Dog/Chicken question

[Apyl]

One of my dogs is a rescue from a neighbor down the road. The boyfriend use to tie the dog up and would shoot his gun right over the dogs head,beat him, and had him in a discusting sloppy kennel, and the dog has also killed a couple chicken while being with the other owners. The chickens belonged to another neighbor that lives on the other side of the woods of my dogs previous owner. The previous owner swears he didnt kill the chickens to be mean it was that he was playing and got to ruff. Anyway, we have had Wilbur (the dog) since July last year. He had zero training so I have been training him and so far he is doing great. BUT now that we are having chickens this year I am a little worried about him. If a dog kills a chicken does he continue to want to do it? I do plan on doing training with him when the babies come and training him the "leave it" I just hope its enough. Does anyone have any experience with this? He is about 2 years old and a quick learner. My husband was wanting to have the chickens free range but I'm thinking a large fenced in area to be safe.

 

[M.sue]

Scroll the site. I remember seeing a thread where a guy trained dogs and gave advice to chicken owners who's dog went after a chicken to two. We trained our dog right from the moment we got our flock and included her in every activity pertaining to the chickens...watering, feeding, cleaning brooder, etc. Of course our dog was always in arms reach and we reinforced the training with one word commands like....Nice, Chickens, No, Friends. It was a long process, a few months of daily/constant exposure to the chickens. She now run loose when the flock is free ranging, goes out with me to collect eggs and waits patiently by the coop when I go out to give the flock a treat for she knows she'll get one too!!

 

[dainerra]

start training him to "leave it" Work on a 100% reliable recall. Most importantly, don't leave him unsupervised around the chickens.
Dogs don't kill chickens to eat them, unless they are starving. Most dogs don't even realize that chickens are edible! Like the previous owner said, they just play too rough. Chickens flutter and squawk and rush all over the place and that triggers the doggie instinct to chase. The birds make more noise and flap and run around even faster and it's great fun. *Bounce* *Bounce* goes the doggie *squish* *squish* goes the chicken. When that bird stops moving, the dog just starts chasing another one. That's why dog attacks will often wipe out an entire flock and leave all the bodies.
Personally, since the dog has a history, I wouldn't try to get him to be "friends" with the birds. I'd focus on teaching him to ignore them.

 

[Mountain Man Jim]

I agree.

Jim

 

[Apyl]

start training him to "leave it" Work on a 100% reliable recall. Most importantly, don't leave him unsupervised around the chickens.
Dogs don't kill chickens to eat them, unless they are starving. Most dogs don't even realize that chickens are edible! Like the previous owner said, they just play too rough. Chickens flutter and squawk and rush all over the place and that triggers the doggie instinct to chase. The birds make more noise and flap and run around even faster and it's great fun. *Bounce* *Bounce* goes the doggie *squish* *squish* goes the chicken. When that bird stops moving, the dog just starts chasing another one. That's why dog attacks will often wipe out an entire flock and leave all the bodies.
Personally, since the dog has a history, I wouldn't try to get him to be "friends" with the birds. I'd focus on teaching him to ignore them.

Thanks for the reassuarnce. I am working on Leave it wich is going good, recall on the other hand we have issue. He does good until he smells something, then his nose takes over and he has is nose to the ground and runs. I will deffinitly keep trying.

 

[dainerra]

One tip, never call him if you can't make sure he will obey. Use a long line until he is reliable. Otherwise, just go get him instead of giving him the opportunity to ignore you.

 

[Mrs. Feathers]

start training him to "leave it" Work on a 100% reliable recall. Most importantly, don't leave him unsupervised around the chickens.
Dogs don't kill chickens to eat them, unless they are starving. Most dogs don't even realize that chickens are edible! Like the previous owner said, they just play too rough. Chickens flutter and squawk and rush all over the place and that triggers the doggie instinct to chase. The birds make more noise and flap and run around even faster and it's great fun. *Bounce* *Bounce* goes the doggie *squish* *squish* goes the chicken. When that bird stops moving, the dog just starts chasing another one. That's why dog attacks will often wipe out an entire flock and leave all the bodies.
Personally, since the dog has a history, I wouldn't try to get him to be "friends" with the birds. I'd focus on teaching him to ignore them.

x3
I agree that being "friends" might not be the way for a dog who has already had experience being "too friendly"
My suggestion would be to work on the down/stay and put him in this position when you are working with you birds and he is with you.
I also agree with dainerra...keep him on the long rope just in case the temptation arises and you need to interviene.
He is a handsome boy....good luck.

 

[Apyl]

Thank you for all the suggestions. I'm glad they are all positive. He really is a great dog.