Do you trust your dog around your chickens?

[Jessica Rabbit]

It all basically depends on the dog. Our boxer hasn't been allowed near the chickens but I know if he did get one in his mouth all he would do is gum it a bit.... Our other dog is another story. This dog is old and set in his ways, I had an injured chicken and put her in a large hutch that i have. I didn't even think anything bad could happen to her in there but I found her in my driveway ....nasty sight. The old dog had literally broken into the hutch! GRRRRRRRRR I wanted to shoot that dog (my own) but I realized that it is just part of his"nature". So all in all it depends on the dog.

 

[dntd]

My bichon as she is soo lazy, has never chased a ball and could care less about all my animals, buddy is another story, he's a puppy who like to chase animals, never hurt any but not givinng him any chance.

 

[DaveBeaty]

I used to and it ended badly. I left two New Hampshire Reds in a plastic children's playhouse in the same yard as our pug, then went to a relative's house. When we came back that evening the chickens had gotten out and the pug had killed them. Now the new chickens stay in the back yard.

 

[vetgirl00us]

Just my two cents... I have a 2 year old welsh corgi who did not grow up around chickens. She is perfectly fine with them, I leave the birds and the dog out in the yard and she will chase off the crows and other critters that land in the yard.

 

[Beekissed]

Implicitly. I trust them 24/7 with my free range flock and have done so for years now. No incidents. I only had to train the younger dog and that took about 20 min. total. I used the alpha dog method and it worked very well.

I think it helps if you have worked with your dogs and they look to you as the alpha leader. Basic obedience is a good start always. Teach the dog to respect your wishes and then teach the dog that the chickens are yours...not his.

 

[PunkinPeep]

I have a mutt named Jelly who i trust completely around my full grown chickens. She has fully proven herself.

However, after she had a litter of puppies, she instinctively started to want to bathe young chicks who chirp a lot, so she has to be restrained when they're outside. While, i don't want her to bathe them, this was even more proof to me that she was not going to purposely hurt them. She managed to get a couple of those babies completely in her mouth, but they got nothing but really wet.

Poor babies. but she did not try to bite them.

It works out well at my house. My dogs think they ARE chickens.

 

[RedfogsFlock]

An anotolian shepard or pyerenese are good dogs for flocks. Poodles no they are bird dogs. I have to ad rhodesian to the no list too. We got one when he was 7 weeks old. He's been awesome with our whole flock! He would even lay on the ground and let our ducks walk all over him!! Then yesterday he wiped out a lot of our flock within minutes! He is 3 months old, and now living somewhere else! He even got our almost grown turkeys!
We have a ten year old yorkie, he's awesome with everyone! We also have a 9 year old chihuahua and she's good with the older girls, but she has gone for the babies before! So it's really up to the temperment of the dog.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[Chickaholic]

Quote:
We have an 8 lb pekingese/chihuahua mixed dog and she killed one of our baby chickens. But she is new to all of this too and would do it again....I know it!!

 

[holachicka]

I just read an article in a chicken magazine about socializing dogs and chickens!!! I am SOOOOOOO sorry I don't know what magazine it was, because I passed it down to other family members... If you are interested in looking up the article online, let me know and I'll find the mag, even willing to scan and send to you!!!

As far as my experiences... I have two dogs, a german shepard-lab mix, and a pitbull mix... My shep mix has a VERY strong prey drive... NOTHING I can do will discourage his agressiveness towards animals he thinks are prey... my pitt mix though... is willing to chase anything that runs, BUT knows when I tell her no that she has to stay back... I still would not trust either of my dogs. the shep mix especially because once he gets it in his sites, there is no stopping him! my pitt, If I tell her no she will listen IF I am around...

 

[LauraG]

Quote:
I would love to have a link to the article, should you find it!