Fine Tuning Dog Around Chickens

[centrarchid]

I have two bird dogs expected to protect birds against wildlife which they do pretty well. Dogs differ in age by about 18 months with younger proving problematic. Younger dog has proven more difficult to control and she miss-treats free-ranging juveniles when she thinks I am not looking. This has to be resolved with respect to the controll and harassment. What I have started is I brought inside a juvenile from same flock she harasses except the bird is a game while most are dominiques. Inside the bird has to walk on polished wood floor and dodge my 18-month old son that harasses chickens as well. Pup has lots of motivation to harass but I have increased controll over her. This shall be repeated daily to get pup to respond to my commands even when chicken is skating past her flapping just to changes directions or to avoid son carrying fork. She is already responding to verbal commmands which does not do well when outside. My son does not respond as well. Meal worms are used to keep most of interactions in same room with me. Pullet has started flying up on furniture and breifly faught her reflection in mirror but no damage yet. This will translate into better controll over pup outside as well.

 

[nzpouter]

electric collar works good on both..

 

[centrarchid]

electric collar works good on both..

Collar does not appear effective on pullet or boy, latter tries to eat it or put it on my leg. Collar works OK on dogs if you are properly trained which I am not. My preference is to use initially physical restraint coupled with voice and stare like dominant dog uses. It took 8 hours of interaction time (not continous) to get dog to settle down and respond at level I desire. Eventually subtle voice command will be all that is needed which will not take long. The direction can then be to do more interesting things for dog. This will be repeated over next several days to weeks to get dog and likely pullet and boy to do as directed. Pup already turns her back on bird but still gets excited when bird flies up on something. Bird roosted in house next to pup sleeping area without troubles.

 

[centrarchid]

Dog seems to be getting point about chickens not being proper concern even when board. The 16-month old boy still likes bird and pulls bird's tail feathers at every opportunity. Pullet does not seem to think much of threat son poses. Concern is dog will think only that bird is off limits so I will bring in a different bird, preferably one that is more on crazy side to push dog's envelope.

 

[Michael Apple]

I took my Cattledog pup out on a long length of rope and tied him while I let the birds out to range. I let him bounce around until he got tired. I didn't yell at him to increase the excitement, I just growled some commands at him. The herding training always helps because the dog learns to "stay" after a "lie down" command. Done continuously, that dog will learn to lie down immediately and stay no matter what is going on around him/her.

I had to use a variety of techniques because he was a high drive pup. He still is 3 years later. First thing I'd do is take him out in the yard with the ewes. If he didn't calm down, I'd take him back out of the yard, no herding as punishment, and try later. Sometimes, if he was really rambunctious, I would have him lie down, stay, then pretend I was unclipping the leash from his collar. If he made a run before my command I'd let him hit the end of that leash and give a gruff "lie down" to teach him a lesson. Some dogs are very high drive, and what works with one may not work with the other. I think males are harder than females to train.

 

[blucoondawg]

Shock collar will work wonders if it is good collar not some tinker toy pet trainer one. It doesn't require training to use, just some common sense. You don't want to over do it, most dogs will learn after 1 good zap, then subsequent infractions can be dealt with by using the tone button, the good thing about the collar is you can let the dog out to do as it pleases, watch from a distance and you can zap it without it associating the discipline with you, with any luck the dog will associate chasing or biting the chickens with getting nailed by the collar, the bad part is most dogs are smart enough to know that they only get nailed when wearing the collar so you will have to leave it on them the whole time they are near the chickens or make up a dummy collar for them to wear. The dog should learn eventually and not need the collar but it is always a nice comfort to have it available. My buddy nailed his springer 1 time with a cattle prod as it was stalking cornish x chicks through the fence, the dog never looked at a chicken the rest of it's life.

 

[CAjerseychick]

Just wanted to say not sure what clicked exactly but I finally got my 3 year giant schnauzer to quit killing chickens (8 over 4 months or so)....
I had hung a toy (giant chew toy about 5 lbs) mini tire on her neck the last 2 times she got caught mid chicken attack, and then she wore it when un supervised (like when I am sleeping after a night shift-- which was her favorite time for chicken killing)-- now the last week shes been crawling into the chicken yard to eat their feed (which I think is a sign of success since now she ignores the chickens, even when out- they are allowed out of the yard to range out into our back pasture...)...