How do I teach my dog?

[harleyhappy]

My dog was very difficult when I first got the chickens and now he has calmed down significantly. The dog trainer with whom we had done basic obedience with (before I got chooks), recommend shock collar training but I decided I couldn't afford private training. What I did was to keep him on a short leash around the chickens at first. I allowed him to walk around outside their coop and smell things, but I did not allow him to bark, raise his tail or in any way act aggressively. As soon as he acted aggressively, I commanded him to lie down and shut up. After he got that, I allowed him to sit on the back porch on a tether while I let the girls out the free range. That worked pretty well, but chickens are curious creature and my golden campine is pretty bold. So she had to learn not to tease the dog also, after a few frights she decided to leave him alone.

Now I can let my dog off leash when the chickens are free ranging, but only if I am in the yard or the doors are open and I can hear any ruckus. Even then I know that I am taking a risk, although most of the time the animals maintain a safe distance from each other. In my opinion, the biggest factor the the personality and level training of your dog. If he really wants to please you (not all dogs do) and he was well trained before you got chickens; I think you can teach him that the chickens are yours and he should leave them to you. If you are not the alpha dog (before you got chicks), I think you need dog training. Above all never allow your dog to jump on you while you are holding a chicken. In fact your dog should never jump on you ever, it is disrespectful. My Rottie mix is almost as big as I am, but he knows who is boss.

Also you chickens are still very young and I think it is unrealistic to leave a dog alone with such young chickens. My chickens danced and bumped chests while they were figuring out their pecking order, and the chest bumping dance drove Sargie crazy! If your chooks are still doing that or if their chicken noises are still kind of high pitched, that is an extra temptation to any dog. My chickens act a little extra crazy during the first fifteen of twenty minutes of their free range time, lots of dinosaur flying a such, so I try to keep my dog near me during that time and if he acts aggressive I can catch him.

Good luck!

 

[maranmaran]

We have had our 6 chickens for 2 weeks. My 14 year old Aussie ignores them completely no matter what they do. However, my 18 month old Aussie is obsessed with them. She got a mouthful of feathers from the silkie roo one day. Two days later, she chased down the silkie hen. I thought the hen had been killed, but she was only in shock and has a slight limp now. We used a shock collar on her for 2 days in a row, but this morning she was after the roo again. I, too, wanted free range chickens, but they are not safe with the young Aussie, so my husband is building a sizeable chicken yard for them. I agree with other posters who say it is not fair to expect a dog to be uninterested in such a tempting toy.

 

[harleyhappy]

Oh, I forgot to say my dog did the nicest thing the other day. I put a bowl of grapes down on the floor of the porch, my dog picked up a bunch of grapes and carried them out to where the chickens were ranging. He put the grapes about three feet before them and gave them a funny smile. The chickens were rather too confused to eat the grapes with my goofball dog right there, but when he went to patrol the front yard, the chickies did enjoy the grapes. My dog doesn't like grapes, but I guess he remembered me giving the chickens grapes.

I think it gets easier as both animals get older. As my chickens have become older, they are slightly less crazy and my dog is getting used to them.