how many of you let your chickens free range...and have a dog??

[schellie69]

I have 5 dogs that I can trust with the older girls, the babies no way. I have one dog that is never left out around the chickens (even if chickens are locked up) unsupervised her prey drive is way to high.

 

[kla37]

I let mine out with our dog. For a VERY long time I supervised the dog closely when she was out with the chickens. She was always more intimidated by them, and all she wanted to do was sniff their butts, which they let her know with hard pecks was NOT acceptable. One day, the kids left the dog out with the birds when I wasn't there, and when I got home, the dog was laying out in the sun napping, with 2 chickens sitting in dirt next to her. She is always docile around them, and she may be a hawk deterrent. I still wouldn't trust her 100 %, but so far so good. She is an Irish Wheaten Terrier, and is about 23 lbs.

 

[Two Creeks Farm]

I have 3 Labs...they all hunt. Needless to say, the chickens arent free ranging unless i lock the boys up and stand guard. I can call my dogs off a bird but it isnt worth the risk.

 

[Katydid2011]

I give our dogs a good portion of credit when I say that we haven't had any predator problems yet. I don't leave the dogs and chickens out together unsupervised because I know our German Shepherd, for instance, who loves to catch low flying things like Frisbees and balls might get excited in our absence and mistake a hen for a plaything. The dogs are all very well behaved when we're outside and lay quietly watching the hens. Occasionally, they'll sound an alert and the hens will dive for cover if they're not already well hidden inside a hedge or beneath a shrub. Our Shepherd is still young. Eventually, I believe we'll be able to trust him to watch the chickens when they're out on pasture in our absence.

Whenever the hens are in the coop/runs, we leave the dogs out to guard the perimeter. It's double fenced with wire fencing surrounded by three strands of electric wire so it's fairly secure but the dogs add that extra measure of security and much needed peace of mind when it comes to the safety of our pullets and hens.

 

[pdsavage]

I let mine run lose with the dogs also the rabbit that got lose and my muscovies(the rabbit and ducks like my dogs better than me)...BUT I have 2 pyrenees/anatolians that are Livestock Gaurdian dogs.They where born with chickens and goats all around and raised with my chickens....


Livestock Guardian Dog
http://www.lgd.org/

 

[write2caroline]

I have dogs, cats and chickens who have no respect for proper fences and free range on their own. My dog did kill one of the chicks - the peeping was like their chew toys and it happened really fast, the cats did stalk the chickens at first UNTIL they got bigger and not the chickens chase the dogs and cats and they leave them alone now.
Caroline

 

[Cowgirl71]

I would say it depends a lot on the individual dog.

I have a Golden Retriever/Labrador Retriever mix. He is very eager to please. Over the last few years we've had to introduce him to lots of animals. We finally convinced him to leave the little calves alone. He wasn't trying to hurt them, he just wanted to play them (not roughly, just the running/chasing around just-for-the-fun-of-it kind of playing). He soon learned that "Be good boy, Bucky" meant those animals are part of our "family," so no chasing/playing/any aggressive behavior is allowed. You can sniff and lick them, but that's it. So every time we have a new animal, he knows what "Be good boy, Bucky" means. He's awesome with animals, though he wasn't that way naturally. Although he is not good at the commands sit, stay, come, lie down, heal, etc. Unless you have food in your hands, then he magically remembers what the commands mean!

We've had three other dogs in the past (a Blue Tick Coon Hound mix, a Blue Tick Coon Hound x Black Lab mix, and a Pit Bull x Black Lab mix). All three of these dogs were really stubborn. The Pit Bull was really bad about grabbing newborn calves around the neck, and not letting go until the momma cow was practically on top of him. We'd try to pry his jaws off, yell at him, beat him, but he wouldn't leg go until the furious and upset momma cow (running at top-speed) was about four feet away. For some reason he never drew blood. Somehow he held to a 75# calf without digging his teeth in. We got rid of that dog, because he just wouldn't listen to nothing (he was a stray that showed up).

The two Blue Tick Coon Hounds were also very stubborn. The one male killed three Guineas while he was here. Each time I'd punish him (pretty good). And he finally learned to leave the Guineas alone. Then one time a Guinea hen went broody and set on some eggs. 28 days later she hatched out 13 adorable little fuzzy keets. The next day, I was doing some farm chores, and I hear a Guinea squawking, so I run over. The dog is standing their calming eating keet after keet, while the hen is frantically trying to run him off. I just lost it. I beat him within an inch of his life and ran him off our farm. He didn't come back for two days. He never did kill another Guinea or chicken. But then we got some goats a couple months ago. In the middle of the night, he and the other Blue Tick Coon Hound chased the goats, and chased one down to the ground and were chewing on it. Luckily my Dad was up and heard the commotion (he often gets up at 1-2 am to work on stuff) and ran down their. He had to kick the dogs off the goat, because no amount of scolding made them let go of her. He chained them up. The next morning, the goat they had caught wasn't able to stand, had several deep puncture wounds, and was scared out of her mind. It took a lot of antibiotics but she finally got better. But she aborted her baby from the stress. Several of the other goats got bit too, and weren't able to put any weight on one foot for over a week. We don't have those dogs anymore.

We also have four Great Pyrenees LGDs (for the goats). They are all great with the chickens and Guineas, even though one of the mature dogs had never seen chickens in her life. She leaves them alone (but barn cats are not allowed in her pasture!). The one exception was one of the Pyrenees puppies caught my blind-in-one-eye hen, and was "playing" with her. Not aggressively, she was just a pup with a lot of energy. I scolded her and she's been well-behaved since.

My neighbor has two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers and a hyper Border Collie. She really wanted to free range her chickens, so she started letting the hens out every afternoon, and supervised everyone. A week later, everyone was behaving. So she went on a trip for the weekend, and her Dad who lives nearby took care of the chickens. The afternoon after she left, the dogs started chasing the chickens. There was no one there to stop them so they killed half of the flock (about 10 birds). The half that survived only survived because they flew up in trees and such, and hid under things. Surprisingly, her Buff Minorca with only one eye survived. She hid under an old shed with holes in the floor (from the cows stepping it it) for three days without food or water.

 

[mommto3kiddos]

We free range for most of the day, and we have a boxer & terrier.. BUT they never see each other as our boxer would love to eat them. We just let the dogs go potty out front & the chickens range in the backyard.. If we need to leave the dogs out, the chickens go back in the coop!! I would LOVE to be able to let them out together, but yea never gonna happen

 

[cafarmgirl]

Quote:
Coyotes will take a chicken any time of day. Once they find out they are there, well, hope you have a large flock. Same goes for fox and a whole long list of other critters that seem to come out of the woodwork when presented with their own version of a free KFC.

As for the dog. Depends on the dog. A lot of dogs are fine seeing the chicks in their pen or while you are holding them but let that same dog see them running around on the ground, peeping etc. and the chase is on. Even if the dog is gentle there's not much hope for the chick or chicken. Or maybe one day the dog gets bored... It's just really hard to tell. Dog may turn out fine and never touch a chicken or you may loose some.

I have one dog that's good with the chickens, I still don't allow them to mingle unsupervised. Ever.

I've never owned a goose so I don't know how well, or if, a goose would consistently run the dog off from the chickens.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I totally trust my black lab around my chickies, he's old- and with 2 younger human siblings, he's seen it all. Hes even protected our flock and helped me find my poor rooster when another dog attacked. I

Mick