DOGS!!!

[DuckGirl77]

Yes,the cats is,but will bite sometimes.there was no strage people at the house,the dogs mine.
He is a lap/blood hound mix I think.used to hunt.but he WAS very nice.brindle color

Oh! I never understood cats very much lol!

Cool! I love both of those breeds! So he's not so nice anymore?

 

[Cluckcluck1215]

Oh! I never understood cats very much lol!

Cool! I love both of those breeds! So he's not so nice anymore?

Well,he is nice to us,but we can't trust him,had my chicks out in there pen the other day,dog wacthing them,a older chicken came up(she loves them)and the dog growled at her.my mom says we have to give him away and a think so to,but not my sister.

 

[DuckGirl77]

Well,he is nice to us,but we can't trust him,had my chicks out in there pen the other day,dog wacthing them,a older chicken came up(she loves them)and the dog growled at her.my mom says we have to give him away and a think so to,but not my sister.

Oh, that's too bad.

I had to work pretty hard to teach my dog to leave the chickens alone. He's pretty stubborn. I am learning how to train him better.

 

[Judy-n-Seth]

We have a couple of pit bull dogs and a cat. The dogs look after the chickens and keep predators out. In fact when we had a sick chick and the older hens were picking on her, the dogs would go stand over the sick chick and protect her. The chickens are free range in our medium sized back yard. Every once and a while there will be a bit of scuffle over a treat meant for the chickens or the chickens will raid the dog food. One of my broody hens decided that my pit bull's rope was the perfect nest and I thought that may get deadly. She fought hard but the pit bull won a bloodless coup.

 

[DuckGirl77]

We have a couple of pit bull dogs and a cat. The dogs look after the chickens and keep predators out. In fact when we had a sick chick and the older hens were picking on her, the dogs would go stand over the sick chick and protect her. The chickens are free range in our medium sized back yard. Every once and a while there will be a bit of scuffle over a treat meant for the chickens or the chickens will raid the dog food. One of my broody hens decided that my pit bull's rope was the perfect nest and I thought that may get deadly. She fought hard but the pit bull won a bloodless coup.

Nice! That's great they protect the chickens!

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

Well,he is nice to us,but we can't trust him,had my chicks out in there pen the other day,dog wacthing them,a older chicken came up(she loves them)and the dog growled at her.my mom says we have to give him away and a think so to,but not my sister.

Sounds like the dog needs some refreshing on training and this is more of a management problem. Dogs chase small animals, its just what they do. Even old dogs can learn new tricks, its never too late to train...

 

[overeasywv]

On dogs: I have a 5-year-old black Standard Poodle female who works for me as a medical alert dog (diabetic alert), and who is darn near perfect, well mannered, a great friend and companion, amazingly talented at detecting low blood sugar, and creative at thinking up ways to make me deal with it, wicked smart. You may know that poodles were originally hunting dogs. Well, that is the profession mine would have had if she had a choice. She harasses chipmunks here on my place, and that is generally OK by me. However, I now have 14 6-week old pullets, and have been raising them in the house. She has not tried to break into their brooder, but she loves to startle them into panic, and she has snapped her jaws at them. At the moment, 5 of my girls are on the loose outside under the deck, because they got away from me as I attempted to transfer them from coop inside to coop outside. The dog is having apoplexy over the fact they are out. She is determined to deal with them, I just don't know exactly what her plan is. This dog considers herself my partner in all things. If I try to catch a chick, so does she. If I dig a hole to plant a plant, she digs a hole. She slipped out of her harness last night and it was all I could do to get her to go back in the house and not to go after the renegade chicks.

So here's my question: anyone have experience with a dog that has a high chase instinct? Have you found a way to teach the animal that chickens are family and must not be chased or disciplined by the dog? This one also loves to chase cats, but if the cat does not run, she just ignores it. She has never actually harmed a cat. Chickens are more delicate though, and less able to defend themselves. Right now, she is on home confinement, because she has a one-track mind going about those chicks, and until I catch and coop them, I can't let her outside at all.

 

[DuckGirl77]

Sounds like the dog needs some refreshing on training and this is more of a management problem. Dogs chase small animals, its just what they do. Even old dogs can learn new tricks, its never too late to train...

I agree. Personally, I would punish the dog when he bothered other animals, and not get rid of him, but he's not my dog.

On dogs: I have a 5-year-old black Standard Poodle female who works for me as a medical alert dog (diabetic alert), and who is darn near perfect, well mannered, a great friend and companion, amazingly talented at detecting low blood sugar, and creative at thinking up ways to make me deal with it, wicked smart. You may know that poodles were originally hunting dogs. Well, that is the profession mine would have had if she had a choice. She harasses chipmunks here on my place, and that is generally OK by me. However, I now have 14 6-week old pullets, and have been raising them in the house. She has not tried to break into their brooder, but she loves to startle them into panic, and she has snapped her jaws at them. At the moment, 5 of my girls are on the loose outside under the deck, because they got away from me as I attempted to transfer them from coop inside to coop outside. The dog is having apoplexy over the fact they are out. She is determined to deal with them, I just don't know exactly what her plan is. This dog considers herself my partner in all things. If I try to catch a chick, so does she. If I dig a hole to plant a plant, she digs a hole. She slipped out of her harness last night and it was all I could do to get her to go back in the house and not to go after the renegade chicks.

