Feeling Very Guilty...Need Advice

[raven029]

I hope you are all adjusting to the newness of this. Do keep in mind with a rescue dog they need a time to decompress from having been in the shelter and become acclimated to their new family + surroundings.

While I'm by no means a dog trainer, I did train my dog who is an American Pit Bull Terrier/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix. She now guards them with her life and I trust her to be in the same space with them without any supervision. This was not always so. I got her at 10 months and shortly discovered her prey drive. I didn't have chickens at the time but did have horses. She directed all of that energy going after them with or without a rider as well as chasing dirt bikes. Upon advice from the ranch owner where I boarded I used a shock collar for training. This is not to be taken lightly and MUST be used correctly. (Research or employ a trainer if you go this route.) She only got jolts if she would take off in a blind charge, otherwise, mostly, I used the beeper for sound training and had instant recall from her. At that point praise, praise, praise!! Mine is food motivated so it was relatively easy to employ positive reinforcement.

They key will be to work with your dog and set attainable goals so you both succeed. You mentioned you work from home. Can you or your husband walk/exercise your dog in the mornings + evenings? A tired dog is a happy dog and especially if there's anxiety involved, a structured schedule with physical work + challenges would be helpful. There are many training videos available as there are methods of training. I've naturally gravitated to Cesar Milan's style because it aligns with my own that I have used since I was a teen. See what works for you.

Circling back to the chickens, sort of. With me it started with introducing a new kitten to the house. She is not allowed on furniture but with the kitten I made an exception. I'd hold the kitten in my lap and allow her on the couch with us with her nose buried in the kitten's fur. She got the message that kitten = good things. Eventually they became BFFs. She also learned her place in the pack and that kitten was above her. When I got chickens I did something similar and the behavior transferred over. It's worth noting here that I NEVER allowed her near chicks because they make squeak toy sounds and that would have unfairly set her up for failure. I took her out leashed to my waist as I did chores so she acclimated. When she went off leash I once again put the shock collar on her. We practiced recall with sound and I only buzzed her a couple of time when she fixated on the birds. She learned and has never gone after a chicken - even when a semi broody let her have it with all her fury in the face one time.

Good luck with your new dog & chickens.

 

[aart]

Do keep in mind with a rescue dog they need a time to decompress from having been in the shelter and become acclimated to their new family + surroundings.

Yes, it can take a couple months before you see the dogs true demeanor.

 

[lbgreenfield]

I hope you are all adjusting to the newness of this. Do keep in mind with a rescue dog they need a time to decompress from having been in the shelter and become acclimated to their new family + surroundings.

While I'm by no means a dog trainer, I did train my dog who is an American Pit Bull Terrier/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix. She now guards them with her life and I trust her to be in the same space with them without any supervision. This was not always so. I got her at 10 months and shortly discovered her prey drive. I didn't have chickens at the time but did have horses. She directed all of that energy going after them with or without a rider as well as chasing dirt bikes. Upon advice from the ranch owner where I boarded I used a shock collar for training. This is not to be taken lightly and MUST be used correctly. (Research or employ a trainer if you go this route.) She only got jolts if she would take off in a blind charge, otherwise, mostly, I used the beeper for sound training and had instant recall from her. At that point praise, praise, praise!! Mine is food motivated so it was relatively easy to employ positive reinforcement.

They key will be to work with your dog and set attainable goals so you both succeed. You mentioned you work from home. Can you or your husband walk/exercise your dog in the mornings + evenings? A tired dog is a happy dog and especially if there's anxiety involved, a structured schedule with physical work + challenges would be helpful. There are many training videos available as there are methods of training. I've naturally gravitated to Cesar Milan's style because it aligns with my own that I have used since I was a teen. See what works for you.

Circling back to the chickens, sort of. With me it started with introducing a new kitten to the house. She is not allowed on furniture but with the kitten I made an exception. I'd hold the kitten in my lap and allow her on the couch with us with her nose buried in the kitten's fur. She got the message that kitten = good things. Eventually they became BFFs. She also learned her place in the pack and that kitten was above her. When I got chickens I did something similar and the behavior transferred over. It's worth noting here that I NEVER allowed her near chicks because they make squeak toy sounds and that would have unfairly set her up for failure. I took her out leashed to my waist as I did chores so she acclimated. When she went off leash I once again put the shock collar on her. We practiced recall with sound and I only buzzed her a couple of time when she fixated on the birds. She learned and has never gone after a chicken - even when a semi broody let her have it with all her fury in the face one time.

