Feeling Very Guilty...Need Advice

[lbgreenfield]

I completely understand how you feel. You are a very caring person and you love your chickens and wanted to give love to another animal who needs it. Is the dog allowed in the house? If so, yoh could leave the dog in the house for a while and let the chickens out to free range. I don't think I would ever feel comfortable enough to let the dog around the chickens. I think you just need to find a system where you can give everyone some free time outside at different times. I'm sure the chickens won't mind too much as long as they get a little free time.

He is allowed in the house. He has separation anxiety so leaving him alone is starting to result in some destructive behaviors. I’m hoping to work on this once he begins to trust me more.

 

[Red Star 2019]

There is one other solution We bought a Pet Safe fenceless dog trainer. You put a collar on your dog that is controlled by a main station. It is adjustable to so many feet from your house. Say, 60 feet diameter. The dog will get use to the area. If it goes outside the diameter, then they get a warning and if they go over the area, they will get shocked. They soon learn to stay within their area. Once they learn, by the first warning of a beeping sound, they turn back inside their area. The trainer isn't that complicated to set up. Works good.

 

[lbgreenfield]

This is what we did and everyone is pretty happy. The chickens get their own yard which I’m still working on to make it fun for them and the dog gets to run around and check them out and boy do the hens like to tease her. I’m hoping eventually it won’t be such an issue when she’s a little more grown and realizes the chickens are family members too! Good luck! I understand how hard this can be juggling everything. View attachment 2203511View attachment 2203512View attachment 2203513

Wow! What a lovely setup! When can I move in??
We have a fenced in yard that the dog is in and a separate pen/coop that is about 25 yards away from the fenced area. I’m the main person doing the training/caring for all the animals, so I’m hoping with time and consistent training, he will be able to at least be outside on a run while the chickens free range outside the fence area. I’m feeling a lot better now that’s it’s been a few days since my original post.

 

[LAGelinne]

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...

I have had chickens for three years and after the dog’s first introduction to them, he went wild chasing them until he finally grabbed one. He has not been allowed out worth them since. We have a fenced in area around the coop/run where the chickens stay until mid to late afternoon when they can free range and the dog stays inside. A shock collar might work but it’s better just to let them take turns being outside.

 

[Ckcarlisle]

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...

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...

Dont be embarrassed! I love my chickens so much thatThey free range on our 2 acres and my dogs are in a fenced yard. I’ve had two of my dogs for 14 years and the younger one for three. I decided to raise chickens and to my horror my dogs are chicken killers every chance they get. I found this out the hard way when they got out of the fenced area and killedTwo of my neighbors chickens I was so mad I wanted to shoot them but of course I know it’s just their instinct. So my chickens free range every day while the dogs are in their fenced area which is a good size. The hens are much happierAnd the dogs are fine.

 

[lbgreenfield]

There is one other solution We bought a Pet Safe fenceless dog trainer. You put a collar on your dog that is controlled by a main station. It is adjustable to so many feet from your house. Say, 60 feet diameter. The dog will get use to the area. If it goes outside the diameter, then they get a warning and if they go over the area, they will get shocked. They soon learn to stay within their area. Once they learn, by the first warning of a beeping sound, they turn back inside their area. The trainer isn't that complicated to set up. Works good.

I’m looking into these options as well. We already have a fenced in yard, so it’s just a matter of keeping the chickens out of his space! Do they make chicken fenceless trainer collars for the girls??? (I’m just kidding)

 

[LaurieLP5]

Wow! What a lovely setup! When can I move in??
We have a fenced in yard that the dog is in and a separate pen/coop that is about 25 yards away from the fenced area. I’m the main person doing the training/caring for all the animals, so I’m hoping with time and consistent training, he will be able to at least be outside on a run while the chickens free range outside the fence area. I’m feeling a lot better now that’s it’s been a few days since my original post.

Good, hang in there! I know the hens can make you feel guilty when you can’t spend all your time devoted just to them. All their squawking and moaning! it will get better when your new doggie settles in and you find a new routine.

 

[clickchicks]

Hello! Just wanted to leave a book recommendation for you: I'll be Home Soon: How to Prevent and Treat Separation Anxiety by Patricia McConnell. Its a pretty short read but helps to ID the root causes of SA and gives some important tips on how to help resolve it.

Good luck! I have 3 German Shepherds who would gladly kill a chicken given the chance, so there is complete separation here (dogs have access to a fenced area that is removed from the chicken's area). You can train a dog with high prey drive to be respectful of your birds, but the level of management that comes along with that training is a lot for day to day life— if there's a solution that keeps them separated but still happy and safe, that's what I'd personally go for.

 

[Fishychix]

The dog is just getting used to being in a new home. It’s traumatic for them to be in a shelter which is likely why he whines while in the crate right next to you. I haven’t read all 18 pages of responses so I’m likely repeating some of the awesome advice it looks like you’ve gotten already. Hubby needs to take a turn with the dog so you can catch a break. Stick with the crate training if you think you need to. We put up “temporary” fencing for our girls. Whatever rolled fencing you can afford and just either t-posts or even electric fence posts (so easy to install!) to hold onto the fence. It’s very adjustable and will keep the girls safe and separated from the dog, which you won’t leave unsupervised for a long time. He will very likely mellow out and be their best friend OR just need supervision while around them.

 

[Yukonn15]

Hello Ibgreenfield, sounds like you have a lot on your plate especially with working FT from home and the animals. We run a rescue ranch and currently have 9 hens and a young rescue dog of 2 who was born here at the ranch. We must keep our hens locked up because our predators are many. Two of my hens are 6 years old and have out foxed a fox and lived through raccoon attacks. It is for their safety that they stay in their run. We have hawks and owls and other predators too. If you are worried that they are penned up look at it as fastening a seatbelt in a car to a child to keep them safe. You are not hurting them you are protecting them. We also have ducks and horses. Our young dog has learned that our male duck who wanders is off limits. It really helped when she was a puppy that she had a remote collar on and I would hit the button (it doesn’t hurt her) she would get a tap saying that’s not good, and she is trained to come to me when the collar taps her. I think I would have lost a few animals with out the collar. Ours is callled a e collar but there are many on amazon. I highly recommend for training. Now she doesn’t need it and I just say leave it and she’s good. You can do it!