Family dog and Free Range Chickens

[Tired Retiree]

I am looking for advice on keeping a family dog out of the chicken coop while the birds are free ranging. We leave the coop open so they can go back and get water and scratch food. Does anyone know of something I can place on the ground that the birds will cross but not the dogs? I'm unable to use a small wall because the goose and ducks can't fly or hop over. Any suggestions would be great. Thank you in advance.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I think you just need to train your dog on top of starting with a dog with a low prey drive.

 

[chickentrains]

every time he goes into the coop, pull him out and say "No", take him inside if he keeps trying. He will learn to stop going inside.


Dont give him food while training this. He'll just keep going inside to get food from you.

 

[Tired Retiree]

It's not the birds they're going after, it's the eggs.

 

[chickentrains]

It's not the birds they're going after, it's the eggs.

Could also be poop, or chicken feed.

 

[briarandwillow]

Teach the wait command. Set aside an hour or two, put the dog on a leash, and open the coop. The instant the dog goes to move, close the door. Rinse repeat until the dog stops moving to enter the coop and instead looks at you when the door is open for at least a second. Praise and treat.

Keep working up to longer and longer durations, adding the verbal cue to wait. Once the dog clearly responds and recognizes the verbal cue to wait to mean "I don't move or the door gets slammed in my face", add a release word. My dog responds to "Okay", pick any word you want so long as you won't inadvertently say it and release the dog before you want him to move. You'll want to start out by tossing a treat AWAY from the coop, make sure it is incredible, we're talking hot fresh bacon here, so he'll go for the treat and not the coop. Keep working him like this til he knows not to break "wait" until he gets his "okay", phasing out high value treats as he gets better and better.

Do not take the dog off lead until the dog is reliably waiting with the door wide open for at least half a minute. This may take a few days, it may take a few weeks.

Once the dog can reliably handle this while on lead, remove the lead. Start from the VERY beginning. It's important not to get ahead of yourself here, because the key is to set the dog up for what YOU deem as success. Don't give him the chance to fail and praise him like he is God's fuzzy gift to the world in whatever way he likes best, but don't get him excited. Keep things calm and warm and matter of fact.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

every time he goes into the coop, pull him out and say "No", take him inside if he keeps trying. He will learn to stop going inside.


Dont give him food while training this. He'll just keep going inside to get food from you.

I agree with this. Training with treats is counterproductive here.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I think you just need to train your dog on top of starting with a dog with a low prey drive.

They want to train the dog they have.

 

[cassie]

It's not the birds they're going after, it's the eggs.

A friend of mine had several hens but she was getting no eggs. So she gave the chickens to me. I got lots of eggs. She started another group of chickens and she wasn't getting eggs from them either. She was just about to give me those hens too when unfortunately for me her husband looked out the kitchen window just in time to see the Doberman sneaking out of the hen house. I don't remember now what she did to keep the dog out of the coop though.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

The best solution I have to offer is to gather the eggs more often than the dog does!