Dogs getting acquainted with chicks. What happened?

[Cass]

Quote:
They can live together for life, no need to separate the roos from the hens. Of course there may become a need to separate the roos from the other roos when they hit sexual maturity.

btw:

 

[Pele]

I personally wouldn't risk the chickens by trying to make them be 'friends' with your dogs. Dogs are natural predators for small animals, and that includes chickens. Temperament or size isn't a good indicator. I just had to comfort a friend this weekend because her really sweet dog got into her batch of 24 chicks somehow (I think a door wasn't shut tight). That 'sweet' dog murdered every last chick for funsies.

I think a dog that doesn't want to kill chickens is an exception to the rule, and since thechicks depend on you to safeguard their lives, you need to be careful about exposing them to their natural predators.

Just a thought, I'm still shaken from helping her clean up all those poor dead babies.

 

[alessadry]

Problems seem to be greatest once the chicks are around and moving, stimulating those buried prey drives all dogs have to some extent...I have allowed my dogs to sniff the baby chicks and allowed them to be around the brooder but always under close supervision..They know well the ''leave it'' command and the ''drop it'' command. Now that the chicks are bigger, I allow my dogs to spend some time with them but they are put in solid sit or stay. They can walk at times towards the chicks but no running or sudden moments are allowed. They are both protective of the chicks as they have learned they are high value to us, and they know big trouble comes if they look at them too intensely or have strange ideas. You need to watch that body language early enough to give a timely correction if you do not like certain behaviors. I am a dog trainer so I have a keen eye on reading my dogs, but despite this I never leave chicks and dogs unsupervised as you never know..

 

[mcsfarms]

we have 4 one-week old chicks and 1 2-year old Tibetan Terrier. Our brooder is an old 35 gallon aquarium on a trunk in the living room. we can keep an eye on the dog while he keeps an eye on the chicks. he has been allowed to sniff them when we are holding them, but he does love squeeky toys so the chicks are really off limits to anything more than a sniff. we are thinking we want to free range our chicks, but am reconsidering and planning on building a big run for them instead - not sure not sure

 

[Caat]

I have 2 Alaskan Malamutes.... Tikaani my male I'm sure would love nothing more than new play friends... but umm he weighs 160LBS... he "accidently" stepped on a mouse once and was totally distraught, but I think chicks would quickly become dinner... and Tala my female... well there's not acidental about anything my girl is a killer through and through. If it's feathery, scaley, furry (and anything else I may have missed Oh yeah small children!) she wants to eat it! No mercy with her. The ONLY bird they don't look at as a meal is Guen my African Grey who is ALWAYS caged when the pups are around. Though, Guen will boss the dogs around and if they get too close to her cage SHE tries to eat them....