Good luck with your new dog & chickens.View attachment 2205515

Thank you for the encouragement and for telling your story.
To answer your question, my husband leaves for work at 530am and comes home around 6-7pm. He even worked today (Father’s Day Sunday). I’m doubtful that he would do a before-work morning walk that early in the morning, but hopefully he would be willing to do an evening walk to give me a break from the dog and give me some time to go hang out with the chickens and do daily coop maintenance (Clean poop boards, refill water/feed, lap cuddle time, etc.). I’m haven’t seen him much this week/weekend (due to work and his hobby) but I’m hoping to talk to him tonight because I need some help and a break every once and a while.
I will look into shock collars if necessary and/or recommended by a trainer.

 

[Lilyput]

Hello all. This is slightly embarrassing for me and a long read. We have a current flock of 11 chickens (Five 2.5-year old hens and six 12-week old chicks). I am the primary caretaker of all of them, and I am very, very attached to my chickens and they are attached to me. My husband jokes that he thinks I love the chickens more than I love him sometimes.

We’ve been debating rescuing a shelter dog for almost 5 years now and we finally adopted a 3-year old border collie/pit bull mix who comes from an abusive home. We have had him for about 5 days now. The dog pound didn’t know much about his background. He’s a surprisingly good dog despite his upbringing (friendly towards people, is semi-house trained) but as we’ve come to find out over the past few days, he has a very strong prey drive when it comes to any animal (rabbits especially). We’ve done a very controlled (fully leashed) distanced introduction with the dog/chickens and the dog has lunged and pulled to get closer.

We are keeping the chickens in their run/coop for the time being and I am feeling INCREDIBLY guilty about it. The chickens are used to free ranging during the evenings and have been vocally complaining, making crying sounds, moping around the pen/coop. I feel so horrible and have been trying to spend as much time in the pen as possible but it has been difficult with the new dog (husband works a lot and I’m the primary care taker of the dog while working from home FT). It is making me so emotional and sad and almost resentful towards the dog. Am I being crazy? Over analyzing every move the dog makes? I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to my chickens because of the dog. Just looking for some advice from others on this...

Both border collies and pit bulls are prey driven. Collies learn to herd; bull dogs will never. Unfortunately, you rescued the wrong dog. I have two giant schnauzers, they too are prey driven and would kill every one of my chickens just for the fun of it! Too bad, this dog would make a great loyal pet to you, but not the chickens!

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Hello all. This is slightly embarrassing for me and a long read. We have a current flock of 11 chickens (Five 2.5-year old hens and six 12-week old chicks). I am the primary caretaker of all of them, and I am very, very attached to my chickens and they are attached to me. My husband jokes that he thinks I love the chickens more than I love him sometimes.

We’ve been debating rescuing a shelter dog for almost 5 years now and we finally adopted a 3-year old border collie/pit bull mix who comes from an abusive home. We have had him for about 5 days now. The dog pound didn’t know much about his background. He’s a surprisingly good dog despite his upbringing (friendly towards people, is semi-house trained) but as we’ve come to find out over the past few days, he has a very strong prey drive when it comes to any animal (rabbits especially). We’ve done a very controlled (fully leashed) distanced introduction with the dog/chickens and the dog has lunged and pulled to get closer.

We are keeping the chickens in their run/coop for the time being and I am feeling INCREDIBLY guilty about it. The chickens are used to free ranging during the evenings and have been vocally complaining, making crying sounds, moping around the pen/coop. I feel so horrible and have been trying to spend as much time in the pen as possible but it has been difficult with the new dog (husband works a lot and I’m the primary care taker of the dog while working from home FT). It is making me so emotional and sad and almost resentful towards the dog. Am I being crazy? Over analyzing every move the dog makes? I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to my chickens because of the dog. Just looking for some advice from others on this...

Just make sure they are always kept separate, because it would be horrible if the dog got loose on the chickens and killed them all.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Thank you everyone for your overnight replies. I’ve felt a little better after reading them this morning. I’ll answer a few questions here and provide some clarification.

