How do I get my dogs used to the chickens

[kbev]

I am a new chicken owner buy long time dog owner. How do I get my 3 dogs used to the chickens?

My plan...
I just started bringing the chickens into my yard and keeping them in a large dog crate inside a dog kennel. Double layer of protection from the pups.
Let the dogs out (probably 1 at a time in the future) while my wife and I are out with them. Trying to get them used to each other.

If that didn't work. Which so far if today was a sign of things to come. Electrifying the fencing around the coop and run.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Halfpasthen]

I am a new chicken owner buy long time dog owner. How do I get my 3 dogs used to the chickens?

My plan...
I just started bringing the chickens into my yard and keeping them in a large dog crate inside a dog kennel. Double layer of protection from the pups.
Let the dogs out (probably 1 at a time in the future) while my wife and I are out with them. Trying to get them used to each other.

If that didn't work. Which so far if today was a sign of things to come. Electrifying the fencing around the coop and run.

What are your thoughts?

Honestly, with three dogs? You're better off hiring a dog behaviorist to help you with training. Or just making sure your coop and run are fully secured. Electric fencing is a good idea. What's breeds?

 

[Wanajeep]

I think you are on the right try. Taking baby steps allowing your dogs and chickens to get used to each other. Starting off in a cage the first week or two maybe a few times a week. Then moving to having the chickens out with your dogs in a down position. Allowing your dogs to smell and touch them. Rewarding them for good behavior. Again for a week or two few times a week. Then finally allowing the chickens and dogs to be out and about but slowing allowing distance between you and the dogs. Allowing them to make the choices. Again with rewarding good behavior. This all depends on the breed of chickens and dogs. I find it to be more difficult with herding dogs, Aussies, collies, etc.
There are a few videos on youtube that have great information.

This one is the one I try to follow

 

[iwltfum]

When I first started raising chickens I had one dog that I had trained to chase geese and ducks away from my property because of how destructive they were in my garden. She was around 4 years old when I got my first chickens and had never seen chickens before. Needless to say, her first instinct was to chase them. I put up snow fence (the plastic orange stuff you see on construction sites) around their run (they were free range hens) and spent a good bit of time sitting with her next to the chickens fence and discouraging any lunging or aggressive actions. I think it helped that she could see that I cared for those birds and feed them everyday and generally cared for them very similarly to a pet (like her) and now she is a great chicken dog with our flock of 100+ free range layers. She taught our puppy to not chase the chickens and sometimes she chases off curious hawks, ravens, and eagles. That being said, this was a dog that I was very familiar with her mentality and also she was only one dog. Unless you have very good vocal control over all of your dogs, multiple dogs would be more difficult to train because they can set each other off as I'm sure you know. Training them separately from one another would help that issue. It takes time, especially with adult dogs that have already learned how they like to respond to stimuli, but definitely doable with pups that respect your authority. Something you want to completely avoid is a dog killing a chicken during this training (which is why I put a fence around the chickens before I trained my dog). Not only will you feel terrible that you let that happen to one of your chickens, but it will almost certainly be much more difficult to train a dog to be around chickens that has had the satisfaction of tasting one.

 

[aart]

I am a new chicken owner buy long time dog owner. How do I get my 3 dogs used to the chickens?

My plan...
I just started bringing the chickens into my yard and keeping them in a large dog crate inside a dog kennel. Double layer of protection from the pups.
Let the dogs out (probably 1 at a time in the future) while my wife and I are out with them. Trying to get them used to each other.

If that didn't work. Which so far if today was a sign of things to come. Electrifying the fencing around the coop and run.

What are your thoughts?

I would not put the chickens in a crate inside a kennel with 3 dogs.
How old are your birds?
Do you plan on free ranging them?
How well trained are your dogs, basic obedience.....come, sit stay, leave it???
How much time do they spend in the kennel?

 

[kbev]

Thank you all for the responses. To answer a few questions.

The 3 dogs are a pit, a rottie and a yellow lab.
The lab has lots of obedience training, I originally trained her as a hunting dog and surprisingly she has been the best so far. The other two are trained for basic obedience. The rottie is still young but he's getting better each day.

The dogs have free roam of the yard (fenced in) the kennel isn't really used anymore which is why I decided to temporarily use it for the chicks.

I do not plan on free ranging the chicks.

 

[rosemarythyme]

If the chickens are securely penned up all the time, there shouldn't really be an issue unless the dogs become obsessed with the chickens and try to brute force their way in. Obviously electric can take care of that if you think one or more might try it.

I haven't bothered trying to train any of my dogs to do anything with the chickens, other than "Leave It" for the ones who've shown too much interest and rush the fence to make them fly. The other dogs are either mildly curious or just ignore them, which is fine. But the dogs aren't out in the yard without supervision, so no chance of them having enough time to try to breach the fence.

 

[centrarchid]

I think you are on the right try. Taking baby steps allowing your dogs and chickens to get used to each other. Starting off in a cage the first week or two maybe a few times a week. Then moving to having the chickens out with your dogs in a down position. Allowing your dogs to smell and touch them. Rewarding them for good behavior. Again for a week or two few times a week. Then finally allowing the chickens and dogs to be out and about but slowing allowing distance between you and the dogs. Allowing them to make the choices. Again with rewarding good behavior. This all depends on the breed of chickens and dogs. I find it to be more difficult with herding dogs, Aussies, collies, etc.
There are a few videos on youtube that have great information.

This one is the one I try to follow

Approach depicted very close to what I use. Key differences are; takes more time as I start with pups, start with adult chickens and work backwards on chickens age, environment here more complex, we have night time component to training regimen, and we do not dress as nice.

 

[Wanajeep]

Approach depicted very close to what I use. Key differences are; takes more time as I start with pups, start with adult chickens and work backwards on chickens age, environment here more complex, we have night time component to training regimen, and we do not dress as nice.

Right on! I didnt think about a night time training. Would be a good idea to maybe help protect the flock from night time predators.