Dogs in general...

[cantley2003]

We have a greyhound/basset mix (that's quite the image. huh?) Anyways her sole desire when outside is to get to the chicken run area. The animal shakes with excitement over the thought of a chicken dinner. So personally I would not trust my dog or any others around my chickens.

 

[vicki2x2]

I think it totally depends on the individual dog, though obviously some breeds would be more likely to be better or worse, depending on what they were bred for.

My friend has a lab/springer mix. She is awesome with anything. She is a great ratter, protects the chickens, turkeys, peacocks, etc. She is now 10 years old and has never harmed anything other than predators, like rats, coons, etc.

 

[Pupsnpullets]

At one point I had a bunch of dogs who lived semi permanent on my property and a flock of chickens. I had an aussie, a lab-greyhound mix, and boston terrier all permanent residents, and another boston, a bichon, and a border collie as frequent visitors. All the large dogs were outdoor and the bostons and bichon were in and out. My chickens were totally safe with this combo.

Then more family members and their dogs started drifting home, one with a german shepherd and another with a yorkie/chihuahua mix. That's when things went to custard. The shepherd had never seen a chicken in her life and while I had intended to keep her away from them until I could observe her behaviour while she was on a leash, 3 adventurous little EEs took matters into their own hands and flew the fence into the dog's compound. The dog didn't pause to observe, she nailed all three of them instantly. Two were dead and the third I never saw again - probably crawled, injured into some place and died.

That wasn't the worst of it, though. Two of the young permanent resident dogs saw what happened and one of the suddenly 'figured out' what to do with chickens. The lab-greyhound then went on to catch a chicken - and got the gardener's spade across her backside. That chicken lived. She tried one more time and killed a beautiful little juvenile pullet, but was caught in the act again and was punished. Since then about 7 years have passed and she's ok to be with chickens again.

The yorkie/chihuahua can't be allowed near them ever and the german shepherd got banned from the property.

I've found that having chickens killed by someone else's dog isn't the worst of it. It's when some guest's darling little phoophoo gets after the chickens and they think it's so "cute" cos little phoophoo would never hurt a chicken cos 'he's so little and the chickens are bigger than he/she is", but it causes mass hysteria amongst the birds and all the flapping and squawking overstimulates the other 'safe' dogs and anything can happen. And usually 'anything' isn't good.

When I know I'm having guests, or other family members, with dogs the chickens stay in their run and I pay attention to the dogs as closely as possible (the family kids are all adhd and have the attention spans of gnats!).

In your case, Wraith, I would be very careful training older dogs to be safe around chickens, regardless of the breed. If I finally got to the point where I thought I could trust the dogs I would only allow one dog loose around them at a time. My dogs were trained from pups to be with the chickens, but even so, they were a year old before I would trust them the be alone with the chickens - and then it wasn't a matter of trust. Someone left a gate open while I was gone and when I got back all was civilised and there weren't any extra feathers floating in the breeze.:|

Be very careful.

Barb

 

[CoyoteMagic]

My dog is a Certified Service Animal. Years and years of training.

I wouldn't leave her for 1 minute with my little bitties!! She could care less about the "big girls" (except for their poop

) But the little ones, she would snap up in a blink of an eye.

It's all about prey drive. Some dogs have tons of it. Others, you can't get a rise out of them.

Play it safe, keep the dogs on leash around your birds.

 

[horsejody]

Most of the dogs that we have had trouble with are labs and other hunting breeds. I don't know if that's because they are more likely to go after chickens, or if it's because there are so many of them running loose. However, my neighbor's dog is a lab, and she never bothers my birds. That dog might be an exception because she was raised with birds (they raised thousands of pheasants and a few chickens). Also, keep in mind that just because your dog is good with your chickens, doesn't mean it won't kill the neighbor's birds. We have had neighbors that keep poultry, water fowl, goats, horses, etc. that were shocked that their darling little free roaming domesticated predators would harm other animals because they never bothered the ones at home. Even if your dogs are good with your birds, please don't let them run loose to kill your neighbor's birds. Dogs don't see all chickens created equally. The ones in their yard are their friends and property to protect. The ones in everybody elses' yards might be fair game.
JMHO

 

[chcknrs]

I have a lab mix who can sniff out a trainer with grouse in pitch black dark. He leaves my chickens alone. We also have a Rhodesian Ridgeback, neighbors have a shepherd mix, other neighbors have a coon hound. They are the neighborhood watch, and all have been taught not to harass ANY of our livestock! We have chickens, neighbors have goats, others have cows and are getting ducks. The dogs all roam out here, and keep the livestock safe from predators.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
I have a Lab and a Lab/Border Collie mix pup. The older dog came to me trained and doesn't even notice the chickens. The pup had to be trained. Used the Cesar Milan method with a few tricks of my own and he trained in one day. I free range and leave them alone all day and have even went on trips and everyone survived! Not all Labs are bred for birding....these two won't even fetch. They look at you and say, "YOU threw it, YOU go get it!" Both have strong prey drives, especially the mix, who also loves to herd a little. I think if a person takes the time and already has dogs who recognize alpha leader, it is doable.

