Getting a guardian puppy - any chicken<-->dog communicables I need to worry about?

[chickfused]

I'd give anything to have my girl leave the cats alone, but they are SO exciting!! At any rate, we just did some really great herding and rounding up. No excess chasing, would stop as the chickens enter the gate and look back to me to figure out which group we were getting next. Pretty cool! Bitey again though - but she's lost 4 teeth in 2 days. I won't allow it, but I feel for her.

She's really probably chicken proof. I don't think she'd harm one intentionally, but I don't trust her enough to free range with the birds yet. She sits out with them unsupervised free ranging on a 30 ft lead all the time though, no issues. They ate treats together yesterday, as we still do fairly regularly, and she continues behaving as expected.

 

[chickfused]

Copper met the goats! She didn't know what to do with them but wasn't terrified of them. Wary, but not terrified. She also met 4 dogs all at once and had a blast. I have to travel for work for a week and so she's going to go stay with the goats and dogs while I'm gone. Doggie camp!

 

[1cock2hens]

Copper met the goats! She didn't know what to do with them but wasn't terrified of them. Wary, but not terrified. She also met 4 dogs all at once and had a blast. I have to travel for work for a week and so she's going to go stay with the goats and dogs while I'm gone. Doggie camp!

Oh that will be great socialization! Those dogs might teach her some manners lol

 

[chickfused]

They already started. And one tried to teach her that goats were alright and that was cool to watch. Unfortunately two of them go just as hard as she does, but one definitely has a "Enough!" switch and puts her down. Thw pack dynamics forming up were cool.to watch too.

 

[chickfused]

Well, Copper's off to doggie camp and I'm off to the city to work for a few days. Be well all! May you have as mich fun as a farmful of puppies and goats

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

I have a Central Asian Shepherd, a large LGD breed. It took about 5 minutes to teach her to leave our chickens and cats alone. Any animal (or person) that doesn't live here is in for a very bad day.

Our golden retriever has thought its funny to chase the chickens outside the fence, but then if i bring a chicken out she is okay with them. Now she is trying to protect us when anyone comes that she doesnt know(im kinda happy she is like this now)

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Sounds like Copper is doing well. And learing great, when we get a livestock guarding dog in the future i will have to remeber some of the things you went through with Copper and then work through that with my lgd.

 

[chickfused]

She is! Apparently she got brave enough to lick a goat today! The goal was confused by this - her guardian does her job but doesn't lick Also she almost rode to doggie camp in horsecart. (The truck is on the fritz.) But it didn't happen due to a neighbors aggressive dog :/ That would have been fun!

 

[chickfused]

Doggie camp was a great success. She came back very happy and much larger than when she left? Not sure how she grew so much in 4 days, but there we go.

Today, we herded 30 chickens, off leash. And it was _perfect_. I gave her the "We're going to work now" cue: "It's time to put the chickens away." And then I pointed out the group I wanted her to move into the pen: "Chickens, gotobed." while pointing at them. She went and got every single group, rounded them up and put them away. As soon as she knew the group she was working was going into the pen, she'd stop and look at me to point out the next one. We had one straggler and it just panicked and kept trying to run through the chicken fence, and Copper just laid there in "herd pose" (the same one border collies do) and watched it struggle for a few minutes to see if it was going to manage to get it's head together. Eventually she must have decided it was too stupid to live, because she gently grabbed it's tail in her mouth, pulled it about 12" away from the fence, let it go, and then slowly moved it to the gate.

Such a joy. 30 chickens in less than 10 minutes.

If I get another one of these, it's getting popped in with the chickens for a month out the gate too. I have a 6 month old utility dog. People said it would take years for her to be chicken safe.

 

[chickfused]

I think this thread has about reached its conclusion. Copper is a rock solid chicken dog and farm helper at just shy of 7 months old. We're still working on perfect recall and getting her to let me decide when something is worrisome or not, and she's still a bitey mess sometimes when she decides the punishment is worth it, but it's fading and we'll get there.

English Shepherds seem to be the absolutely perfect farm dog, versatile, bright, loyal, and brave with all the good qualities of a livestock dog (both guardian and herder) and none of the downsides. Which is exactly why I chose this specific breed. I will get another one in a year or two, so she has a friend and the things I've learned should make it a much easier process.

Updates will be very sporadic or nonexistent going forward. Thank you all for sharing this journey with me and I hope it helps some people in the future.

Happy holidays all!