Free Range Chickens & Border Collies

[CapricornFarm]

Welcome to BYC, sorry you lost those chickens.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Welcome to our FUNomenal Flock!!!

Best Wishes & Be Well!

 

[coNative]

I trained my BC/German shepherd cross by first using a leash and then when the chickens ran up to her I would make her lay down and hold her until she stopped going for them. After a few weeks I would hold her and they would climb on her. If she went for them I would scold her. This training is best at like 1/2 hr a day. Every day. Just say ‘no’ and pull him back down to the ground gently. BCs are very smart and very sensitive to shaming. It can work wonders. These are YOUR chickens and you are the leader. He is below you and can’t have your things.
after about two months of daily training she learned to ignore the chickens entirely. She’s now 9 years old and a wonderful livestock guardian dog in her own right.

The key to training herders is time, patience, and repetition. Also (just my opinion) they’re too smart to learn from spankings. Smacking leads to fearing chickens and fear leads them to be aggressive with them. Like Yoda says.

Thank you for sharing your experience and advice on training. BC are do intelligent and sensitive. I’m going to really work with him and hopefully will also have a wonderful livestock guardian and helper.

 

[HaasFamilyFarm]

Hello Everyone, I just found this group googling for advice on how to deal with a BC killing my hens. I’m not new to chickens as I grew up with them but I am new to owning a BC that needed a home or was going to the shelter. I really love this puppy (he just turned 2) but he has now killed 2 of my young pullets. I’m devastated and don’t know what to do. Been reading a post that came up from Aug 11, 2015. Have never trained using an eCollar so I would need to figure out which eCollar would be good and just how to train with it. I really don’t want to give up the dog but then again I do not want all my hens to be killed by him. So sad and confused please help.

I have a border collie female 2 years old, we have worked with her on boundaries with the chickens. I started with a leash, she would come with me to feed and water them. If she started to pull I corrected her. Border collies do really well with positive reinforcement, and in the moment corrections like telling them No or some way to get their attention and redirect. You are the leader, and showing him it’s not okay to get too close to the chickens- they are yours. It takes time, BC also get bored easily and need mental stimulation, I gave mine a “job” watching over baby chicks that were in an enclosed run. She would run around the yard, but always go back to her job watching the chicks. As the chicks got older she recognized them and left them alone. BC are such hard working dogs, left to their own devices they can do some weird things to entertain themselves. One time I came home to 20 holes in part of the yard, guess she was trying to catch a mole....

 

[chrissynemetz]

Welcome to BYC! I hope some of the advice you've been given helps.