We have 0.5 acres of our 3 acre property fully fenced in that is connected to our house via the patio/front door. I have been doing leashed walks around our property and to our mailbox (about 1/2 mile from our house) 3 times a day, each time walking past the chicken coop/run. The dog has been staying in the fenced area off leash, but he’s always on a leash when outside the fence.

I could tie him to a tree or put him on a short run within the fence while I let the chickens free range, but the chickens love coming inside the fence to dig through our mulch beds and sleep/preen on the patio with me. They’ve been doing that for over 2 years now and I’ve tried to keep them outside then fence but they just fly over it. I don’t want to clip their wings.

The chickens have a 16x32ft fully enclosed, predator proof run and a 8x8ft attached coop so they have plenty of room. They just hate being in there when they see me outside, with or without the dog, because they are so used to being outside with me to roam all over the yard. I’m considering getting a not-totally predator proof tractor pen so they can still “free range” if the dog is outside.

I am definitely going to hire a trainer/behavioral specialist, but am concerned with spending $$$$$ to have no benefit at the end of it. I should have taken a chicken with me to the dog pound but again, it’s a pound not a humane rescue so our initial visit with the dog was brief. Hindsight is the best kind of sight and knowing what I know now, I would have done the initial visit differently.

I think the plan for us is to give it a few months, with keeping the dog inside if the chickens are out, along with training. If after doing all that we still haven’t made any progress, we will think about rehoming the dog.

Thanks for everyone’s responses. I’ve gotten little support from my family and friends so it’s been nice to have unbiased strangers weigh in on the situation.

I think you will have to commit to more than a few months of training, especially if your dog is a rescue and has not been trained throughout its life. It can be a lot harder to train a rescue just because it has not had the proper attention given throughout its life. Usually border collies need a lot of exercise, they can run for miles and miles a day. Pit bulls can be very prey driven and they also are very strong dogs that need a lot of exercise.

 

[Dawn Bowes]

Don't give up too soon! As a rescue I'm sure the dog is having quite a bit of anxiety. Could you consider a compromise of fencing off a section for the chickens that they could free range within? That was our compromise. The ladies have about 1/4 of the yard. It's not a predator secure fence since I shut them in the coop at night, but it means they can roam around and we didn't have to worry about my son's dogs. Here's a success story. Both dogs are rescues and came with their own quirks. The retriever/shepherd/collie potluck went crazy for birds. She would leap and bark at anything flying. She is so mellow now and lays beside the fence watching chicken tv. I wouldn't have trusted her or the terrier mix alone with the chickens, but recently our 6 week old chicks have flown over and we've discovered dogs and lone chick co-existing peaceably together. If you can figure out a way for the dog to have time to get used to the chix without endangering them, you might find it can work out. Best of luck!

We have 5 rescues, in fact, Daisy is one that we have & she is so scared & skittish even after we’ve had her for 10 years. It’s sad what people do to animals that they just can’t get over the trauma they endured. Anyway, we had to fence off one side of the yard next to the house that was visible for the dogs to see us go to the barn. They also have a dog door so they can come & go as they please. Which usually means they are wherever they can be near us or see where we are. We also did the same thing as far as fencing back behind the barn about 6 ft tall strong fencing, then chicken wire over that. They can be in or out all day if they want to and go in at sunset to roost. Your new baby will be ok it just takes time for him/her to understand that you always will come back. Try walking away out of site for a minute then come back and give love then slowly increase the amount of time you’re gone. Dogs also do better with another dog buddy but that would be for down the road. Good luck, Dawn

 

[CornellSastracha]

I have a malamute and he had an incredibly strong prey drive. I got a dog trainer and now he has become a livestock guarding dog. Invest a little money in a trainer and you can have harmony among your animals. A pit bull is just like any other dog except stronger and with greater bite strength.

 

[Pghelp]

I wonder since you're planning on pursuing training for your dog if it's worth doing crate training. Some dogs come to love the crate as their secure space. I had visions of your chix free ranging while the dog was crated but not alone and out of sight. Just a thought. I hope you find a way to make it work out for all! Best of luck!

 

[Flockincrazy]

how's it going