Collie and chickens?

[LittleMissCountry]

We are debating buying a collie (rough collie, not border). Our neighbor has two 6 month pups left from their litter. They have chickens so the pup is used to them, but theirs are always penned up. Ours run free part of the day. The neighbors have already done some behavior training, so the pups are gentle, and stop when told "no".

I know collies are herding dogs, but has anyone had experience with chickens with them? How do you train them to protect the chickens?

 

[Shadowfire]

I think if you raised them together it would be fine. There are true stories of collies protecting bantam flocks from eagles.

 

[Kessel23]

Any dog can be kept with chickens starting at any age, if you know how to train them you can make it work. Dogs are smart, training can easily block out their instinct to chase prey animals.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

I think if you raised them together it would be fine. There are true stories of collies protecting bantam flocks from eagles.

The pup is already 6 months old, though. Is that too old for them to start out together?

 

[Shadowfire]

The pup is already 6 months old, though. Is that too old for them to start out together?

If he gets socialized right away, I think he could become an excellent flock guardian.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

If he gets socialized right away, I think he could become an excellent flock guardian.

The neighbors said we could take one this weekend and do a trial run to see how she does with our cats and chickens. If we get one, my daughter is set on the runt, which is a girl (and none too small for a runt!)

 

[Shadowfire]

The neighbors said we could take one this weekend and do a trial run to see how she does with our cats and chickens. If we get one, my daughter is set on the runt, which is a girl (and none too small for a runt!)

Sounds good, keep us posted

 

[sourland]

One of the two best dogs that I have ever known was a rough coated collie belonging to my best friend when we were growing up. Rex was our constant companion, and absolutely non aggressive towards fowl or farm animals - extremely intelligent and willing to please. I would give the pup a try.

 

[feathermaid]

We are debating buying a collie (rough collie, not border). Our neighbor has two 6 month pups left from their litter. They have chickens so the pup is used to them, but theirs are always penned up. Ours run free part of the day. The neighbors have already done some behavior training, so the pups are gentle, and stop when told "no".

I know collies are herding dogs, but has anyone had experience with chickens with them? How do you train them to protect the chickens?

A true guardian dog would have to be raised completely and only around the livestock they are meant to protect, and therefore would not be pets or go in the house. I think 6 months might be a bit too late to start.
But it's never too late to socialize your dog or pup to behave safely around chickens. I have one dog that was several years old when we got chickens and another as a pup last year, both are trustworthy around my birds, but they're also mostly house dogs so not very protective of them.

But the more your pup is around your chickens, and your property, she should gradually become more and more protective. Maybe not guarding the chickens in particular, but a good guard of your property and should run off any predators that come around, day or night. Otherwise if all you want is to make sure dog and chickens get along, there's some ideas in this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-did-you-train-your-dog-to-leave-chickens-alone.732029/

 

[centrarchid]

We are debating buying a collie (rough collie, not border). Our neighbor has two 6 month pups left from their litter. They have chickens so the pup is used to them, but theirs are always penned up. Ours run free part of the day. The neighbors have already done some behavior training, so the pups are gentle, and stop when told "no".

I know collies are herding dogs, but has anyone had experience with chickens with them? How do you train them to protect the chickens?

I have kept many dogs around free-range and penned chickens. Currently, I have 3 dogs tasked with being poultry guardians. They are as follows; female German Pointer, male English Shepherd (aka scotch collie) and female English Shepherd. All acquired as pups around 8 weeks of age at 2 to 3 year intervals. I have started with older dogs but that makes some parts of training process not as reliable. My dogs are not imprinted on chickens, and most went through a stage where they caused harm to chickens. That was worked out by 2 years of age. Most of the time the dogs are around the house, especially during the day. They also go in and out of house through a dog door. Some chickens come up into yard and spend much of their time around where the dogs are during the day. The bulk of the chickens are are centered on a poultry yard with a barn a little over 100 yards from the house. During the day the dogs spend little time there except when I am tending to birds or doing field work. The dogs can see almost everything from there core area around house and sprint to barn within seconds when chickens give alarm calls. Dogs had to learn that and even got a little help from me so they take different approaches to the poultry area. The poultry area has a perimeter hotwire that stops most terrestrial predators but is leaky with respect to chickens. My dogs have an entry way they use to avoid getting shocked. Based on game camera recordings, the dogs spend most of their time around poultry yard at night as the patrol in and around the poultry yard. The dog paths are easy to see.

The dogs run off predators and alert me to issues at night. The female German Pointer (used as bird dog in US) lays near bed much of the night barks when the other two become aware something. The pointer effectively amplifies signals produced by other dogs that are essentially outside my range. I do not expect the dogs to heard as chickens are not herding animals. It is easy to train a dog to help find chickens hiding in heavy vegetation. Sometimes I use the ability to find hens nesting on ground which becomes really important when chicks are involved and need to be covered from threats like Great-horned Owls.

I would have no issue taking on a Rough Collie to do the same. Expect the dog to thrive through interaction with you and not have the bone-headed nature or the livestock guarding dogs bred for working with herding stock like sheep and goats. I work around multiple groups of the latter and they are not particularly well suited for protecting backyard poultry. They would be better for protecting at area of more than 10 acres, but not the chickens as something they are imprinted on. I have a lot of experience with dogs and chickens, and said my piece. Good luck.