Dog with Chicks?

[Funsizeracing]

I can't trust my chickens with my dog! She's a maltese and just wants to love on everything. My hens peck and chase her, now she wants nothing to do with them.

My mom brings her GSD up to visit. He's really gentle with small dogs and cats but is very curious around the chickens. He's pretty protective of his small critters so I think once he knows they are "his" he'll be really good with them just like my other small pets.

 

[joypeters]

it's more than a breed. it's how your dog has been trained, how willing they are to please you, and the dog's basic tempermant. puppies are problematic just because they are more excitable and have had less time to be trained by you.

we have two 8 year old labs who are very well trained. we introduced chickens last year. all my husband had to do was tell them a few times LEAVE IT, and from then on they have been perfect. our Gracie does like to sniff around after the girls, but never gets near them.

if you wouldn't leave your dog with a two year old, i wouldn't leave them with chickens.

joy

 

[bt03]

Sorry for all the confusion but you won't find and specific breed of dog that is perfect for chickens. DH has a miniature poodle/chihuahua mix and even she is a mess. She is in love with my EE's, Cornish X, bantams, and my ducks but she cannot stand my 3 barred rocks. She will sit with the birds, protect them from anything that walks their way, get in the pool with the ducks and even try to groom them all, but with the rocks she is a whole other dog. She will chase them, stand off with the rooster and keep them away from their feed just for a giggle. We have been working at it for a year now and we know it will never be perfect but we figure out what is perfect for us

 

[giefdog]

WE. have 2 labs a bid yellow, and a medium black and the protect our flock pretty well after the roo of course, 3 wks ago something took out our turken roo at sunset and our labs ran over the underground fence and fended off the varmet but I could't save the roo but the dogs really only like to eat the poo as a treat but don't bother the girls

 

[louclare]

Thank you every body this is a big help!!!

 

[dweej]

I would agree with posters who say it's the training not the breed that will decide if the dog coexists with the chickens. We have three australian shepherds and the two that we raised from puppies are very respectful and the one one we didn't is a bit of a....turd. Our chicks are also 6 weeks old and we just did our first herding session with the dogs on Sunday. If you want, you can read about it and see pictures here . I'm feeling pretty confident that we can make it work!

 

[armadamork]

We have two black lab/ Golden Retreiver mix and we introduced them to our first batch of chicks when they were only one. They immediatley tried to playfully put them in their mouth but ONE quick, loud, NOOO was all it took for us. We were lucky. They are very good together now. I think our biggest issue is sudden movement. The girls are always moving suddenly and the chicks get startled but don't run away.

 

[SundownWaterfowl]

My Golden Retriever, Sadie, is good with the birds. If I hold them in my hand she's fine, but once I put them down she tries to play with them. But were working on it and she's doing great with the birds. Our last Golden, Heidi, was great with the chicks also. She would lay by the brooders and watch the chicks incase any got out.
Our other Golden we had years ago, he gulped down 3 baby ducks in a second.
Here's Sadie with a new baby silkie.

I took the top off the incubator to look at the chicks and she stuck her head right in and was watch the babies hop around.

 

[kara_leigh]

Quote:
That is exactly what we did. We have two Australian Shepherd puppies. We got them about a month before we got the chickens. The dogs are 13 weeks old now. They were very intrigued by the chicks at first, but all we did was tell them "leave it" a couple times, and now they could care less about the chicks. The chicks are also not bothered by the dogs at all anymore (and we've only had them for a week) unless the dogs come running past and that just startles them. The chicks are more scared of the humans than the dogs.

 

[Coffeemama7]

I see that everyone agrees, a herding dog!
I can tell you what does NOT work. Dachshund, Shiba Inu, Pitbulls, boxers, any terrier!
All of these dogs HUNT, they dig, they pursue, they kill.
Unfortunately our farm learned the hard way.

The only dog that leaves the chickens and ducks alone is my tiny Chihuahua. She herds them, and never hurts them.
But she is no protection, just noisy.