dog breeds that will not chase chickens

[nickie]

Quote:
That is a great question. As a general rule of thumb I would stay away from most dogs in the terrier family(often bred for pest control), pit bulls or other fighting breeds and shepherds. That said even dogs in those categories can be trained to leave chickens alone, it will just take a little to a lot more effort on your part and likely will always be a slightly greater risk of attacks with the same level of training.

Maybe other peopel can give you a better idea. A beagle perhaps? They seem to have great temperment towards people and pets but are also bred to be hunting dogs so I am not sure how much that would come into play. Reading breed discriptions Huskies are labled as being good with pets that they were raised with from a puppy. My friends Shepherd/husky mix killed their chickens but she was from the shelter as an adult dog.

Looking forward to see what breeds people recommend.

Please don't take this as a personal attack:

Huskies hunt and kill for fun, that being said they are great for pest management (spent a lot of time during the summers of my childhood scooping up coins and possums missing heads and disemboweled by the dinamic duo) and they are great with families. They are stubborn and easily bored.

My girls now (pit bulls) I trust unsupervised with freeranging ducks and chickens. They Chase of evil bunnies, cats, coins, dogs, deer, and let my neighbors cattle know they need to stay on their side of the fence

. I know not everyone will agree with my choice, but I know my dogs and I know my environment, and they know the birds belong the queen of this turdhill.

Op: its all about training. Some breeds have a higher prey drive than others, and some are way more willing to learn than others, but consistent training is where its at.

 

[bloom_ss]

Quote:
I agree 1000% In most dogs it has little to do with the breed and EVERYTHING to do with how well the dog is trained. Like Nickie said, some breeds do have a higher prey drive so they would obviously be a lot harder to train than others, but proper training is the key.

 

[workinnanie]

I have a Rottie & golden retriever that do a great job of guarding our flock. They seem to understand that the chickens are "family." They are excellent guard dogs !

 

[vebyrd36]

A tried true method for me is. Anytime I'm training a new puppy to birds I start with a puppy that is 5 days old. I become the Moma in the aspect of bottle feeding. I place the puppy in a nest with a broody Silkie hen while the puppies eyes are still closed. I do that everyday until the puppy is 12 days old. By then the puppy does not know he or she is not a bird. I have down that with all me dogs. Now the other thing is no squeaky toys or catching chasing chickens while ur puppy is around.

This method has worked for me.

I'm currently training my rot/shep cross who is 3months now. She thinks she is a chicken even eating scratch and starter if I let her.

 

[nickie]

Quote:
That is a great question. As a general rule of thumb I would stay away from most dogs in the terrier family(often bred for pest control), pit bulls or other fighting breeds and shepherds. That said even dogs in those categories can be trained to leave chickens alone, it will just take a little to a lot more effort on your part and likely will always be a slightly greater risk of attacks with the same level of training.

Maybe other peopel can give you a better idea. A beagle perhaps? They seem to have great temperment towards people and pets but are also bred to be hunting dogs so I am not sure how much that would come into play. Reading breed discriptions Huskies are labled as being good with pets that they were raised with from a puppy. My friends Shepherd/husky mix killed their chickens but she was from the shelter as an adult dog.

Looking forward to see what breeds people recommend.

Please don't take this as a personal attack:

Huskies hunt and kill for fun, that being said they are great for pest management (spent a lot of time during the summers of my childhood scooping up coins and possums missing heads and disemboweled by the dinamic duo) and they are great with families. They are stubborn and easily bored.

My girls now (pit bulls) I trust unsupervised with freeranging ducks and chickens. They Chase of evil bunnies, cats, coins, dogs, deer, and let my neighbors cattle know they need to stay on their side of the fence

. I know not everyone will agree with my choice, but I know my dogs and I know my environment, and they know the birds belong the queen of this turdhill.

Op: its all about training. Some breeds have a higher prey drive than others, and some are way more willing to learn than others, but consistent training is where its at.

I apologize for my awful autocorrect...

I forgot to mention my girls were full grown when the first birds set their little webbed feet on our property. It took one correction for them to learn they were off limits. By that I mean one swat on one snout once. I have spent years training and training and training my girls. Cats outside, have at em, house cat... Not even a glance. Our property is theirs to guard and they do it joyfully

Train train train.

 

[CUDA]

You need a breed specifically bred for livestock, and with chickens it's hard to beat a GP.

 

[Just Fluff]

I will strongly second what Watchdogps said. Make a list of breeds that appeal to you, then do your research on their temperament as well as blood lines. Decide what type of dog you feel would be best for you and your family, then go from there. Make a list of what appeals to you, whether or not you want to spend a lot of time grooming the dog, easy or more challenging to train, high energy or more mellow, etc. Keep in mind that even if one dog, say a Lab, husky, shepherd, etc., are good with chickens, doesn't mean they all will be. If you want a purebred dog, then I would encourage you to do your research. If the breed is a working breed, such as the GSD, you may want to look for breeders who are breeding more for farm purposes than Schutzhund and police work, for example. There is so much variance in each breed, that you have to do a bit of research to find those who are breeding for what you are looking for. If you feel you can handle an LGD, locate a breeder that demonstrates that his/her dogs are trustworthy around chickens, and that the pups have been raised around them too. Almost any dog can be a good chicken dog, but there are certain traits that are better for it than others. As already mentioned, a calm, laid-back personality is probably much preferable to a highly excited dog.

I personally have a Standard Rat Terrier. She has been taught to leave the chickens alone, and I trust her 99%. I also have an English Shepherd. He is 110% trustworthy around the chickens. I am surprised no one has mentioned the English Shepherd yet, as they are a combination of herding/livestock guardian/pest control. Since the ES is probably the only all-round farm dog breed left, you will find most breeders still breed for that quality. Many ES will naturally take poultry under their wings and watch over them if they are raised to know that they are part of the pack. My ES hasn't bonded with the chickens like I was hoping he would, but that could be partially my doing, as well as the set up that we have. I have seen photographs of ES with chickens lounging all around them, and have heard many owners saying how their ES naturally takes care of the poultry. Some of it is natural, but you still need to work with them, just maybe not as hard.

I've heard that some LGDs are great with chickens, others not so much. (This is off of the LGD list that I belong to.)

I think what it all boils down to is pick a breed that appeals to you, do your research, and train and work with the dog regularly, and you will most likely end up with an excellent, safe around chickens, dog.

Good luck in your search!

 

[Mahonri]

My Golden Retriever lets the chickens walk on top of her when she is sleeping. She is a pathetic bird dog who would go after anything that she thought was harming them.

 

[watchdogps]

Quote:
That is actually an incredibly BAD idea! It is well documented that orphan pups, or even pups taken from littermates and mom earlier than 7 weeks can have serious behavior issues, including serious, unpredictable aggression. There are things they need to learn that humans cannot teach them.
I'm glad its worked out for you apparently, but I would strongy advise that no one try this. Yeah, sometimes things work out okay, but when they don't, its really ugly. As a petsitter with a behavior background, I got referred the dogs with behavior probs by the behaviorists working with them. They had all kinds of issues, one big one being biting without warning, and little bite inhibitiob. Many had to be euthanised despite extensive work.

 

[chickened]

We have 3 heelers and none of them chase chickens. The key is training them to leave them alone.