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.
I trust them, but at the same time I don't (if that makes sense). My Doberman LOVES small animals, especially babies. I can open the chick brooder and she'll stick her head in and let them peck her nose. She even tries to clean their little butts, its adorable. But, all it would take is one quick snap, and that's all she wrote. Our Catahoula mix literally thinks he's one of our cats, and he had a scuffle with our rooster as a pup that seems to have scarred him for life. They would most likely be just fine if I left them unsupervised with the smaller animals. However, I have birds I wouldn't be able to get back. Birds that I've invested a significant amount of time and money into. The chickens aren't allowed to free range unsupervised, so I certainly am not going to leave them in the care of the dogs. Something I completely forgot about, I do have a rather large group of free range bachelors. They're out all the time, whether me and the dogs are out or not. So, I guess technically, I do leave the dogs out with the chickens unsupervised. Just not with my expensive, irreplaceable breeding flock
They haven't done anyone in yet, but, I have enough worry about the hawks and foxes getting my breeders, so I'm not going to worry about the dogs too. I suppose that's more my problem than the dogs though...
