Do ckickens and blue heelers mix?

[cmjust0]

I just want to reiterate why I post what I post about mixing herding breed dogs with chickens...

I love herding breed dogs. They're smart. They're generally very excited to see you when you come home in the evening. They're energetic. In a word, they're just fun. I wouldn't trade the world for my herding breed dogs.

I love them dearly. I can't stress that enough.

However, I see posts on this forum time and again from people looking to go get themselves a dog to keep around their chickens, and inevitably, someone recommends a herding breed dog.

Now, if that herding breed dog is worth a plug nickel, it's going to have a strong modified prey drive and an inclination to stare at small animals and make them want to vacate. That's what herding breeds do, if they're any good.

A strong modified prey drive is primarily triggered by sight, and nothing is more likely to kick it off than all those feathered tennis balls and frisbees that you call "chickens" out there in the backyard.

Yeah, that's right...to a dog with a strong prey drive, a chicken is just a frisbee that throws itself. Nothing more. When they see a chicken go flapping as chickens are wont to do, it might as well be you tossing a tennis ball.

Yes, you could probably train the dog not to chase the feathered frisbees, but...why? What are you left with if successful?

A useless herding dog...that's what...a dog that's been conditioned to go against all its natural instincts. A dog that may have been really, really great if it had been allowed to do its job, but instead is sentenced to a fate of resisting the urge to do what it was made to do.

And if you're not successful, what do you have? Well, if you're most folks, all you've got is an errand to run...to the shelter or rescue to drop off that #*#&&#*@# stupid dog that keeps killing all your chickens.

All I'm saying is...pick the right dog for the situation. If you want to herd your poultry, by all means -- go get a border collie or a heeler or an ACD or a GSD!

If, however, you're simply looking for a dog that won't kill your chickens...well, there are thousands of other breeds of dog out there to choose from, some of which are made not only to not kill small animals, but protect them from your neighbor's herding breed dogs.

That's all I'm saying.

 

[Heelers&Chickens_OhMy]

Quote:

I think we'd just like to point out that, unless you get a dog from a breeder who can tell you what parents are, the parents' parents, and the extended family tree, you just need to evaluate each dog on an individual basis. You make an excellent point that a herding breed shouldn't necessarily be your first choice, but I think the rest of us with herding breeds that are managable with our hens just want to point out that it's not impossible.

 

[warmfuzzies]

All I know is our experience. We had a heeler that killed chickens to eat them, she was NOT playing OR herding, she was hunting. We adopted her as a grown dog, we have no idea what her past life was. She killed ten chickens, and we had to get rid of her.

We also have a GSD, who never has payed any mind to the chickens. NEVER. He is outside with them everyday, they free range, and they walk right by him, babies and all. Our 2 day old babies with the broody mamas never got a second look. I totally trust him.

It has nothing to do with breed (except maybe terriers, I would never try that) and everything to do with the individual dog and to a certain extent the training.

The most important thing is to train the dog BEFORE anything happens, you never want him to get a taste for either chasing or eating them.

 

[Ray Babbit]

I grew up on a farm in Nebraska complete with 3 Blue Heelers, 10,000 acres of crops, up to 500 head of cattle, about 1,000 hogs, 10 cats, and a small chicken coop that was my Grandmothers. Let me start by saying that our Heelers pretty much ran everything, and there is no way the farm could have survived without them unless we hired about 10 people to take over. Our Heelers always applied only what force or tactic that was needed to handle the task at hand. I have seen them go from winning a head to head confrontation with a bull that wants to kill everything by biting-nipping it's lips and or face when it charges to 3 minutes later they are rounding up baby chicks that escaped by gently steering them with their noses instead of their teeth. Grandma put a wood box by the coop and in the event that a few fuzzy chicks got out one of the Heelers would carefully pick them up one at a time and gently put them in the box. Once they were all in the box she would go find Grandma and show her the chicks in the box. Grandma would put the chicks back inside with the others patch a small hole in the wire and go about her business. I don't ever remember the dogs ever injuing a single chick. The dogs would even take turns going to make sure the chicks woke up to eat several times during the night so Grandma didn't have to do it. The next morning we would be helping them load hogs and often times there would be a street style knock down drag out brawl with the one hog that refuses to go up the ramp. If you have never seen a hog that decides it's not going up the ramp argue with two Heelers that are going to get that hog up the ramp no matter what it takes, well lets just say you could sell tickets to the event. 5 minutes after the hog is in the truck complete with sore butt and face you will see one of them trot through the farrowing house to make sure all is well in the nursery. The other one patrols through all the hog barns just to remind everyone who's boss. While all of that's going on the third Heeler has checked the cattle, kicked a bull's rear end and double checked the electric fence. Then for an afternoon encore they might kill a Coyote they spotted crossing the road and top that off by bringing an abandoned baby rabbit to Grandma up at the house so the cats don't kill it. Here is the amazing part of it all..... I don't remember anyone ever teaching them anything besides their name and what no means. They learned pretty much everything else by watching us, They watched Grandma for Chicken handling, They watched us for pig moving and loading, and they watched the eldest Heeler to learn how to peel the lips off a bull. Some of my cousings occasionally got nipped on the heels which was what Grandpa called a warning shot, but that only happened when they were fighting or doing something they were not supposed to do. Now I am not saying all Heelers are like ours in any way, but they had morals, compassion, and knew right from wrong better than most people. Every one of them would have fought a Mountain Lion to the death protecting every living being on the fram right down to saving one of those little yellow fuzzy things that chirp alot. Heelers are all not going to be like the ones I grew up with and may not be for everyone, but our farm would not have survived without them. We loved everyone of them and treated them like a true family member. At the end of the day you could find all 3 of them in a pile on the bed sleeping with Grandma. Sorry to be so long winded, but I hope you found my Heeler story to be a good read. By the way the Heeler my wife and I have had for 6 yrs. has now learned to flush the toilet and figured out on his own that pulling that handle means a cold drink. He also turns the light on when entering a dark room...... and how did he learn this stuff? Simply by watching my wife!
Ray

 

[Ray Babbit]

In my previous post I forgot to mention that my wife helps a couple of Cattle Dog rescues including one here in Michigan. If anyone is looking for a Heeler or would like some information feel free to contact me and I will be happy to give you contact info etc.
Thanks,
Ray

 

[gone native]

Our Blue heeler male (intact) was seven years old when we decided to raise free ranged chickens. We started introducing "Catfish" to them when they were young pullets (they were in a cage) about everyday. Once the big day arrived that we let our chickens loose in "his" yard, we kept the dog on a lease and walked him around them a good bit. Then we would give him some off lease time but kept him by our side while we worked in the yard. He did good for a while (for being a blue heeler that is) for most of the day but eventually he made several lunges and we had to put Catfish in lockdown in his pen. We repeated the process for a few days and he finally realized that the chickens were part of pack. He gradually became protective of them (he almost caught a hawk that was dive bombing them). He would only growl at them when they ate his dog food and then chase them off a ways but he was really good with them. He only killed one chicken several months after we got them. It was our rooster who kind of had it coming but he had no problems with our next rooster. We went on for three years without further incident.

As far as heelers go... I've had four of them over the years and they can be stubborn as heck when they're younger than two y.o. Yours should be calming down soon if it hasn't already. We are getting ready to purchase our next heeler pup soon so this should be interesting. Good luck!

 

[daphneysmamma]

We adopted a heeler lab mix today she's 8weeks old..smart little girl. I sure hope she does well with our flock. She has learned the sit command today.