Dogs with the ducks and/or chickens

[ChickensRDinos]

Sorry. I do not know why that ended up spaced out so oddly.

 

[BigBlock]

My Dachshund leaves the ducks alone. In fact he's scared to death of them! They gang up and chase him out of the yard. They've even been known to bite the dog...

 

[Tessaturtle]

I second what chickensrdinos posted about training the dogs to be safe around the chickens. Before we ever got the chickens and ducks, we had Buddy trained much like the post says. The dogs (and cats) are fed at a certain time in the morning and then again at night. Buddy, the dog in the pic, is fed last (he used to be food aggressive) and has to sit and wait until we say "ok". We also trained him retrieval techniques - throwing the object, having him stay (he is sitting) until he is given the command to "fetch it up", he then brings it back and is given "release it". This teaches a lot of impulse control. The "aht" sound is super effective with him if he starts to get too interested in the birds or in general training when we need to discourage him from something. "Leave it" is a great command to know as well. Even with all of this, we were very concerned when we got the chicks because Buddy believes himself to be the best squirrel hunter around. He will tree a squirrel at the slightest sight or sound and stay with it until called off or the squirrell jumps ship. So we were concerned he would see the chicks as more prey to tree. We introduced him to them while they were still in the brooder and repeated to him quitely "gentle" and "babies". And lastly, Buddy has come to view them as sources of great treats (both their food pellets...and well, their poo...only a dog!!!)!