Dogs and chooks together?

[Chooksu]

Hi we have 4 chooks and a big yard. We want to get a cavoodle puppy but not sure how it will go with the chooks. Anyone had experience with this or got any tips?? Thanks

 

[Ruthster55]

Please be really careful. I have heard and personally seen so many horror stories about dogs with chickens.....

Stick with raising chickens and housing them really well before bringing unknown puppies into the equation....

 

[cmom]

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Since it's a puppy you may be able to train it. A daughter had a walker hound and moved to a place where she couldn't have pets so she left her dog with us. I was concerned at first about it but the dog was older and could've cared less about the birds, but that's not always the case. Good luck and have fun...

 

[Rivendell Chick]

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Since it's a puppy you may be able to train it. A daughter had a walker hound and moved to a place where she couldn't have pets so she left her dog with us. I was concerned at first about it but the dog was older and could've cared less about the birds, but that's not always the case. Good luck and have fun...

Our chickens are secured like fort knox because of our dogs. Two are LGD breeds but rescues and not trained to be around chickens. My old man dog has a renewed lease on life with the vain hope he can get at one. NOW the shelter tells me he was a chicken killer at his first home *facepalm* Ironically the dog that brings us the most wildlife (raccoons, woodchucks, skunks, possums, rabbits, chipmunks, etc) has been good as gold. Even so, chickens will be in the run as long as we have these 3 farm dogs. Our Frenchie seems to not even noticed them, but she won't be allowed around them either. I assume our biggest predator pressure are our own animals.

 

[SE WA Guy]

Just posted something similar on another thread, but we have two dogs. Our older dog is so gentle, but the first day we got chickens, she got very serious and low to the ground. Now, I could train her to be with the flock and to never touch them or play with them, but she's an indoor dog, so there isn't much need for their paths to cross.

My little dog is my cat chaser. And he's the one that I let out with the birds. He's tried to "play" with the birds, but they weren't having it. And since him and the birds are going to be about the same size, I don't have to worry about him attacking the flock for any reason. He just wants to chase the cats away, and the birds seem to tolerate his ability to do this.

Larger dogs though, even gentle ones, can harm the chickens accidentally. It's not an impossible task to train a large dog to never touch a chicken, but it is a task nonetheless.

 

[TwoShepherds]

I have German Shepherds and chickens, but I keep them separated with a chain link fence. I'm not sure if I could have trained the dogs to co-exist with the chickens or not. It would have been easier if the chickens had been here when the dogs were pups. GSDs have quite a bit of prey drive, some more than others. I can't imagine ever being without dogs, or without GSDs. But with small kids and a busy schedule it's simpler and less stressful to keep them seperate. I'm sure many people have successfully integrated their flocks and their dogs, however. Some breeds may be easier to train than others. Cavoodles I assume are part poodle and are probably pretty smart...?

 

[Matzwd]

I have a Boston Terrier and and English Bulldog, both of which were here long before the chickens. They had to be trained. The terrier fiended after them at first, locking eyes on them and physically shaking. The bulldog was just very interested. They both love to hunt squirrels, birds, rabbits, other dogs, etc. on our property. I started very slowly, holding the chicks out wrapped in a closed hand for them to check out and made corrections as needed, telling them "Easy, easy, be nice." When the chicks were ready to go outside, I took the dogs for visits regularly on leashes, correcting any lunges or over focusing. We never allowed the dogs to go into the chickens' outer enclosure off leash during training. When the chickens were first allowed to free range, dogs were kept inside unless we took them out on leash. They did, after working a lot with them, get used to having poultry here, and they do not bother them. The bulldog has been flogged by the rooster a couple of times, so now she runs from him. As the chickens aren't interested in being friendly with the dogs, both dogs know the word "wait" for times when we are rounding up the birds back into their safe enclosure. They stand back. The chickens don't like to have to walk directly adjacent to the dogs. They all do great together now (ignoring). We are over two years in with the chickens. The dogs knew how to behave around them by the end of our first summer with them.

There are some breeds you really should avoid that have really high prey drives, like terriers for instance. We are fortunate to have an abnormally mild mannered one. Otherwise, out probably would not have worked.