Chicken-Safe Dogs for Rats? Your experience?

[avidity]

This is very much a noobie question, and I'm just looking for general thoughts and opinions. We've got a rat infestation on the property and poison is not an option (yes, we know about the other options). We've been discussing getting a dog, but I've read so many horror stories of dogs going after chickens... Obviously this behavior is largely a question of training, but does anyone actually have experience with a dog that has gone after rats and didn't bother the chicks/chickens?

Thanks in advance!

 

[nuthatched]

Have you tried RatX? It's chicken and pet safe. Dachshunds are great on rats but they might have to be trained to leave chickens alone.

 

[Kiki]

Bruh just get the poison...it's so worth it.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I've heard of Rat Terriers. Don't know much about them though..
Any dog can't ever be 100% trusted around chickens, but there is some breeds that are better than others.

I'm currently dealing with rats right now. I don't trust my dog to not go after my chickens, but I'm sure if he was trusted, he'd probably do great. I've been doing both traps and poison, and I'm not catching nothing, and the poison must not be doing anything. I just got a new trap, and a different type of poison, so hopefully I can get rid of the rats before they succeed in getting into the coop again.

Best of luck to you! Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it appears like it's been a bad year with the rats. Everybody is getting them, including me.

 

[avidity]

Have you tried RatX? It's chicken and pet safe. Dachshunds are great on rats but they might have to be trained to leave chickens alone.

Bruh just get the poison...it's so worth it.

I would poison the rats joyfully and with extreme prejudice if my landlady would allow poison on the property. She also vetoed RatX. Trust me, I've tried the poison angle, and it's concrete with sugar until something better presents itself. lol

I've been looking, but I haven't been able to find good information on, for example, ensuring a rat terrier proactively hunts rats without harming chickens. Can the prey instinct be specialty-trained like this or not? Google doesn't know. It's all "best livestock guard dogs" and "how to keep your terrier from attacking small animals." Ugh.

@Lacy Duckwing Glad I'm not the only one (in the community sense -- I'm not glad rats are taking over the world). I've never seen so many rats in my life. They gallop in pairs across the patio, chase each other through the yard, saunter between my shoes, climb the trees... I'm ready to drop a bomb and be done with it.

 

[RojoMarz]

We have a Jack Russell. We adopted him about a year ago. He is almost 8 years old. He is a great hunter of mice, rats, chipmunks, and rabbits. He was not exposed to chickens, before being at out house. It took a lot of work to get him where he does not react (usually) to the chickens. I will likely never trust him to be in the run with the chickens though.

Do you free range the chickens or are they always in a run?

Dachshunds, Jack Russell, Fox Terrier, Rat Terrier, Cairn Terrier, Parsons Terrier, etc are all good rodent hunters.

 

[nuthatched]

I would poison the rats joyfully and with extreme prejudice if my landlady would allow poison on the property. She also vetoed RatX. Trust me, I've tried the poison angle, and it's concrete with sugar until something better presents itself. lol

I've been looking, but I haven't been able to find good information on, for example, ensuring a rat terrier proactively hunts rats without harming chickens. Can the prey instinct be specialty-trained like this or not? Google doesn't know. It's all "best livestock guard dogs" and "how to keep your terrier from attacking small animals." Ugh.

@Lacy Duckwing Glad I'm not the only one (in the community sense -- I'm not glad rats are taking over the world). I've never seen so many rats in my life. They gallop in pairs across the patio, chase each other through the yard, saunter between my shoes, climb the trees... I'm ready to drop a bomb and be done with it.

It's a type of salt not a poison so it won't hurt raptors or wildlife but I totally get you.
Were the rats there when you moved in? if so, quite frankly, it's technically your landladys' problem to handle the rats but she seems difficult so that's probably out.
I don't know about the laws in your area but I'd look into them.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We do not have a rat infestation, but we do have the occasional one. I know this because my cat sometimes brings one in to show me. She is not a very big cat, but she is a mighty huntress. She does not eat the foul beasts, so once I have seen her catch and praised her by letting out a blood-curdling shriek and a few choice words I would not want my child to repeat in school, I tell my Sheltie, Get the Rat! and she does. She snatches it from the cat (who willingly lets her have it) and runs out the door with it, where it is never to be seen again. I do not know how she disposes of the carcass and I do not intend to ask. My Shelties are absolutely trustworthy with my chickens, by the way. One is ten years old and the other is three. So my advice to you is to get a good little cat and a Sheltie to back her up. Be warned, however, that Shelties are as noisy as they are beautiful, and that's saying a lot. Good luck!

 

[avidity]

We have a Jack Russell. We adopted him about a year ago. He is almost 8 years old. He is a great hunter of mice, rats, chipmunks, and rabbits. He was not exposed to chickens, before being at out house. It took a lot of work to get him where he does not react (usually) to the chickens. I will likely never trust him to be in the run with the chickens though.

Do you free range the chickens or are they always in a run?

Dachshunds, Jack Russell, Fox Terrier, Rat Terrier, Cairn Terrier, Parsons Terrier, etc are all good rodent hunters.

Thank you! Sometimes we let the chickens out of their run for an evening; sometimes someone escapes and digs up the garden. The research I've done so far favors rat terriers and jack russells by a truly impressive margin. They're definitely at the top of my list!

It's a type of salt not a poison so it won't hurt raptors or wildlife but I totally get you.
Were the rats there when you moved in? if so, quite frankly, it's technically your landladys' problem to handle the rats but she seems difficult so that's probably out.
I don't know about the laws in your area but I'd look into them.

Oh no, that's not the case at all! She's wonderful. It's only that she's rather more interested in the environment than I am. (And I like the thought of a dog. ) I really could've marketed the RatX to her a little better... "This rat poison says it's all-natural!" probably wasn't my best pitch, all things considered. It has enough mixed reviews that I don't mind backing down from this one.

We do not have a rat infestation, but we do have the occasional one. I know this because my cat sometimes brings one in to show me. She is not a very big cat, but she is a mighty huntress. She does not eat the foul beasts, so once I have seen her catch and praised her by letting out a blood-curdling shriek and a few choice words I would not want my child to repeat in school, I tell my Sheltie, Get the Rat! and she does. She snatches it from the cat (who willingly lets her have it) and runs out the door with it, where it is never to be seen again. I do not know how she disposes of the carcass and I do not intend to ask. My Shelties are absolutely trustworthy with my chickens, by the way. One is ten years old and the other is three. So my advice to you is to get a good little cat and a Sheltie to back her up. Be warned, however, that Shelties are as noisy as they are beautiful, and that's saying a lot. Good luck!

I wish we could get a cat! But we'd need an outdoor cat, and one of our neighbors is... I don't want to know what they'd do to a cat of ours if they caught it on their property. I'll definitely look into shelties. Thank you so much!

 

[chickentrains]

terriers are the best for small rodents, but they also have such a high prey drive... keeping them from chickens is hard..

I'd try a trainable breed. Like a labrador or a golden.. maybe even a poodle. They are natural hunters AND super trainable so you can train them to leave the chickens, and get the rats