Chickens as "play toys"

[rmbollom]

I have a 5 month old great dane - recently she began taking annoying my gals to the point of actually picking them up and plucking some of their back feathers out. the girls just sit there and take it.

They are very use to my old Boxer being in their face. She passed away a month or so ago so now its just my great dane - who should by nature be a very sweet nonaggressive dog. But she is still a puppy - and a large one!

Anyone have ideas on how to get them to coexist? I like having my girls roaming but just can't trust it right now as I am worried she may decided to clamp down just once and then I'm in trouble if she taste blood and instinct kicks in...

thoughts??

 

[chfite]

It might be prudent to train her with the chickens. When she starts an inappropriate action, correct her with a command such as: leave it. Be consistent. I would not leave her with the chickens unsupervised until you have it so that she will leave them alone.

Chickens break easily.

Chris

 

[donrae]

Quit letting her pick them up?

Seriously, you can't let this dog be unsupervised around your birds. I've had a dog who "played" with half a dozen pullets....apparently he picked one up, "played" with it until it quit squawking and wasn't fun anymore, then found another one. We quit free-ranging the birds and did intensive training with the dog. And it's not that "blood lust" thing folks go on and on about.......I feed my dogs raw meat all the time. It's the play factor. To your pup's mind, those birds are no different than those cool squeaky toys, they're just cooler cause they also smell good!

 

[bobbi-j]

It's time to start training the dog or you're going to end up with dead chickens.