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...
First of all I want to say that I didn’t read through all the posts.
Secondly, I’m sorry you are going through a stressful time. I have become quite attached to my chickens as well. My husband jokes that I am keeper of the chicken Marriott.
The dog is problematic, but could be worked with if you are willing. You have a mix that is very complicated. The collie is a herding breed and they enjoy running after things. It’s probably where most of the anxiety comes from too, because most collies have separation anxieties. Then you add in the pit bull that were bred to kill. I know that pit bulls can be lovely dogs and extremely loyal, but they have a switch in their head (as other dogs do too) that once it’s turned on they can be killers. There are other dogs ( like Golden’s) that actually bite more people then pits, but when a pit bites it’s more dangerous because they have such strong jaw muscles.
I have a German Shepherd that is a rescue. She was used for breeding. When I first brought the chicks home I had to work real hard to keep her away. She would try to lay with them. My husband thought it was cute so he let her get close to one and sniff it. She proceeded to snatch it up and run away with it. She did not hurt it, but that was the last time that happened. I do let her come out with me, but I don’t let her alone outside with them because she chases them when she gets excited. She’s a big dog who doesn’t know her boundaries and could hurt them, luckily she listens fairly well.
I have to get a new one but I tried an e collar ( it’s old and had no effect on her). If you do try an electric collar you need to know how to use it, but it can be effective.
You can try to talk to a trainer.
Get a fence for the chicks.
Let the dog out while you have a pinch collar on it.
If all else fails give the dog back, but give it some time. Know that when you are anxious the dog can feel that too. The best thing to do is to be calm and do some training with the dog inside. Get some yummy treats, have her sit, down, stay, heel, etc.. Clicker training works on some dogs too.
Good luck!
