Dogs?

[jlbpa]

Two mostly labs.....thought we had them trained and conditioned. Then one day when they were left alone what'd they do? Protect our flock of four handsome roosters.....no they killed three of them. Dog gone. Dog gone. Now Mr. Rooster and his new flock of assorted heavies from mcmurray are doing fine.

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

Quote:
Maybe that was the problem you thought you had them trained. The mix might have also had something to do with it. I still take my chances.

 

[chicknmania]

We have two dogs, a Dachsund and a Shepherd/Chow mix. When we first got our chickens, our dogs were curious, but didn't try to chase them, so we thought we were ok. Then one day a few days later our Shep/Chow mix had a burst of high spirits and the first thing she did was run out there and kill our first Buff Orpington hen. I wanted to kill her!!! For a week or so after that, a couple times a day, I would show her the chickens wherever they were and scold her severely. It was funny as the chickens learned they could intimidate her a bit and would approach her, flapping and growling. She finally got to the point where she was almost afraid of them! She does leave them alone now but loves to herd them out of our garden; I wish I could refine this so that she could help us when we need her to, but she still makes me a bit nervous. Most of our chickens are bigger than the Dachsund; they will chase and even peck him if he gets in their way! We also trained our cat to leave them alone by holding her and showing her to them...she's terrified of them now!

 

[chickenranchwife]

We have two Rat Terrier's and they haven't bothered the chickens, but my mother-in-law's dog killed three of my chickens. He's not a poodle, but kinda looks like one. He's a city dog and has never killed anything untill he killed three of my chickens last fall, while we were dog sitting him. Needless to say he wore his welcome out real fast.
Good luck with the German Shephard.

 

[prariechiken]

We have a female catahoula that patrols the yard and will come running with a purpose if she heres one of "her" chickens squawk. But it depends alot on the individual dog. She was raised from a puppy with the birds and was introduced to them by her other pack mates, (me & the wife). Some dogs will take alot of work, some will take to it in no time, just be prepared for the worst that could happen.

 

[IlovePecky]

My 1.5 year old yellow lab got out of the house while the chickens were in the yard and got one. I don't think he killed it right away, seemed like he grabbed it and it was still alive in his mouth, but then he ran off with it and de-feathered it. Not sure if the chicken died of fright or an actual wound. It was a very hard lesson for the kids, so take my advice, be sure there is no way the dog is going to get out if there is any question about what the dog is going to do.

 

[hnortman]

I have two dogs. We already had Coco when we got the chicks. We acclimated her to the chicks from the beginning. We showed them to her and played with them and let her see they were our pets. We encouraged her to protect them. When we first put them outside in a small pen, we taught her to protect them from our four cats. She would sit and watch for the cats and chase them off if they got too close. Now that the chickens are grown, the cats have no interest in them. Then we got a puppy, Rhea. She's about 6 months old and a handful (both of the dogs are mixed breeds that we adopted from our local animal rescue organization). Rhea will chase the chickens if she's not supervised and has traumatized a couple of them. The chickens are allowed to graze in the yard most of the day. The dogs are mostly inside, but are supervised when outside. I'm hoping as Rhea gets older she will learn that she is supposed to protect the chickens, not chase them. It just takes lots of patience.

 

[cafarmgirl]

I guess I'm just a tired old farm girl who lost her rose colored glasses long ago. I just don't believe in mixing predator and prey animals, especially dogs and chickens. And yeah, yeah I've had chicken safe dogs in the past, two of them in fact. For me it's just easier not to have to worry about it. Everybody has their own place and never the two shall meet but thru a fence. My chickens don't get chewed up and I don't get ticked off at my dogs for doing what dogs do.

 

[ChicKat]

dogs are very trainable.

There is an advertisement here on BYC forum for training your dog not to harm chickens. Go to my page BYC for the link if you haven't seen it. (because I repeatedly refer to it, I am just keeping the link there)

Your puppy is young and you need to be vigilant until you are sure that he is safe with chickens...but life is much easier when you can let both your chickens and dogs out together.

 

[arockkid]

While I'm sure there are definitely breeds that do better and worse than others, I think it's also a total dog to dog situation. I wonder, if you're able to pick from a litter, if you could see how they react to, say, a cat or something small like that?

We lucked out, I have a mastiff/great dane mix, Australian shepherd/cattle dog mix, and neapolitan mastiff. They've all been angels. The first has always been totally obsessed with small animals (would hover drooling over my mil's cats, my brother's hamsters, etc) and has even been known to crush mouse skulls...but he's never been a killer....just a chaser. He even snapped at the chickens when they were chicks....not in a nasty way (I know that's hard to believe, but I know my dog). Now they are all in the yard together, and everyone gets along perfectly. The neo even goes and lays in the sand in the coop with them to stay cool. They ARE all older (8,14, and 5, respectively) but I never thought I'd be able to have everyone in the yard together.

So, like I said, maybe if you had a pick from a litter, test them? Maybe they'd even let you bring a chicken.

We also really lucked out that we watched someone's 4 meat birds for a few days.....we let the dogs have some 'practice' since they were gonna get eaten a few days later