I wouldn't assume inability to train due to breed characteristics. I'm not saying that I may come home one day and find the dogs have had a field day, but there comes a time when you just have to trust. If you want to free range, you take a chance. I like my dogs and my chickens to have free use of the yard. The dogs keep the hawks and predators away for me. Maybe I just have smart dogs....I don't know.

 

[Mountain Man Jim]

Quote:
Yes they can. I've trained several dogs to except the chickens. But, I don't find Labs to be very good as watch dogs for four legged predators. We had numerous predator attacks with the Labs/Retrievers out with the girls. It wasn't until we got our Pyr that the predators met their match.

I don't believe in the whole "prey drive" theory. It's all about discipline. By discipline, I do not mean Mr. Milan’s version. It takes work, but if your dogs love you and follow your direction, they can be trained and conditioned to except the birds are part of the pack and not as food or playthings.

With our dogs, I have yet to see age or breed as a factor in their training with the birds. Temperament might come to play in the training, but it seems to only dictate how long the training is going to take.

Hey check out my “Chicken Guardian at Work” post for pictures of our Pyr conducting her own training of our youngest dog.


Jim

 

[Iceblink]

When I first got my chickies, my dog would have gleefully swallowed them whole. I used intensive classical conditioning and desensitization to get her used to being near them.
1) I put the chicks in their brooder, in their own room, with the door closed. My dog paced, whined and scratched at the door, anytime she looked away/left the door area, she got a kibble. I stopped feeding her from a bowl entirely for a while, and would carry kibbles in my pockets all day long.

2) Eventually I got to where she could walk by the door and ignore them. I put a leash on her, stepped on it, put a baby-gate across the door, and opened it. I started the process over again. If at any time she got too excited, I closed the door and walked away without a word. When I tried the next time, she remained calm much longer.

3) After a few days of this, she could sit calmly at the door and look in, and come away when I called her. I held on to her leash and let her into the room. (Note: my brooder was raised above her eye level, and she could only sniff the base of it) I repeated the process. At no time was she allowed in the room without me.

4) I continued with this system when my girls went out to the yard, in their coop, ect.

5) I sat my dog down and explained to her that these chicks were her pets, not toys, and she needed to be gentle with them and watch out for them. Laugh at me if you want, I believe in clear communication and intentions.

6) After 6 months, I trust her to be out with my fenced/free-ranging chickens on a long line under supervision. The chickens can run up to her, peck around her feet, and she will either walk away or ignore them. I will never get to the point where she will be with them unleashed and unsupervised, but I feel her progress has been tremendous.

One of the things that may have really helped was one time when Shadow stuck her head in the coop when I was in there, my Black Star ran up and pecked Shadow hard on the nose. Shadow pulled her head back, and ran away.

Shadow is a German Shorthaired Pointer/Lab mix. If she were a terrier, sight hound, or any of some other breeds, I don't think I would have gotten Chickens in the first place. I don't mean to offend other breed people, just my experience.

I have known some dogs that I could have probably trusted with my chickens no matter what, most of them were very well socialized and trained giant breed dogs.

 

[S0rcy]

We have a beagle.

The very first day the chickens came home we trained him to "watch" by saying "chicken" and pointing at the brooder. He would walk over, sniff, get a treat. Though he was interested in the brooder intently at first, he finally passed it by without a twitch.
At two weeks we had him lie down in front of the brooder and put the chicks on him to walk around on him. He twitched he got a stern sound from me. He stayed as still as a rock until they were done (ten seconds) then the next day 11 seconds, the next 20. At 3 weeks they were allowed to walk around him while he sat in the middle of them. At this time he received a painstaking lesson. He bent down to sniff and the alpha girl pecked him on the nose.
At 6 weeks they were pretty big and they came out to play in the yard. Buddy laid down as he was taught and the chickens came up to him. This lesson was painful. He crawled forward, got too close and got a peck in the eye, an ear got nipped and someone was interested in the pad of a foot. He had enough and stays back when the chickens are out now.
He does his job when he is let out at night however. We tell him "chicken" and he goes to the closed coop, gives a sniff through the wire, counts the ladies, patrols the run which is open at night and comes back. I had a warning one night when he didn't come back and I heard a very soft snarl by the chicken pen. I got out a flashlight in time to see the neighbors dog frozen under the board of the fence in the process of trying to dig into the run. One snap and the other dog retreated gracefully. I checked every board and reinforced the fence.

Saying this, I would not leave him alone with the chickens. Peep rules the roost and I have no trouble when I go out with Buddy and allow the chickens out to roam the grass when I am working. I would never leave Buddy unsupervised however. He is a pet, though he is my companion on outings into public places. He knows his job and does it well but I have seen him take down a full sized rabbit and takes no gump from the lab across the street. He would follow his nose happily off a cliff and if he ever got too excited, he would easily be able to take down any one of my future egg layers.

Yes, dogs can be trained, but be aware of their instincts. You should know your dog well and your dog should already have had a good training background with basic commands eagerly followed. We have trained Buddy for a whole year now. I can stop Buddy on a dime and make him lie down using only my voice when he runs toward people or bolts for a street, but could I stop him if there were a fox in front of his nose? no dice.