Help. I have a dog problem

[fuggs]

The dogs follow them around on the outside of the fence whimpering all excited.

Thats the relevant area of concern. Yes the fence is a deterrent of access to the chooks, but you need to "associate" the negative effect of the fence to the birds, not just create a barrier between the dogs and birds. That wont work in some instances, as the dog can then associate "no fence" = access to birds.

This was to a certain extent the beauty of the electric collar, that direct and instant negative stimulation could be given at the "instant", [and that's the important part], the dog mentally created the thought of going for the birds in the first place. I saw this operate perfectly with a lovely young and boisterous working Yellow Lab, who just wouldn't leave sheep and lambs alone despite rigorous re in forced basic training He wasn't dangerous or vicious but his bounding play type actions around the animals could have been misconstrued by the shepherd/farmer as worrying and resulted in him being shot heaven forbid.

Two judicious application from a shock collar at exactly the instant his brain said "great..lets go" then changed the fun aspect into a negative one. He never ever showed interest again. [Other than a wary eye on them] He did lead a great working life and was greatly missed when he passed on.

I can however understand why the shock collars were banned mainly because of idiotic humans who hadn't the common sense, knowledge and or intelligence on how to use them Properly.....Dont get me started on that one....

So, you need to create the negativity and futility of the action by the dog, when the instant the thought is created by him then the dog wont be INTERESTED...because its no fun. If correction isnt at the thought instant, the dog doesn't form the association and indeed may form the wrong association with something else its thinking about. [Re wrong use of shock collar....]The thought window has passed if you get my meaning.

Now where this is done by elevating the chooks up the pack ladder is another scenario but may be dangerous as most pack animals try to "upgrade" them selves within the pack, which of course can be the home household family, by frequently/constantly "testing" the robustness of the existing position holder in case they can rise in the pecking order. You can see this in chook flocks all the time and pup's etc.,