Dogs attacking coop at night

[Petra Pancake]

A few nights ago I woke up from loud crashing noises behind the house. It was a feral dog trying to break into the chicken coop. Luckily the coop is quite sturdy and didn't get damaged (yet). When I yelled at the dog at the top of my voice, it ran off, came back and ran off again. I've seen it since a few times lurking around in the area, also during the day. We've got lots of feral dogs in our area. The local administration should take care of them but often doesn't. Shooting them is not an option. Poisoning is also problematic as I've got small kids. Is there any other good way to get rid of dogs or to deter them?

 

[Trish1974]

An electric fence would be your best option. @Howard E may have some articles on his page regarding electric fencing if you need a how-to guide.

 

[Athena2344]

I have had to deal with the same problem before, we were able to shoot the dogs with BB's and that wpould deter them, but they would still ocassionally come back, i called the cops on the owners when they killed a bantam though, and they wrote them a ticket for that, and every time after their dogs were loose. Electric fencing, or BB's, mole/gopher poison should also work... And i know it sounds cruel, but it works, nails driven through thin boards will deter them real quick, if the dogs dont sense a consequence for showing up, they will come back until they kill, and that will only encourage them more

 

[lazy gardener]

I would not poison a dog. That is a cruel way to deal with the issue. I would rather shoot to kill than poison it. Call your ACO and see if you can get help with the issue. Agreed. Electrifying your coop/run perimeter is a good deterrent. I would then bait the hot wire with bacon grease or peanut butter.

If you are in snow country, as far as I know, an electric fence won't work when there's snow on the ground.

 

[sourland]

Multi strand electric fence at varying levels on your pen and coop. It educates them quickly.

 

[Michael Propst]

Have you contacted your local animal control? If they can not pick the dog up maybe they could provide you with a live trap.I personally have dogs and would hate to kill one but if it was between a feral dog or any predator and my girls I would introduce that dog to at least a high powered pellet gun.

 

[speckledhen]

If you won't shoot them or own no firearms, then electric fencing is really your only option. I don't agree with poison for many reasons. But, you cannot deter them unless you hurt them in some way. Electric shock will do it in a non-lethal way.

We've only managed to deter dogs on one occasion. Two kept sniffing around the fence, caught on game camera and by me in person once, and one day they finally breached the perimeter fence. One was pelted with birdshot from a distance, but it stung pretty good. The other, my husband chased around and around, terrorizing the dog until it finally climbed over the fence to escape. We never saw them again.

 

[Tiana's chickens]

Citronella is a smell dogs absolutely hate, you could spray some around the chook coop and around the border of your property. Only thing is that you'd have to go back and re-spray it everytime it rains. But you could try combining citronella spray with an electric fence, that should work really well.
Also I'm not sure what your coop looks like but you could put a ton of rocks around the outside so dogs and other predators can't dig underneath and get to the chooks

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

Definitely call animal control and have them remove the dogs. You mentioned that you have young children. You have no idea what these dogs are carrying in terms of disease or if they will attack you or your children.

 

[TalkALittle]

Citronella is a smell dogs absolutely hate, you could spray some around the chook coop and around the border of your property.

And chicken is a smell dogs absolutely love. Citronella (or any scent detterent) alone isn't going to do much outside where wind and rain carry it away. And if you are going to install electric fencing, the citronella is a waste of time and money.