Dogs and chickens

[TJAnonymous]

I am sorry you lost your pullet and feel so disappointed in your dog.


To me this seems to be an unfavourable mix as the Husky is well known for a strong prey drive and obstinacy and Great Pyrenees for their independent spirit and love of freedom.

Great Pyrenees are also herding dogs and used in many places around animals. Guess you just can never be sure at the end of the day....

She is around those chickens every day, with the fence between them... She ignores them... She doesn't run at the fence or act interested in the chickens at all. They frequently take dirt baths behind the pavilion right next to the fence and she could care less.... She is FAR more interested in squirrels and moles.

But I never trusted her completely which is why I've never allowed her outside of the yard without being on a leash.

Clearly now I have two critical actions I must take -

1. Find a way to keep the chickens from flying into the backyard

2. Find a way to teach her not to kill chickens.

I feel much more certain about the 1st one than the 2nd.....

 

[ackie]

2. Find a way to teach her not to kill chickens.

I feel much more certain about the 1st one than the 2nd.....

Metal chicken armour!
I know this is a serious problem but I hope the idea of tiny chicken knights brought you a smidge of something good in this awful dilemma

 

[LaFleche]

1. Find a way to keep the chickens from flying into the backyard

You could clip the feathers of one wing which lets them lose their equilibrium when trying to fly and makes it much harder to fly up.
In case of emergency they will still be able to escape to safety, but they will no longer enjoy flying about or up into trees etc.

Another way would be to cover their run with netting.

 

[ackie]

Oh! Can you put bird spikes on top of the pavillion so they cant use it to get up high enough to go over the fence?

 

[LaFleche]

2. Find a way to teach her not to kill chickens.

Being part husky and having already enjoyed the kill and eaten half of it, I think this ship has already sailed.

With supervision she might behave, but I do not think this will last when she is alone with the enticement.

 

[LaFleche]

Another thought: Is she already neutered?

If not, she might be nearing her first heat which due to hormone overflow brings a lot of changes in personality and behaviour.

 

[LaFleche]

Another member had similar problems with their dog: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ry-slaughtered-chicken.1399659/#post-22969223

 

[irish44395]

I think the best thing to do is fix the chicken fence so they can't get out. then teach a emergency down and practice often so when you yell down the dog lays down and stays.she was just doing what dogs do,no difference than chasing the tree rats
Pete

 

[Geena]

You are using the e-collar incorrectly. The shocks need to be very well timed to coincide exactly with when the indiscretion is initiated, not later when you happened to discover it and were pissed off. I would suggest that you lose the collar until you learn how to use it correctly. It's VERY easy to ruin a good dog with poor e-collar corrections.
The reason your dog growled at you is because it was already amped up from making a kill, then you shocked it out of nowhere, then scruffed it, and spanked it. No doubt the dog was confused and defensive and probably even afraid of you at that point. Nothing wrong with disciplining a dog, but it needs to be done properly and effectively and not out of anger.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Lots of good ideas here.... My husband and I have discussed selling the pavilion (it's heavy gauge metal) and building a different one further away from the fence.... More in the center of the chicken yard. Unfortunately I can't feasibly put up overhead netting over the chicken yard. It's a big yard.... Maybe 40 ft x 150 ft? And there are two collasol oak trees in the way which provide necessary shade over my backyard, coop, and run. (This is also where the squirrels live.... Ha ha).

However, until I can sell it and build a new one, I will have to somehow attach some poles to the chain link fence behind the pavilion and then put up another 4 ft (height) of chicken wire to discourage any other chickens from trying to free range in the backyard. I will probably need to do this along approximately 15-20 feet of fence line.

I do like the suggestion of clipping wings too. Most of my chickens are far too fat and heavy to fly that far off the ground... But my Ameracaunas and the Blue Andalusians clearly don't have any trouble getting over the fence. I probably don't need to clip the roosters because they generally stay with the hens... But all of these new Ameracauna and Blue Andalusian chicks should probably be clipped for their safety.

As for my dog, she just climbed into my lap (yes, all 80 lbs of her) and licked my hands for a good 20 minutes....