Feel worse than horrible...lost my first bird due to my own stupidity

[firedove]

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My dog is great with the chickens but that is due in no small part to the fact that our big SLW roo put the fear of God in him as soon as he came on the scene. Our Snoopy, a beagle/lab cross, is a total wimp, only 53 lbs, and completely avoids the chickens, even when he doesn't know we are watching. He loves to roll in the poop though, yuck! Our roo Thunder keeps a close eye on Snoopy at all times anyways and I have no doubt he would not hesitate to whoop some doggy butt if Snoopy ever even looked at his hens crossways!

That said, Snoopy is a rare dog. He has no prey drive and is terrified of his own shadow, the wind, the chickens, the rabbits, the cats... don't even get me started on the deer... you get the idea. He is however fiercely loyal and gets over his fear really quick when he thinks there is a threat to me or my husband. He almost never leaves the yard and when he does he is always within calling distance (usually across the road visiting the neighbor's dogs

) Just an all around great dog to have. We totally lucked out when we adopted this boy.

 

[PotterWatch]

We had the same thing happen. Our dog did fine with our chickens for a year, never bothered them a bit, didn't seem the least bit interested in them. Just like you did, my husband came home one day to find one of the chickens dying on the grass. We immediately put up a run and the chickens have been separated from the dogs from that day on. I will never trust one of our dogs around our chickens again.

 

[Bard Shamrock]

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...not unless you catch him or her in the act, and beat the living tar out of him/her while yelling at the top of your lungs.

Within an inch of their life generally works pretty well. They've got to really believe that you will kill them.

 

[1stepcloser]

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That's great news!

If you haven't already, be sure to check out some of the threads on quarantine for your new birds. What kind did you get?

Quarantined and they are golden sexlinks.

Found my first egg this morning!!

 

[Le Canard de Barbarie]

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My Great Pyrenees puppy has been living 24/7 with my 100 plus ducks since she was six weeks old. She is now sixteen weeks old at 41 pounds. All this time she has been allowed unrestricted access to the ducks, and everybody is very much alive and healthy.

She found an empty brooding pen to sleep in and some ducklings joined her.

She is staying by the coop door while the ducks are sleeping.

 

[omelette'smom]

You trusted your dog because of the eyebrows! We all fall for it. And congrats on your first egg!

 

[chookchick]

So sorry to hear that, I can't imagine how awful that would be. For penance, please come back to the P and P forum once in a while and share your story with those who post "can my dog be trained to get along with the chickens"? posts (after the dog has chased or bit a chicken!). Living in a nice big SAFE run is a fine life for a chicken!

 

[Stephanie-n-Hayden]

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...not unless you catch him or her in the act, and beat the living tar out of him/her while yelling at the top of your lungs.
NICE!

Within an inch of their life generally works pretty well. They've got to really believe that you will kill them.

My dog got carried away one day recently and chanced our roo down and held him down. I thought "This is it." But other than a few loose feathers, the roo was fine. I thought at best he's have a broken wing or something, but he was fine. Let me tell you something. I beat my dog like I never had before. Looking back on it I may have been a bit harsh, but I wanted him to understand without a doubt that waht he did was a BAD thing. He doesn't so much as trot in their direction now. He knows Better!

 

[VA from WV]

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They aren't 'just a chicken' when you give them a name, and I'd be bawling too if it were one of mine. It amazes me how quickly my chickens endeared themselves to me and the family.

We've worked OT to build things so that the chickens are protected from this kind of thing. We don't free-range precisely because we have a dog, who I think would honestly protect the flock from all comers as fast as he'd kill one trying to play with it!

Our pasturing pens need a lot of work to make them truly dog-safe. The worst part is that someday, something is going to happen(be it dog, coon, fox, or something else) and we're going to beat ourselves up and second guess our choices, so I know right where you're at.

Kinda makes me want to accelerate the work of replacing poultry netting with more stout fence. Too bad the good stuff is so expensive.

 

[VA from WV]

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Pretty much. You gotta go major Alpha Dog all over them until they get who is under your protection. I got a bouncy lab puppy who is rapidly learning not to play rough with the kids, mostly because he's accepted that I will make it really bad for him otherwise.

A dog who doesn't believe that you're the one in charge is a dog who is going to be a problem for everyone and everything. Gods forbid you actually betray the slightest fear of them....