Chickens and Dogs

[ILuvsChicks]

How do you raise a puppy so they are friendly to chickens. We have the puppies parents. Dad is a Pug. Mom is half weenier and half chihuahua.They don't bother the chickens. When the puppy got about nine months old. Two chickens disappeared. Don't know if he was the one to get them. But then my Wife caught him with one. That chicken survived. Had a puncture wound in her chest. We gave that dog away. Now we have two more puppies by the same parents. They have been on solid food for about a month now. Now that it's starting to warm up I'm thinking about keeping them in the run with the chickens while they are too small to do any harm to them. Run is 1000 square foot. Is that a good way to train them to be friendly with the chickens or is there some other way I should train them.

 

[enola]

How old are the puppies? And what size are they? If I put a chihuaha sized dog in with my chickens they would become chicken food......

 

[ILuvsChicks]

What about this idea, 1/3 of the run has 4 foot high fence and gate. I have a mini coop in there. When I take chicks from the brooder I first put them in there. once they are big enough to fly over the fence they are ready to mix with the older birds. Has work well. So what if I put the puppies in there? I can leave the mother dog with them to protect them if needed. Think that will work? Any body got another way to raise puppies to not attach chickens once they become older?

 

[cafarmgirl]

Consistent, long term training is the key. We always raise our own ranch dogs and exposure to the birds while under your control at all times is important. Pups should never have access to the birds unrestrained and/or unsupervised. Pup's start going out with me to do barn chores as soon as I bring them home at 8 weeks old. They are on a leash and they stay on a leash for many weeks. That way I can discourage bad behavior, even the thougth of bad behavior, the instant it happens as well as praise and reinforce good behavior. This goes on for quite a few weeks, eventually the chickens become boring, old news to the pup. But training continues. Eventually pup just trots along with me, leash dragging, still under watchful eye. Long story short, the end result is a good farm dog who couldn't care less about the chickens. My current dog even vacates her bed for my tiny Golden Sebright hen.

You do have to consider breed and natural tendencies. I don't know about Pug's or Chihuahua's but Daschshund's often have a naturaly high prey drive. It really boils down to each individual dogs temperment as to whether or not they'll ever be trustworthy around chickens. Some dogs just can't resist the temptation. So train consistently every day and watch your dogs response to the birds. A dog that stays over excited, trembling, drooling, intense interest, even after months or longer of trainng, is probably not a dog you are ever going to want to trust with your birds. In that case, plan to keep dogs and birds separate at all times for the sake of the birds. A dog that relaxes with time and is more interested in the chicken poop or digging in the dirt etc. then in the birds themselves is probably a good candidate!

 

[TheEggCollecter]

Getting my German Shepard to not attack my chickens took patience. Allow the dog to see a chicken through a fence for the first time. Slowly introduce them over a period of time. Then when you think he is ready hold him by collar or leash in the chicken coop. If he tryst to pull a fast one tug on the leash and say no. Do this over and over to the point where the dog gets it.

 

[ILuvsChicks]

I'm a Truck Driver gone all week. The pug rides with me. The Mother dog was left behind by my Daughter who has moved away. You know how kids are, Love them while they are puppies then forget about them. My Wife is not a dog person. So the mother stays out side. Dogs only come in the house when I'm home. My Wife does like having a dog around to help keep the snakes away. We have two puppies. We'll mostly give one away. I want to keep one. He too might ride with me. I want to increase there exposure to the chickens while they are young. Hopefully this will keep them from wanting to kill the chicken once they get older. We haven't had problems with ether parent. They didn't require any training to leave the chickens along. I left them and the mother last night in the 1/3 part of the run. Think I will continue this as part of their training for the time being