Dogs and chicks-More of a fun thought, but I wonder...

[JacinLarkwell]

Thank you for the reply. I plan to start hatching sex link’s that I can tell gender from birth. My husband suggested we put one female in a group of males, show her each one by one and reward her when we show her the female. And just repeat until she starts trying to nudge the female for the treat. I’m sure as we try I will adjust the method to what seems to get the best response.

Sounds like a good idea. Maybe train her to pick out Male's instead? I know that they're kinda sneaky sometimes

 

[FloorCandy]

she already has a lot of obedience training, and she can touch targets with her nose and paws etc. so I have a lot of options I can try out once I can produce sex link’s in a couple months.

 

[FloorCandy]

It will be interesting to see how it works out. I know I would have difficulty from the beginning trying to teach my dog the chicks weren't treats lol

I was sitting on a chair with my kids and one of our first chicks several months ago, it suddenly leapt out of my hands and literally flew into my bulldog/sharpeis mouth. He was just sitting a few feet away tongue hanging out, and this bird flopped into there, he just sat there with his mouth open waiting for me to take it out haha. The frenchies haven’t tried to harm any of the birds, and I leave them alone in the house when we go out, with the brooder on a coffee table, and they’ve never touched it. So I’m hopeful they just have put it in their heads that the birds are mine and they can’t have them.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

That's how my dog is. Adults are fair game but she loves babies and youngsters

 

[FloorCandy]

That's how my dog is. Adults are fair game but she loves babies and youngsters

Mine look at the adults in the pens outside, but haven’t interacted with them. They don’t seem to really care that much, but let a stray cat try to go near our birds, the dogs go bananas. I could probably let all the quail out and they wouldn’t hurt them, but let 1 cat stick a paw thru the fence, and they’re trying to kill it. The frenchies have hearing like a bat, nothing is quiet enough to sneak in our yard unattended haha.

 

[MDBird]

I was sitting on a chair with my kids and one of our first chicks several months ago, it suddenly leapt out of my hands and literally flew into my bulldog/sharpeis mouth. He was just sitting a few feet away tongue hanging out, and this bird flopped into there, he just sat there with his mouth open waiting for me to take it out haha. The frenchies haven’t tried to harm any of the birds, and I leave them alone in the house when we go out, with the brooder on a coffee table, and they’ve never touched it. So I’m hopeful they just have put it in their heads that the birds are mine and they can’t have them.

I don't give my dog enough credit. She has been really good about my birds. Although she's not suppose to go downstairs she does sneak down occasionally and never bothered the brooder which is close to nose level. Then the few times adult birds have gotten out I've told her to leave them and she has. She loves eating the eggs though, so maybe that helps keep her from eating the birds haha