Dog Reactions?

[True Grit]

Quote:

Glad the chick was okay! I can imagine how fast you got that dog's mouth open..

 

[teach1rusl]

IMO, anyone who has dogs and chickens should train their dogs around their chickens, beginning when they're chicks. This certainly doesn't mean that all dogs can learn to be trusted around chicks or chickens. But I think it improves odds if your dogs learn that these appealing, mouthwatering, feathery creatures belong to YOU, and are part of the family pack. So that even folks who keep their dogs and chickens separate all the time will have a better chance of chicken survival if one somehow ends up on the dog's side of the fence.

Of course with tiny chicks, I would be highly protective when exposing them to your dog(s), as a dog can move pretty quickly (like talltimber's mastiff). My golden and great dane both do well with my big chickens, and I trust them together unsupervised. However, I only trust my dane with my 7-8 week old chicks when I'm out there with them, as their peeping and fast movements has him quivering with a "play" mindset sometimes. I feel strongly that he would have no goal of eating a chick, but I worry that he would run and jump and land on one with his huge paws (he's still puppyish). I know once they're calmer and not cheeping, he will be as great with them as he is with my big girls.

 

[mmaddie's mom]

Everyone here must live in peace and harmony... that is the ideal, anyway.

I have a very old, very lazy GSD who has, her whole life, been raised with any number of different critters, domestic and wild, in the house and out... I would trust her totally.

On the other hand, there are my grand puppies... 3 corgis & 3 other GSDs... all younger... 4 months- 4 years. They do really well but you can see by their interest that they would go after pretty easily (and have) LUCKILY the all respond to voice commands really well. I watch them pretty close when they visit. This morning one of my GSD grand puppies was out here and showed great interest AND great restraint when confronted with the roo brothers. I was very proud of her... she is a rescue dog and came to us over a year old... she has progressed a lot!

TRAINING is the key... exposure is another... general control (alpha-ness) of the situation is bottom line.

Everyone needs to know their own dogs and act accordingly.

 

[Judy]

At one point I had 4 dogs, mutts, who'd all been trained to leave chickens alone. It was great, they free ranged wherever they wanted over several acres and I lost none. I simply taught much as I have taught them about our cats, that they are part of the pack. One of them would readily kill a stray cat but sleep cuddled up to ours.

That said, I always knew there was a possibility that one or more would decide they wanted to "play" with the chickens rather than ignore them. I was fortunate that it never happened. In my mind it was a matter of more or less risk. Two of them still run with the chickens but aren't the predator deterrent that the ones we lost were.