Dogs and Chickens???

[dolly85]

My dogs won't mess with chickens after I let a big nasty roo teach them some manners!!! LOL

 

[moodlymoo]

I am going to try letting my dogs 1 at a time smell the chickens so maybe that will help ease the introductions. My dogs know leave it and no BUT they refuse to obey the commands

 

[mommissan]

I have a bird dog. She went nuts the day we brought the flock home. I got fed up with yelling, shock collar, "no...no...no...NO..NO...NOOOOO....."
So, I just went inside one day and grabbed a bag of bread. I sat her down next to me and called the chicks over. I fed the chicks some, then the dog some and continued to alternate between them until the bag was empty. I wasn't really expecting anything out of it, but she suddenly stopped "hunting" them. Now they ALL come running when it's treat time and they ALL eat together. She'll even let them eat first.

I'm not saying she's perfectly behaved. She likes to track them all over and eventually sneak her snout right up their behinds sometimes. She even has to harass my white chicken for some reason-singles her out some days. All this did was take some of the tension away from them being together. I can trust her for short periods although I still watch her carefully. After all, she's still a dog. She's still got so much more to learn.

 

[McKenley5]

My little Chihuahua (in the photo) and ShihTsu AND the 3 cats all regard the chickens as their friends. I was very stern with the pets when I first brought the chicks home. I allowed them to sniff them and be near them, but I did not allow any agressive moves.

People at work tell me how my animals are not normal...but I think of it like my kids...they may not care for their siblings...they might want to "bite my head off", but they know what is expected of them b/c I have taught them.

 

[moodlymoo]

Which of my dogs would be best to start off with...my Newfoundland, the Papillon, or the Lab/something/something/MUTT? The Papillon killed my first batch of chicks when they were 2 weeks old and she almost lost her warm bed because of it. All my girls are 8+ weeks now and twice her size.

 

[gritsar]

Dogs and chickens don't mix IMHO. Our two shepherd have been trained to leave the chickens alone, but I wouldn't trust them without my supervision.

Our older GSD, Jax, has taken an interest in the two chicks we have in a brooder in the house. If one chick starts peeping loudly, he gets very upset and demands my attention to do something about it. Still, I'd never leave him unsupervised with the chicks if they were out of the brooder. Our late dog Charlie Girl wouldn't harm a flea. However she did get in the brooder when my brahmas were chicks and picked one up. She was attempting to take it to her bed, I'm sure to mother it, when I caught her. She dropped it when I told her to and the chick was fine, but that was just luck. Not every dog has a soft mouth.

I keep chickens and dogs seperate and I always will. That's what leashes are for.

 

[Carin]

I've got a chow-chow and two new members in the family: a brahma rooster and a brahma pullet. It's only a week now and I wouldn't leave her alone with them but she is not aggresive towards them. We had a bird in the house before that was often sitting on her and there was no problem