Dog barking at chickens

[Sandra Lee]

Thank you all, you have all been so helpful!!!

She is a very well behaved dog and I do believe I am pack leader. She is perfect in the house and for the most part outside but she does bark at rabbits, the chickens, the kids across the street when they are playing outside, etc. She does not bark all day thankfully, I am just worried that she might start now that I am seeing how bad she still is with chickens around. I didn't want to get a bark collar, as other people said, for a few different reasons but I had heard that the collar with a remote could be beneficial. I was only worried about it being confusing and making her skittish because she does have a bit of a quirky personality.

Thank you so much for the great response muttsfan!

Birdydeb I would love to hear your friend's response, thank you so much for offering to talk to her.

ES4me - I had no idea a standard poodle would have such a high prey drive! I had an Aussie growing up so I figured I was pretty good with intelligent dogs and would do okay....Dory the poodle is definitely an entirely different challenge! She is definitely not allowed out when they are free-ranging...I don't think I would ever trust her. She catches and eats song-birds and she has caught one of my previous chickens once (she got out on accident, I caught her right away and they chicken was fine). She is SUPER fast and I really think if I hadn't pulled her off within a second she would have killed that bird.

Folly's Place - I totally agree that having her on a leash would be the best thing, and I know some people may think I shouldn't have a dog if I don't have time time to dedicate to that type of training. However, I really do not right now so I am hoping to find something else that will work. With the warmer weather we should be outside almost every day anyway so I am hoping that the increased time re-directing, playing ball, etc will help. I will try to do some leash work as well.

chickegeorgeto - I wish I could say with confidence that I am smarter than this dog! HAH! Some days I think she doesn't have a brain in her head and other days I think she is secretly plotting to rule the earth. I think she is way more clever than I give her credit for.

Thank you again for all of your thoughtful, kind responses! Sad to know my SS may have died of fright but hopefully I can prevent it from happening in the future. My Barred Rock has a bloody beak this morning as well though so I am wondering if the Buff Orpington is pecking and maybe I just haven't seen in happening.

 

[ccrow]

The advantage of using a bark collar vs. a manual collar w/remote is that the bark collar will shock immediately with the barking, so the dog will learn very quickly- especially a smart dog like a poodle. No matter how vigilant we are, we can't be as quick as that with the remote; plus in your situation you have the distinct possibility of the dog barking at the same time your toddler starts screaming, and of course you're going to react to that first, thus not hitting the remote at the precise instant. Once the collar interrupts the barking habit, you can give reinforcement to the desired behavior(not barking). And a smart dog will soon know what that collar is and what it does; I've gotten to the point where I've been able to simply show the collar to the dog and say "No bark!" Then she would stop So you should definitely be able to get to a point where you don't need the collar anymore.

 

[bigoledude]

I still maintain that she should not be completely prohibited from barking at all. Standard poodles are typically high-strung. The ones from working stock especially. Stopping this dog from barking altogether could easily lead to a very neurotic dog with serious behavior problems.

Did you know that a dog often displays pleasure by barking? In many cases, females especially, believe they are "serving/protecting you by barking. You ever notice when you take your female dog for a walk and she walks ahead of you checking things out? She'll frequently look back at you like "See how well I'm protecting you? Come ahead everything's okay".

I'm not tolerant of poorly behaving dogs. It's just that I also don't believe in depriving a dog of EVERY pleasure. Especially the joy they get from protecting you!

Barking at the chickens is just mischievous behavior and, she knows this! There's no positive instinctual protective thing going on here. She's having a blast tormenting the chickens and must be forced to stop.

With a remote operated shock collar, the dog will learn very quickly to not bark at those things you want left alone. This is not a difficult situation to resolve at all. This type of behavior modification has been successfully accomplished in thousands upon thousands of dogs.

 

[ChickNanny13]

Hi everyone,

I have searched the forums on this and haven't found a thread but please direct me to one if I am wrong and missed it. I have seen several threads about training a dog to avoid attacking chickens but I would love to know how best to train the dog to not bark at them every time they are in the run. I have a very secure coop and run and I actually have an electric fence loop around both so my dog can not go near either. However, she runs just outside the electric loop all day barking at the chickens. Honestly, I know I can put her on a leash and work with her but I have a 1 year old and a 3 year old and I haven't been able to do it often enough to make it really sink in. Every time we are outside playing I call her away and give her a treat when she ignores them and comes to me but her pray drive is very high and she really is not very motivated by treats. (She is a standard poodle, we have been through 2 obedience classes, she knows all of the normal commands but none of them will work if there is an animal/person/dog around that she wants to play with). I am wondering if a dog whistle or some sort of sound may help? Since she already has an electric fence I am worried that a remote shock collar would just confuse her and freak her out...although that may be my last resort. She is too fast to catch once she is outside and I just don't have the significant time to spend with her on a leash....and I'm not sure it would work anyway because she is so obsessed with the chickens.

Also, can anyone tell me if it is possible for the dog to scare a chicken to death by barking at it? I had a backyard flock before and they didn't seem bothered by her but I recently got a few new pullets and I found one dead in the run yesterday. (a speckled sussex that I was SO excited about!) I looked her over and didn't see anything wrong, I hadn't noticed her acting strangely, and she was under the coop in the middle of the run (no predator holes in the mesh, very fine mesh so nothing could reach through, and she was in the middle of the run so nothing could have reached her anyway). They have free ranged a couple of times so maybe she ate something she shouldn't have but otherwise I have no clue why she died. I've had them for a few weeks...and I know other animals can go into shock when scared so I was wondering if chickens can as well? Sorry if this is a naive question, I just hadn't really thought about it before but now I am worried for my remaining 2 pullets.

Thank you so much for any suggestions you may have!

I have a neighbor with 6 dogs, 2 are hounds that bark at everything! Garden hose (stream setting) is now their worst enemy All they need to do is see me walk to the garden hose & they're done. I use a squirt bottle on my dog (Chi), now all I do is pick up the bottle and she's done. May work for you but it's a good try.

 

[aart]

You're going to have to take/make the time to work with her.
Start on the leash, walk her near the birds and correct her if she barks at them or even show too much interest.
Have a key word(s)...I use 'no more barking' when I've checked what he's barking at...or 'QUIT' if the first doesn't work, he knows that means end of the line.
Work on the basics too if she's not listening because she's distracted by the birds.

Funny tho, I got my first two dogs from folks who bought a dog and couldn't spend enough time with them anymore because of having a kid.
My third dog, std poodle, came from SPCA. They are very smart, but need persistent training.