Geese and dogs

[Chickenrandomness]

My poor chickens! my 2 4 and a half month old puppies keep chasing them!!!! they can't even go outside! my puppies are both female, ones a blue heeler, the other is an Australian Shepherd. the aussie is the one who always starts it, other wise the blue heeler dosen't chse them.

would geese protect the chickens?

 

[goosedragon]

Quote:
Not against two dogs!. Are the pups chasing or only trying to herd your chickens since both are herder breeds.

 

[Chickenrandomness]

Quote:
Not against two dogs!. Are the pups chasing or only trying to herd your chickens since both are herder breeds.

i'm not sure, but they chase the poor chickens around the barn. last time i caught them chasing them, they got into the barn, and i have never heard a chicken scream. i'm really worried about the chickens

 

[The Duck ABC's]

You have to control the puppies until they are older, plus training 2 puppies is kind of hard. I have 4 hunting dogs at all ages. One is a blue heeler/Australian shepherd mix. She tried to do the herding/controlling thing when she was younger. We trained her on the command "Not Yours". She knows it by heart now and will not do what she had in mind if we tell her not to. She still has the strong drive doing so, but obeys us. We also socialize all our dogs to the birds from early on. They are allowed to sniff the birds from day 2 on with us watching. They have come to understand that the birds are part of the pack and that they have to be protected. All 4 dogs now roam with the birds and no hunting or chasing. The only bird I have to watch out for is our 2.5 week old gosling. He triggers the instincts in the 2 female dogs, but it will be over with once he is a little bit bigger. We now take him for walks into the meadow with all the dogs. We still have to watch the female dogs, but they are getting it. Another week and they will not care. Sammy is our young dog at 1.5 years now. Even he learned from puppy age on that the birds are family. Socialization is the key, but in a controlled way.

 

[Chickenrandomness]

The Duck ABC's :

You have to control the puppies until they are older, plus training 2 puppies is kind of hard. I have 4 hunting dogs at all ages. One is a blue heeler/Australian shepherd mix. She tried to do the herding/controlling thing when she was younger. We trained her on the command "Not Yours". She knows it by heart now and will not do what she had in mind if we tell her not to. She still has the strong drive doing so, but obeys us. We also socialize all our dogs to the birds from early on. They are allowed to sniff the birds from day 2 on with us watching. They have come to understand that the birds are part of the pack and that they have to be protected. All 4 dogs now roam with the birds and no hunting or chasing. The only bird I have to watch out for is our 2.5 week old gosling. He triggers the instincts in the 2 female dogs, but it will be over with once he is a little bit bigger. We now take him for walks into the meadow with all the dogs. We still have to watch the female dogs, but they are getting it. Another week and they will not care. Sammy is our young dog at 1.5 years now. Even he learned from puppy age on that the birds are family. Socialization is the key, but in a controlled way.

They know that they arn't allowed in the barn, and chase the chickens, i make sure they know it, but they don't listen​

 

[PrairieFarmer]

All the dogs we've had on the farm we're cured out of chasing the birds after a "come to Jesus" meeting with me. Our older lab/Australian Shepherd cross we had for about 6 years before I got my first birds. She thought those 6 little ducklings were for her personal chasing and killing enjoyment. She learned pretty quickly that she would get in trouble if she chased them when I was around, but then she started sneaking. So I hid behind the duck pen one day and had my husband let her out. She immediately "snuck" over to the ducks and when she ran out to attack I jumped out and caught her right in the act. She got a big spanking, I chased her all over the farm for about 10 minutes and then she got locked up by herself for several days. She never looked at one of my birds after that.
My new rat terrier puppy also was getting into chasing birds. Started with little "woo-hoo" runs at them. Isn't that funny, look at the birds go? Then he realized the ducks would quickly give up and then he could just kinda sit on them and happily chew their wings up. Again, I caught him in the act, gave him a good spanking and chased him all around the farm with a several hour time out. Cured him.
They have to know you're serious and that YOU WILL catch them doing it. If you have two puppies I would work with them one at a time, especially a ringleader. It's a serious issue however. Nothing worse than a "pack" of neighborhood dogs that will run around and kills whatever they can find.

 

[Okie Amazon]

Quote:
4 and 1/2 month old puppies don't know anything of the kind! A 22 week old pup is about the same as a 15-18 month old baby. Can you say, "My baby knows they're not supposed to run into the street?" No, they may have had their bottom busted for it, but they don't "know" it anymore than they know algebra!


Put a line on both of these pups and start TRAINING them to leave your chickens alone.

 

[jblee]

Dogs that chase and kill other animals are liable to end up dead themselves at the hands of a not so understanding neighbor, if they were to escape the yard. I would be that neighbor if it happened to my birds as I am sure you may be as well. Its not the dogs fault , they are just doing what comes natural. You sound responsible and I doubt you ever have that issue with your dogs. But I think I would seperate them when you train them as dogs have pack mentality, like little kids do

, and like to get bad when together. If you get your dogs to be good with your animals, it also stands that they are less likely to be causing trouble should they ever get out of the yard. Good luck!

 

[Duckles]

I used the Cesar Milan methods of training my dog, we used it to get him to leave my parents cat alone etc...

According to Cesar, yelling at a dog is just noise and it makes them think you are out of control or confused and makes them even more likely to "take over" as top dog. So all you do is get in between him and the chicken, stand over him and say something stern like "stop" and put your hand out flat so he knows to sit. No matter what he tries to do to get to the chickens like walk around you, just stay in between him and the chickens, this is your way of showing them you "own" the chickens. This will remind him that you are top dog and that the chickens are yours and are off limits. It usually needs to be reinforced but you'd be amazed how well it works. Consistency is your best bet. Good luck!

 

[Chickenrandomness]

Quote:
i've done something similar once:

i got my camera some fresh batterys, so i decided on a chicken photo shoot. i had the chickens and the pups outside (thats when i trusted them). Sydney, the blue heelers, greets me at the door. we walk together until i get half way to the barn. i hear the most blood curtling scream i've ever heard. i start to jog toward the barn, just when Nate, my banty standard mix flys outside onto another building right by the barn fallowed by Nikki, my aussie. i let her know shes never to do that again. i would have spanked her, but she made sure she had some distance from me. i yelled until my throught hurt. i then gave her the leash treatment; i put her on a leash everytime i went to the barn, until i got annoyed at chasing her down to put the leash on her. now both pups arn't alowed in the barn.

a few days ago, i had an idea. i cracked open the barn door just enough and put some wood over part of the opening. the hole was just big enought for my brahma hen to go through. just the other day, i find Sydney pushing the door open and going through

and just today i went in the barn to see the chickens. i left the door a bit open because its hard to pen and close the barn door from the inside. the chickens REALLY wanted outside, so my brahma hen steps outside. it only took 30 seconds before i heard nervous clucking followed by her speed walking inside. looks like Sydney rubbed off of Nikki, because Sydney was right outside.



i'm not looking for all this elaberate training things, when i told my dad i wanted a puppy, i wanted either a small herding dog (such as the corgi) or a large teddy bear dog like the mastif or St. bernard, but no, my dad wanted me to get a dog like a collie or border collie. i was ok with it until Nikki got into chasing chickens. now i almost don't want her. i never asked for a problem dog!

i've already lost a pullet to a dog before, i don't want that happening again!