Well we got home from church tonight and i went to check on our chickens as usual. i came around to the chichen coop/run and got mad... I found my rooster and all 6 of my hens dead in the run. That was upsetting. W what was even more upsetting was that the offender was still in the run. It was my boxer. Turbo our family dog has figured out how to climb out of the back yard dog run. he has been climbing out every few days. we didn't think it was a big deal because we have 10acres and the dog run is made out of 4' tall cattle panels. he just runs around the land a little then goes and sits on the front porch. Well tonight he figured out how to climb the 6' tall chain link chicken run fence. So needless to say it has been a very frustrating evening.
I'm sorry for your loss. Thankfully i have never had to endure the loss of all my flock but have a few times over the years had to endure casualties from the neighbours dog to foxes. It is horrible to find them dead whether it is one chicken or 100.
We lost so many to coyotes, hawks, and raccoons, we gave up on free-ranging. I know it must be really hard, and even harder to find out it was the family pet.
It has been a day of mixed emotions. Talking back and forth with my wife all day, I think we are going to get a wireless dog fence and let the dogs (we also have a great dane) run the land. We can put a barrier wire around the coop/run that should keep the dogs away from the chickens. If that doesn't work one will have to go. I am just not ready to make that decision right now.
Sorry for you loss. Honestly, your best bet is going to be committing to chicken training your dogs. Even if you keep them separate it will give them a better chance of success if an accident happens again.
Sorry to hear about your loss. It is very frustrating to have that happen. I lost 10 black copper marans back in the spring to a pack of neighborhood dogs. I ended up adding extra strong latches, hinges and locks to my coop and run. I also ran and electric fence around the whole run. The dogs are still around but the fence must have worked because I've not lost one since. Good luck.
We have used the electric net fence for two years with great success - We have four dogs two have killed chickens prior . The most aggressive will run around the net and bark some but his nose will never get any closer than 6". The chickens now stand in side the net and appear to mock him. However if one gets out they are history. The other one will not go any closer than 20 yards to the net. The remaining two don't seem to care about the chickens one of which is the younger and was raised with them. We are located in farm country and I have lots of game cam pics of everything from Yotes to Bear approach the net but no penetration or losses in the two years except Hawk and that was in last two months. I have since made two ScareHawks and have not had a problem with them again. But we will not know if that solved the problem until we go thru another migration pattern. When we started we were using a chicken tractor and the same more aggressive dog would harass the chickens constantly.Being a small pen [4x8] the chickens could not distance themselves like they can in the bigger net area so I solved that with a generic brand invisible fence . They educate fast with the shock treatment. However this controlled my dogs but didn't solve predator or outside dog problems - thats why we went to the net fence. Best of luck in solving the problem
Here is the issue with those...They work, and by that I mean they definitely deter the dog from crossing that line, but they do NOT keep the dog from crossing a certain line. Some dogs will take those few moments of shock to get at what they want. I mean as soon as the dog hops the line the shock starts...that is another issue with them... A dog gets out and then can't get back in without getting shocked again...so once they go into the chicken area they won't want to leave because then they will get shocked again. I would not consider an underground fence any sort of protection at all really.
