Dogs! Dogs! Dogs! UGH!!

[NoelTate]

I would never get rid of my dogs. I would just make adjustments that allowed me to have them and the chickens. I just had dogs (I am assuming it was dogs by the looks of things) tear into my chicken wire coop for the third time in about 5 years and kill all my chickens. Rather than try again with this coop, I am building a new coop from galvanized hardware cloth so it will be strong enough to protect the birds. I also have paid my brother to fence in my field to offer more protection if he ever gets around to it. We can have both dogs and chickens if we just make the accomodations. It is going to cost me more money, but I am going to do it because having the chickens is important enough to me.

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Quote:
May I ask what kind of training and interaction your dogs recieve? A pair of year old high-energy dogs will do this kind of thing. Pits are notorious for chewing thru fencing at kennels. If they chew thru heavy guage dog fencing then chicken wire is like a spider web to them. Im glad this has opened your eyes to what your dogs can do. Its now up to you to take the situation and prevent it from happening again, which Im sure you will do.

Your pups (yes still puppies at 12 months old) need something to do while you are gone. Start some training for them and really get them feeling part of your pack. While you are gone confine them seperately and give them both something fun to chew on. Things like this go a long way in harmonious dog and chicken ownership.

Addressing what you said about your children and the dog: Have the dogs ever been aggressive (growled, barked at, snapped at) your kids before? If not i wouldn't jump to conclusions. Your dogs did NOT "flip out" on your chickens, they were bored with no supervision and did what came naturally. This is not the same kind of thing as a pit bull attacking a child. If you are worried about this happening again try some of the tips I have suggested or get rid of the dogs. Sounds to me like if no steps are taken to train the dogs and keep the chickens safer you wil have to rehome the dogs. Once they find a way to relieve their boredom by killing they are very apt to do it again.

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

I'm for your loss.

But the first mistake was having chicken wire up with two pit bulls second was trusting them enough to leave when the "teen"years have hit (prey drive is in affect) now is the time to teach them not to do this and instead of chasing them you need to show them that the chickens are a part of the *Pack* to eat one of them is to eat on eof the pack if you are the alpha you are need to teach themn this by simply retraining them get yourself a pinch collar and one at a time take each dog around the yard then over to the chickens let them get a good sniff then yank hard on the collar and with a stern NO command allow them to lay there (which they will or tence up) until you give the command to heel they then repeat this for a few days for 15 mins to a half hour each day for about 2 weeks or until they want to run away when they get near the run or a chicken do this with both dogs they will learn this is not allowed...


I do have an understanding that some of you may not like useing a Pinch collar (training collar) but I amn here to tell you they do work it is not a control collar just a training collar for control I use simple command and a cloth full body harness it is easy to control them if they decide to run (which they have not chose to do so yet).

In this case with the pitbulls they are just like any other dog they will attack prey. and need to be trained that the chickens are not prey they are pack members.

If you or anyone needs advice I suggest you start here it is the dog whispers site... I am not a trainer nor am I trying to lead you away from BYC in any way but this site has helped me when I didn't know what to do..... Here is the link

www.cesarsway.com


Good luck to you I trust you can train them to do what you need them to do because pit bulls get put to sleep almost as fast as they get them in the pound in most areas.

 

[fancbrd4me02]

I just want to say that this doesn't sound like a breed problem to me. In defense of the pits, my dachshund can and will kill any chicken she gets a hold of and she will do it fast and with an efficiancy that is terrifying (If you are a chicken). Although she has tons of obedience, she has a really major prey drive. I have been getting her ready to do earthdog in order to channel that energy positively, but aside from my presence, if she ever got out alone with chickens, she would destroy them. But just because she kills chickens doesn't make her agressive to kids, babies or people, in fact she has worked as a visiting/therapy dog in rest homes. She loves babies and cuddles them. As her owner, i keep the chickens away from her in a very secure pen. Prey agression varies dog to dog and breed to breed. I have owned a lot of powerful dog breeds, and I am honestly not surprised this happened with 2 teenaged dogs left alone with something interesting and noisy like chickens. Dogs don't automatically know whats off limits or not, and 1 year old dogs will test all kinds of boundries. Do you know that more dogs (of all breeds) are relinquished at 1 year of age? Why? People don't understand that this is a phase in which the owner needs to work the hardest in training and exersizing active teen puppies. If you are uncertain about your pits, I suggest you take some formal obedience classes. You will gain confidence as you learn how to train and correct your dog effectively. Also, if you can, replace chicken wire with hardware cloth or an overlay of chain link, or add the hotwire. Or both.With powerful breeds comes great responsibility on the part of the owner.

 

[Dust Bunny]

for the record i love pits, with that said i wont actively seek one out to own (critters finding me i feel to be a little bit diffrent) and the primary reason is liability, they have such a bad reputation (much of it undeserved) that if anything should happen it will be argued that you chose to have potentionaly dangerous dogs and that you knew and assumed the risks accociated with owning them, and more so in your case since they have demonstrated aggresion, there is much at stake should anything happen, you could be sued, your home owners insurance could go up, somebody or something could get really hurt or killed OR a court may order the dogs to be destroyed

thats NEVER easy, if your parental instinks tell you to be wary trust them! when have they been wrong? and from the sound of your post you are still sore about what happened and feel diffrently about them, rehomeing them to an appropriate home may be the best most selfless act you could do, they are still young and would adjust to rehoming well, listen to your instinks, heart, and gut and you wont go wrong, so sorry about your loss

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Its not a breed issue, its a pet management issue. Expecting dogs to behave contrary to their insticts without trying to train or manage the situation.