Dog Terrorizing Chickens

[AspiringUrbaniteFarmer]

So I don't know what it is, my dog was calm when he first met the chicks & now he's crazy for them. They are a month old & he watches me w/ them out the window like a total creep. Tonight my son let him out, not realizing the chicks were free roaming, & the dog went right for them...seemingly to have a chicken snack. My super mother sense had me yelling the dog's name before anything came even close to happening (he's a good dog who responds to "stop!"), but seriously... steps need to happen to prevent anything from going further. Do dogs & full grown chickens work so much better? I see my friends dogs & chickens co-exsist beautifully. Is it only natural that he is interested? Maybe he wasn't going to hurt them, but he was certainly full speed ahead towards them.

 

[BrokenRoadFarm]

My dogs bark at me from the window whenever they see me going down to the run. I never let the dogs out unless the girls are in their run. And I don't "talk" to the girls either until the dogs are back in the house. We have had our girls for 2.5 months (they are 19 weeks now - got them at 8 weeks), and we are just now getting to the point where the dogs don't "look" for them when they go outside. But I would never feel comfortable having the dogs and girls out at the same time (not even in the chicken tractor). One of our dogs is a lab mix - they are bred for bird hunting...just doesn't mix.

 

[dainerra]

he is curious. Plus, chickens run and flap and make amazing noises - the perfect squeeky toy.

Keep him on leash and introduce him to the chickens. Take him out as close as possible without him getting over-excited. Start there and when he is reliable at keeping his attention on you at that distance, you get closer. Continue on and on until he is in the middle of the flock.

Or you can teach him to "leave it" and completely ignore the birds. Steps are exactly the same. Find the distance where he first shows interest in looking at the birds; back off a few steps. When he looks at the bird tell him to "leave it". If he looks at you click/mark/say "YES!" and give him a treat. When he is reliably ignoring the birds at this distance, get closer.

Even when he is ignoring the birds totally, I would recommend never leaving him alone with them unsupervised. Until you trust him, I would never let him around the birds off-leash. One fun game of "bowling for birdies" will undo weeks worth of work.

 

[AspiringUrbaniteFarmer]

Thanks, everyone! Great responses & ideas. Will definitely keep him on a tight leash & hope that they can find their common ground.