Collie and chickens?

[aart]

I say it would depend more on how good of a dog-trainer and dog-keeper you are,
than on the dog itself. Careful introduction, with you staying in charge is essential.
6 months old is still pretty young, dogs are 'puppies' until about 3 years old, IMO.
Good Luck!

 

[LittleMissCountry]

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.

Thank you, very helpful! We only have 6 acres, and not too many predators...a lot of possum and the occasional fox. I am sure there are more that we haven't seen, but we have the coop and run pretty secure and close to the house.
We just want the dog to keep critters out of the yard, and leave the chickens alone for the most part.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

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/

Great link! That is what I am looking for. We only have 4 chickens and 6 acres, so we don't really need a guardian, just want her to leave the chickens alone for the most part.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

I say it would depend more on how good of a dog-trainer and dog-keeper you are,
than on the dog itself. Careful introduction, with you staying in charge is essential.
6 months old is still pretty young, dogs are 'puppies' until about 3 years old, IMO.
Good Luck!

Yes, good point. I think we are going to go for it. She has been doing great this weekend. We walked her out to the chicken coop and she sniffed around a little. We let the chickens out and kept her on a leash and she did great with them. I am going to look into an obedience training class, and then work with her at home around the chickens as well. I don't know that I have the skills to train her myself so I will start with the class and supplement at home.

 

[aart]

I don't know that I have the skills to train her myself so I will start with the class and supplement at home.

Good Move!
IMO you need to be in control of the dog at all times, by trust and training-not brute force, it must come to you when called and 'stop' immediately when told....along with other commands. After that it's all cake!

 

[feathermaid]

Yes, good point. I think we are going to go for it. She has been doing great this weekend. We walked her out to the chicken coop and she sniffed around a little. We let the chickens out and kept her on a leash and she did great with them. I am going to look into an obedience training class, and then work with her at home around the chickens as well. I don't know that I have the skills to train her myself so I will start with the class and supplement at home.

Great! Yes, keep her on leash always (until you know she's trustworthy). It only takes a few seconds for a dog to get excited and bolt and playfully cause a tragedy. You could tie a long lead around your waist so you can go about your business and she's safely attached to you.

I'm sure you could train your pup yourself, and the obedience classes will give you confidence. I've discovered that the hardest part about dog training for most people is training yourself how to be assertive and consistent. What worked for me was teaching my both my dogs the "leave it" command. I gave very high value treats (like small pieces of hot dog or roasted chicken) as a reward every time they looked away or acted uninterested (staring intently at birds is bad). The goal here is to take away the mystery of these fascinating clucky-flappy creatures and make other stuff seem much more appealing. Before long, chickens will just be part of the background, and the reward will be in the form of yummy poop treasures your chickens leave behind

My dog Daisy likes to run really fast, which sometimes stirs my chickens into a frenzy, but she doesn't chase them. And if she does get into anything I don't want, she'll stop immediately if I say "Leave It!"

 

[centrarchid]

When I have resorted to leash, it was of short duration. It was used just enough to get dog to associate my signal with time to stop something. If you have a control issue, work that out with dog elsewhere like on a long walk. During early stages the new dog is worn out before brought in to move around birds. Once dog understands signal to stop, I let dog loose when around chickens. Do not over use signal to stop. You should have dog ready to mess around chickens without a leash within an hour or so. You want to get so you can get dog to operate around chicken without supervision. Get dog interested in something else to play with other than chickens.

A single dog will have trouble keeping a Red Fox away from chickens unless chickens stay in a small area. If the chickens operate as a single tight group then you can pull it off. If more birds like > 20 then you will have social groups that disperse making dogs job difficult. Your dog can run as fast as a fox, but fox will cheat by snagging a chicken and running through a fence dog cannot pass.

We have about 18 acres. Chickens usually operate in within about 1/3 of that even when I have close to 90 with about half free-range. During summer the number of birds gets much higher and they range to almost half what I have making job of even 3 dogs much harder. The chickens do not always make job for dogs easier.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

Great! Yes, keep her on leash always (until you know she's trustworthy). It only takes a few seconds for a dog to get excited and bolt and playfully cause a tragedy. You could tie a long lead around your waist so you can go about your business and she's safely attached to you.

I'm sure you could train your pup yourself, and the obedience classes will give you confidence. I've discovered that the hardest part about dog training for most people is training yourself how to be assertive and consistent. What worked for me was teaching my both my dogs the "leave it" command. I gave very high value treats (like small pieces of hot dog or roasted chicken) as a reward every time they looked away or acted uninterested (staring intently at birds is bad). The goal here is to take away the mystery of these fascinating clucky-flappy creatures and make other stuff seem much more appealing. Before long, chickens will just be part of the background, and the reward will be in the form of yummy poop treasures your chickens leave behind
View attachment 1669504
My dog Daisy likes to run really fast, which sometimes stirs my chickens into a frenzy, but she doesn't chase them. And if she does get into anything I don't want, she'll stop immediately if I say "Leave It!"

Awww, love that picture!

 

[LittleMissCountry]

When I have resorted to leash, it was of short duration. It was used just enough to get dog to associate my signal with time to stop something. If you have a control issue, work that out with dog elsewhere like on a long walk. During early stages the new dog is worn out before brought in to move around birds. Once dog understands signal to stop, I let dog loose when around chickens. Do not over use signal to stop. You should have dog ready to mess around chickens without a leash within an hour or so. You want to get so you can get dog to operate around chicken without supervision. Get dog interested in something else to play with other than chickens.

A single dog will have trouble keeping a Red Fox away from chickens unless chickens stay in a small area. If the chickens operate as a single tight group then you can pull it off. If more birds like > 20 then you will have social groups that disperse making dogs job difficult. Your dog can run as fast as a fox, but fox will cheat by snagging a chicken and running through a fence dog cannot pass.

We have about 18 acres. Chickens usually operate in within about 1/3 of that even when I have close to 90 with about half free-range. During summer the number of birds gets much higher and they range to almost half what I have making job of even 3 dogs much harder. The chickens do not always make job for dogs easier.

The dog has already been around chickens since birth, since the neighbors have them, but their chickens are in a large pen all the time. We only have 4 chickens, and they stay together when out.

For now we have to use a leash when out, because we would get her from the neighbor. She will run back there when off the leash until she is is used to it here.

 

[centrarchid]

The dog has already been around chickens since birth, since the neighbors have them, but their chickens are in a large pen all the time. We only have 4 chickens, and they stay together when out.

For now we have to use a leash when out, because we would get her from the neighbor. She will run back there when off the leash until she is is used to it here.

With that starting point in mind, assume the dog has no experience with chickens. My dogs are great around my / their chickens. I am not certain they would give someone else's flock any quarter unless I was there to intervene. They could easily destroy the strange flock and not being doing it for fun, rather to protect their flock. Livestock guarding dogs can present the very same challenges.

You must get dog to accept your residence and your flock as it's own.