How do I introduce my dogs to my chickens/chicks?

[fifenashia]

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We set aside a separate run area with just garden netting and plastic step in stakes and when we come home in the evenings I put my girls in there and then my dogs can be out and play but the hen and duck are safe. You need to find what works for you. I had been letting my free-range during the day and then putting them up so the dogs could come and play but really they are my pets and you are pretty much guaranteed to lose a few when you free-range.

Really when it comes to it, every dog is different and every owner is different. How much do you trust your dogs? How much are you willing to trust your dogs? How much training are you willing to put into it? Do they know the "leave it" and "DROP" command? No one can answer this about YOUR dogs just what we do.

And as far as your friend's dad, I have a family member whose huge white german shepherd is out with the chickens, doesn't mean he hasn't gotten a few in the beginning or still does occasionally (they are more farm birds and when one is killed, there are 20 more anyway).

 

[BeetleChick]

Our german shepherd-Akita starts barking loudly when we walk near the coop, so he is put in the house before we go out to the chicks. I would not trust him with the chicks.

 

[jackson8]

I always make sure im near by when the chickens are out you can never be to sure, we have a labradoodle and I have caught him chaseing the chickens 3 times now. Last time was about 2 months ago maybe he has learnt his lesson to chase them.

Good luck introducing them hope feathers dont fly when you do.

 

[caped crusader]

We have had dog problems in the past with 4 different breeds of dogs. We have tried to introduce them to the chicks at day one with some dogs never trusted and some have just boldly killed them before our eyes. The catch 22 is we have a huge coyote/ and smaller preditor problems when we have no dogs and the kicker is if we get rid of our dogs stray dogs come on our farm and massacre chickens, ducks, geese, guineas anyway. We raise turkey and quail and also.

We have invested in some Anatolian Shepherd puppies LGDs for two and four legged predators and so far they have been awesome. We bought them from a reputable breeder as puppies and introduced them with the help of a training collar and despite the desire to play with the birds they have become extremely protective of all the birds and even break up an occational goose fight with no blood shed.

The female has cornish rocks lay on her during the day, cool off during the day in her dog house for shade, and they will all drink simultaneously from her water bowl. The male has befriended one particular goose for some reason and they will hang out together on occasion. I try to think that all is well but I still have a hard time believing while I am away to the co-op or wherever there will not be a few feathers hanging out of thier dogs mouths when I get home I do a bird count every day and all bird well and accounted for. The only predator we have now is hawks and owls. We watched a hawk grab and eat a duck the other day and we were not quick enough to shoo it away. The dogs are very quick and agile and if they see anything not right they will run fields, leap through barbed wire and do whatever they can to twart or save the birds.

We are fortunate with the two dogs we have so far. they are still puppies but the male at 7 months is over 90 lbs. they have been very loyal dogs to us and even as puppies they have been proven to be good work dogs already. There is no one other than family that will come onto the property and even some of the family they just dont seem to like for whatever reason they have. It helps a lot because family doesnt come over when I am not home to borrow a chainsaw or tools anymore.

 

[cafarmgirl]

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What you do is get your chickens set up in a safe coop/run. Then introduce the dogs and watch your dogs reactions carefully. If they are super excited, trembling, drooling, staring intently then you have more work on your hands then a dog who could care less. And possibley some future losses until/if you can get them trained to leave them alone. I suspect the minpin may be your bigger challege but who knows. Every dog within evey breed is different so basing expected behavior on breed is a guess at best.

If the dogs are not very interested then your job will be easier in training them to leave them alone. If they've never seen chicks/chickens before I'd expect a lot of interest. The other issue is you have two dogs. So double the training plus they tend to feed off each other's excitement and things can go bad for the chickens very fast, especially when no one is around.

If you are ok with loosing some birds in the process of doing this then you should give it a go. Otherwise have a setup where you can rotate who is out. Chickens out, dogs penned. Dogs out, chickens penned.

 

[write2caroline]

just be careful and keep a watchful eye. My cocker mistook the chicks for squeaky toys and the damage was done in a flash. Now he is fine around the chickens but even the cats took to stalking them for a while.
Caroline

 

[gritsar]

I'm not saying it can't be done.

I have two german shepherds. They are obedience trained. I have two flocks of free range chickens. The older flock is too big to squeeze through the fence into the yard, but they know better anyhow. The younger flock still squeezes through the fence. The dogs stay put up while the younger flock free ranges; or at the very least, under my direct control (leashed). I also have a former feral cat that is a chicken killer. She too stays inside (full-time).

I once had the world's best dog. Dog wouldn't hurt a flea. She was spayed too young and had an intense need to mother something, anything, all her life. She got ahold of a chick once, wanted to take it to her bed to "mother". She dropped it as soon as I told her to. Thankfully the chick wasn't hurt, although it could have been without the dog ever meaning to hurt it. It happens with even the sweetest, most chicken loving dogs.

Put some thought into it and I'm sure you can figure out how to have both dogs and chickens and keep them both safe and happy.