Dogs and Chicks totally stumped please help

[pulletkeeper]

I have a Lab, a Rat Terrier, a Carolina Dog, and a Chow/Shepherd mix. All want to eat my chickens and up until my dying breath I wil do everything I can to keep them seperate. My dogs are hunters, farm dogs, and free range and it is their job. The chickens are just vermits waiting to be killed. They do not understand and never will because their instincts override my wants. I have been training dogs for years in most disciplines and I wish you lots of luck trying to make them all get along. Small breeds were bred to kill small animals. It is just nature and has nothing to do with you.

 

[Manda0227]

I trust my dog with most thing, he's been around cats, he's the most lazy, dumb oaf of a Golden Retriever I have ever met. I love him to death, but I WILL NOT be allowing him to be in close proximity to my hens once they go outside! He was bred for hunting/retrieving. I know he has it in him, even if he lets the cats sleep on him, and boss him around. I've never had chickens before, and I do NOT wanna come home to a mess of my "babies" because I didn't think *my* animal would act like.. well.. an animal! My cats however... they've met my chicks.. the chicks showed them who was boss, the kitties back off! Something about getting their toes pecked at wasn't pleasing to them!

 

[Tala]

chickensducks&agoose :

except she does love to chase the rooster... but she never wants to catch him.. if he gets tired, she stops chasing, and goes and pesters the ducks for a while...

My dog used to like to spar with the rooster. Till he got smarter, and older/more mature and cornered her on the deck!! Suddenly that game wasn't fun anymore.

Then one day the neighbors yelled at her coz she had the roo pinned down with her front paws and was growing at him. I wasn't there so I have no idea what he did to tick her off.....
I truely believe that she is trying to relate to him like she would to another dog, except he is clueless to her "warning growls" so there is tension between them. If she really wanted to chase/kill chickens just for the fun of chasing birds, she would have killed him already, instead of TRYING to force him into submission. Unfortunately, chickens don't speak dog, and dogs don't speak chicken.

Again, separation when you aren't watching is best, even with well trained, non-chasing dogs. I don't think she WANTS to kill him, and for the most part they ignore each other, but I never know if he might peck her or somethin and she just

chomps his head off!​

 

[cafarmgirl]

Quote:
OMGosh that is too cute like an all natural squeeky toy, but the popping not so cute. glad she learned her lesson and doesnt want to upset mommy again.

I bet the chickens didn't find it cute at all. I've only had a couple of dogs that were ok with the chickens, none of them were ever trusted around chicks and neither of my current dogs are allowed around the chickens at all, they have way to much interest and can't be trusted. I have found it in everyone's best interest to just keep them completely separate.

 

[cafarmgirl]

sorry, double post

 

[chickensducks&agoose]

I trust my dog absolutely. I trust her with my children, I trust her with my animals. She is protective of all of us, and somehow, after that one chick popping incident, has been trustworthy. She'll growl if they try to eat her dog food, but I let her see one of our tiny chicks, and she licked his head... twice... I wasn't going to leave them alone together, because she IS a dog, but once they're more than a mouthful, I will completely trust her to NOT eat them. But most dogs, I wouldn't trust. On the other hand, if she does end up eating the rooster, I won't have to wake up at 5am...

 

[scootermom]

My old Lab is a total softy, we had bantam hens that would chase him when he had a bone! Now we have tiny chicks and he is interested in them, but only in a "what's the big deal over here" kind of way. We put a chick next to him and he jumped up like "hey, get it away from me" and looked at me like he was disappointed in me. We have been very lucky with our Angus.