So here's my question: anyone have experience with a dog that has a high chase instinct? Have you found a way to teach the animal that chickens are family and must not be chased or disciplined by the dog? This one also loves to chase cats, but if the cat does not run, she just ignores it. She has never actually harmed a cat. Chickens are more delicate though, and less able to defend themselves. Right now, she is on home confinement, because she has a one-track mind going about those chicks, and until I catch and coop them, I can't let her outside at all.

Cool! I had no idea they were hunting dogs! I taught my dog not to chase chickens by punishing him when he did and saying "No!" firmly when he started getting excited over them. He doesn't even act like they're there anymore! This morning I was throwing a bone for him to retrieve and the chickens and the dog were running after it, and he didn't care. He's alot better than he used to be. When he almost caught one of my hens, he was given a swat.
Your dog sounds really cool! How did you teach her?

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I don't think I'd punish the dog, I've found positive reinforcement training to be more effective. I have 3 dogs, all different breeds, and they're all chicken/pig/goat/cat/rabbit/ect "safe". The route I took was to always set them up for success. If they don't have the opportunity to do give into their bad behaviors, they don't have the opportunity to make them a habit. Kikopup on YouTube has some really great videos about positive reinforcement training, they helped me a lot when we got our last puppy. It had been quite sometime since I'd had a small puppy, so I did some refresher training for myself to prepare us both for success.

What I did to teach them to leave our small critters alone was to leash walk them all the time outside. We would walk up as close as we could to said critter without the dog reacting (if they do react, you've gone too close, take them further out until they don't react). One you've found that sweet spot, praise them for not focusing on the critter and do a short training session at that spot (sit, stay, look, leave it ect). Once they've mastered that spot, move closer and repeat. You'll do that until you're right next to them and the dog only focuses on you. Once that step is mastered, you can either set them up on a longer tether or go off leash. The point is, the dog should look to you for direction, not just decide what they want to do. Obviously, you'll want to do some basic training before you start this portion, and I cannot emphasis the importance of the leave it and recall command enough. If things get out of hand, you'll at least be able to tell the dog to drop or leave whatever its got and come back to you (not a big deal while on leash, but can be an issue when you start the off leash/long tether part). It's time consuming, but your dog is a family member that will be with you for years to come. Putting in the initial time investment is a pain in the beginning, but its very rewarding when you end up with a dog that's safe with other animals and will actually listen to you (and some of those commands, like drop it/leave it and recall could possibly safe your dogs life one day).
All that being said, would I turn my dog out completely unsupervised with my chickens? The answer is no. They're good dogs, and they listen well, but they're still dogs and things happen. Can I pop back inside the house to use the restroom or grab a drink and them be out with them, sure, and I do. But I do that realizing that its a risk (and that I'm potentially setting them up to fail). It hasn't happened yet, and I hope it never does, but all I can do is try to help my dogs succeed. And that's all you can do as well. Good luck.

 

[DuckGirl77]

I don't think I'd punish the dog, I've found positive reinforcement training to be more effective. I have 3 dogs, all different breeds, and they're all chicken/pig/goat/cat/rabbit/ect "safe". The route I took was to always set them up for success. If they don't have the opportunity to do give into their bad behaviors, they don't have the opportunity to make them a habit. Kikopup on YouTube has some really great videos about positive reinforcement training, they helped me a lot when we got our last puppy. It had been quite sometime since I'd had a small puppy, so I did some refresher training for myself to prepare us both for success.

What I did to teach them to leave our small critters alone was to leash walk them all the time outside. We would walk up as close as we could to said critter without the dog reacting (if they do react, you've gone too close, take them further out until they don't react). One you've found that sweet spot, praise them for not focusing on the critter and do a short training session at that spot (sit, stay, look, leave it ect). Once they've mastered that spot, move closer and repeat. You'll do that until you're right next to them and the dog only focuses on you. Once that step is mastered, you can either set them up on a longer tether or go off leash. The point is, the dog should look to you for direction, not just decide what they want to do. Obviously, you'll want to do some basic training before you start this portion, and I cannot emphasis the importance of the leave it and recall command enough. If things get out of hand, you'll at least be able to tell the dog to drop or leave whatever its got and come back to you (not a big deal while on leash, but can be an issue when you start the off leash/long tether part). It's time consuming, but your dog is a family member that will be with you for years to come. Putting in the initial time investment is a pain in the beginning, but its very rewarding when you end up with a dog that's safe with other animals and will actually listen to you (and some of those commands, like drop it/leave it and recall could possibly safe your dogs life one day).
All that being said, would I turn my dog out completely unsupervised with my chickens? The answer is no. They're good dogs, and they listen well, but they're still dogs and things happen. Can I pop back inside the house to use the restroom or grab a drink and them be out with them, sure, and I do. But I do that realizing that its a risk (and that I'm potentially setting them up to fail). It hasn't happened yet, and I hope it never does, but all I can do is try to help my dogs succeed. And that's all you can do as well. Good luck.

I respect your methods, but I can absolutely trust my dog around my chickens because he's been taught that chasing chickens is unacceptable. But, of course, you do as you feel best.