed right down, and after a couple of minutes I let them up and they walked away totally not interested in the bird. In fact, they actively avoid the chickens now.

I did 3 dogs at the same time, and let them go when they could maintain the calm state with the chicken present. The Beagle screamed and threw a fit for about 20 mintues--but all I ever used was the two fingers and the noise. It took her another 10 to submit and relax--I think part of the reason it took so long was that she had no previous training (no sit, no stay, ect.).

Anyway, I think most dogs could be rehabilitated. I'm sure there's exceptions to every rule, but ours responded very well.

 

[BigOJoe]

i have 3 dogs and 26 chickens, i did have 30 chickens, 4 were savagely killed in the last year. all the deaths were by fellow chickens. never lost one to my dogs. but i kept all the chickens, chicken killers and all (well there was that one too many rooster, i liked him better with dumplins)


the main thing is we are the care giver and protector of our animals. we are to provide food, water, shelter and prevent the threat of harm. I'd love to have my chickens free range on the 15 ac we have. but if not my dogs, it would be the neighbors dogs, that would cause a problem, and if not the dogs, the foxes, racoons, hawks, coyotes etc. i can't control all that so my chickens are confined to a large coop and run and i have to feed them everything.

if the dog is not really a part of the family, do him a favor and find him a family, one without bite size snacks. If he is a part of the family, forgive em and move on, with chickens well protected.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

Quote:
You know we didn't want to think that. We had a puppy that got into our coop and killed 4 out of 6 of our pullets. BUT he was so very young we gave him another chance, few months later he got our drake duck. So on a chain he went, and he stayed there for 10 months! Then he reached adulthood, we found that we could let him run loose when the flock was penned up. It worked GREAT!! Then one day we were home, (he was kenneled up in our laundry room)he somehow got loose. We didn't know he had gotten loose, and that day it was a sad day! We have had to replace one turkey, one drake, 12 hens. Not to mention our 7 year old son found the slaughter when he went to do an hourly head count.

So once he's gotten the taste of blood, you can't take that out of a dog. So now I do firmly believe once a chicken killer always a chicken, turkey, duck killer!

 

[CrestedTern]

I introduced my dog to my chicks (he's a border collie/great pyranees/lab/german shepherd so he's got some bird dog instincts and some "protect them all" instincts). Soooo long story short... the chicks (now 2 and 5 weeks old) are his babies now. He's actually gone so far as to growl at the other dogs when they get too close (which is fine as I'm sure said "other dog" had no honorable intentions in mind). I still watch him when he's around the chickies but when I'm out there with them he's allowed in the coop and he just lays down in a "clean" corner and actually lets the chicks walk over/around him!!

I have had SOME success with another dog keeping her on a short lead around the chicks and sharply saying "LEAVE IT" when she goes after them and praising her when she does so... Thing that has worked best is placing the chick pens outside the range of the dog's underground electric fence.

Good luck!!

Lauren

 

[drunkdog]

I know I am new but I have a siberian husky and I used to run a team of them...I now have chickens and know I am a noobie but I would not allow my dog to interct with the chickens in anyways whatsoever ...simply because I know my animals....I also dont intend to sound harsh but it is not the dogs fault since a dog simply responds to stimuli based on his traingin ...your dog either recieved impropr or inadequate training or there was some sort of carelessness on the part of one of the children etc that allowed the dog to ineract with the birds in the first place......there is the weakness and the change to be made....whether or not you keep the dog in the end is your call not mine but in my opinion youd be selling the animal short....