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

[Ilovemychicks08]

Nothing of note to note. Things are getting a bit harder for everyone with the bitter cold and short days. Copper's biting has remained a problem and I'm still frustrated as hell. But she's wonderful when she's wonderful, and we'll keep trying to fix her bad habit.

Keep working and she will be a good dog in the end! Good luck!

 

[1cock2hens]

I just got an aussie pup to help me herd goats and it wants nothing to do with my chickens! Thank god. I've never had a herding dog only terriers and hounds so I've been watching this thread and it had me expecting so much more trouble lol

 

[Sneakyturtle]

Nothing of note to note. Things are getting a bit harder for everyone with the bitter cold and short days. Copper's biting has remained a problem and I'm still frustrated as hell. But she's wonderful when she's wonderful, and we'll keep trying to fix her bad habit.

Just keep working at it. It takes a very long time to train dogs. I want to get a livestock guardian dog but I know it will be a huge undertaking to train it to never harm my chickens. Definitely keep working with a trainer when you need to for the biting issue.

I have two indoor dogs but I keep them separate from my chickens when they go outside, otherwise they would chase them and I just don't have the time to train them to respect the chickens.

 

[chickfused]

I just got an aussie pup to help me herd goats and it wants nothing to do with my chickens! Thank god. I've never had a herding dog only terriers and hounds so I've been watching this thread and it had me expecting so much more trouble lol

I just got an exceptionally hard dog for my first dog. Plus I am learning everything as I go, so I'm screwing up right and left. I'm surprised she hasn't bit me harder.

I do still maintain that that first month with the birds was crucial to her future job though. It's made it harder for me to develop a bond with her, but she's almost chicken safe at 5.5 months old. She may even be chicken safe to be honest, I just don't fully trust her judgment yet.

I will say that Copper didn't show any/much intent based interest in the chickens until she was about 3.5 to 4 months old except for a few chicken chasing incidents as a very young pup. (Which I still think was play as she _still_ tries to play bow to her white archnemesis - who, by the way, is only getting witchier as she gets older. She's drawn blood on me multiple times. That one may have a date with the stew pot as soon as she's done laying, I hate her...but she's an egg machine) So watch your Aussie closely, their herding instinct (which is a modified prey drive) typically takes a while to come online.

In other news, most of my hens are online now and I'm getting a half dozen eggs a day, I'm incubating 6 eggs I didn't want or need (long story), and Copper's going to get trialed on goats this weekend!

 

[1cock2hens]

My boy is 4 months old, he was born in town and never exposed to any other animals except dogs/cats. The first time he saw chickens he wanted to say hi but I made him leave them alone, it's been 2/3 weeks and he doesn't look at them. He's very very ready to hang more with the goats, he goes to the field with them when I let him and lays thete watching them but I just dont trust him long term alone yet. He's shown some promise helping me gather goats, I'm very excited for him to have it down. He's soooo good with babies too and doesn't even look at our free-range rabbits. I was given the dog for free! I still can't believe it

 

[chickfused]

When Copper started helping round up loose chickens I nearly cried with joy. One, I need all the wins I can get with this one and two, it makes it so much easier!!

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

My golden retriver was born in the country with cows and chickens. She was never properly introduced to the cows or chickens there. Although when we brought her home i had baby chicks in the house and slowly i taught her that she needed to be gentle around them, she did a great job and i could probably let her in with the chickens but she would eat everything in there(except the chickens). She has been scared of cows since the day we brought her home( which is a problem living in a village with vows surrounding us). She now thinks everytime she sees a cow she can bark at it and try to herd them. It takes a lot of time, patience and training to get a dog to be trained. Just keeo working and in the end you will have a dog that is perfect.

 

[chickfused]

I have made a breakthrough with my wee alligator! I found a video that nearly perfectly matched what Copper was doing - non-aggressively redirecting frustration/excitement onto me. I applied the technique and after two days of consistency, we have reduced the biting 90% and I can actually see her making the decision to not bite regularly. She's not happy about having her biting privileges revoked, but I am! Thank the Lord above, she was on my last nerve with it.

Here's the video in question:

 

[Mamatomany123]

I just read this whole thread and thought it was super interesting. We also have a puppy who we are training to protect our flock (my chickens ans children). We went in a different direction than you did though. He's an inside dog who has access to the property by a doggy door. We do go into the chicken run multiple time a day with him on a leash. I feel Ike 4-5 months old was when he also realized chasing them was fun. We pushed on and continued to train and I can now proudly say at 7 months old he just saved one of our hens from a hawk. We will still continue the training and leashing when in the run because he's still a pup and I don't 100% trust him yet but I just wanted to encourage you that being persistent will bring progress.

 

[WI chickens]

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.