dogs and chickens

[sheila d strals]

how do u get your dogs to stop digging out to chase and kill chickens?

 

[tcmstalcup]

Maybe spend time with leashed dog with chickens teaching him that touching chickens is against the rules. Kinda depends on kind of dog, time you can invest, location of dogs vs chickens. I have a couple of old hens that trained my last dog. He got good and flogged a few times and no longer cares for live chicken.

 

[Liz new]

One of our dogs killed one of our babies today! Very upset, reenforcing everything now.

 

[chfite]

Dogs can be quite persistent diggers. Laying wire on the ground at edge of the kennel, and attaching it to the fencing will help prevent escape.

Chris

 

[jlquick30]

We had a rescue that kept getting out and we couldn't find a solution. She killed two hens - one of which was our prized BA who we just loved. My husband reinforced the fence, put things around the bottom of the fence, we had brick lining one side of the yard (in the ground) - she still found ways to get out. Ultimately, we decided to rehome the dog -- now I'm heartbroken because we lost a chicken AND our dog. :\

 

[Arizona Son]

I vote for working on socializing your dog to your chickens whenever possible. Sooner or later, a dog or a chicken will escape its normal boundaries & cross paths with each other. And murphy's law says it will happen while you arent around to supervise the outcome of. Much better to have your dogs trained to totally ignore the chickens. It can be done more easily than you think, although some breeds (German Shorthaired Pointers, Labs, other gundog breeds) are ill suited to being around birds because of their sporting backgrounds. I have 2 bully breeds that will amaze you with how calm they are around my chickens, yet let one of the dogs catch sight of a rabbit in the yard & the chase is on, they hunt it down & shred it. They just know, through training, that chickens are part of their own "pack" and arent to be messed with.