How to get family dog not to eat the chicks.

[edselpdx]

I turned my back for 30 seconds and nearly lost my 7-week old barred rock to my sweet elderly dachshund, who had never shown any interest in hurting the chicks. Heard a noise and turned around, only to have Sadie pop her head up with a mouthful of black and white feathers. Artemis was freaked out and panting and limped for 2 days, but no skin break or broken bones, and luckily and she's back to normal.

The run (now under construction) will be doxie-proof.

ed

 

[m2wandc]

I'm curious to read this thread, but too tired right now, so wanted to post, so I could find it later down the road (like on Sunday when I'll have more time)

My dog has killed and enjoyed the hunt of small things for a long time....

 

[LA~Poulet]

I think a lot of it depends on the dog's intelligence & temperament.

We raised quail, ducks, & chickens when I was younger with labs, golden retrievers, & dachshunds, and never lost a bird to a dog. In fact, once our cat got a wild songbird chick out of a nest in a thick thorn bush, our dachshund was alerted by our shouts of horror at seeing the cat in the nest, ran in the bush, and proudly retrieved the chick (unharmed) gently in his mouth to bring to us, away from the (highly irritated) cat. It was the only time his mouth ever touched a bird.

We had 3 pet chickens a few years back that we raised alongside a 1 year old golden retriever-she learned in a day that chickens were friends, not food, and would follow them around and they enjoyed her company-roosting with her on our doorstep at times.

Would I ever have been 100% certain that nothing would happen? No, but I could feel 99.99% certain, and trusted her not to do anything based on training & her personality. We have had other dogs that were 'sneaky' about things, I wouldn't have tried to let those around our smaller animals.

 

[Hatrick]

Reading this thread has been entertaining to say the least.

The possum story, takes the cake.

 

[rhondapiper]

I've got a very well-trained dog who wants desperately to please me. As far as knowing words and listening to commands, she's just a bit shy of a border collie. She's a pit-mutt.

When I first got her, she was interested in eating my cats. I let her know they were mine and not to hurt them and haven't had a problem at all in 6 years. In fact, the cats are in charge.

She really, really wants to eat these chicks. It's the peeping, it drives her into a predatory frenzy.

I'm sure that using the methods I've used to teach her other things, I can get her to be chicken friendly, but until they are bigger, I'm not risking it. I let her see the chicks the other day and my boldest one practically flew into her mouth to check her out. Not good.

So, the coop/run is outside her electric fence, and any and all meetings will be closely supervised with the dog on leash and training treats at the ready.

Once she learned that cats are pointy and belong to Mom, she decided that even approaching them to groom them wasn't worth the effort. I'm hoping a peck from an annoyed chicken might send the same message someday.

 

[shaggy]

i have a mutt and 2 boxers

doobie is old and lazy
jojo is a big baby
ginger is a predator

ginger is a female boxer --- very high predator drive ... she has been known to catch and kill rats, birds on the fly, my daughters baby cat, and once my neighbors dog. ...

yes -- the neighbors dog got in my yard - ginger killed it

... but she does well with my wifes cat ... maybe because it is bigger --- although we had to watch her with it for a month before we could let our guard down

 

[crazycluck]

Our labs never left our chickens alone! Labs are bird dogs! Don't trust them alone with your chicks or chickens. Just when we thought our labs were ok with our chickens we came home to what looked like a war zone. My dad always said to tie the dead chicken to the collar of the dog and let it drag it around for a few days and they would stop trying to get them.

DIDN'T WORK!

 

[columbiacritter]

Many years ago I worked for a large animal vet who raised exotic(expensive) sheep and goats. One of his neighbors german sheperds got into a sheep pen and went after the sheep. None were hurt only because we were there and caught the dog fast. I thought he was going to shoot the dog, he'd threatened to before when it had come on his place.

Instead he took the dog out and tied it so it was laying flat in the middle of an open pasture gate. He then proceeded to herd a fairly decent sized herd of sheep back and forth acorss the dog on and off for more than two hours. The dog was at little to no risk since the sheep avoided it or leapt over it, but those sheep thundering over it again and again must have been totally terrifying.

When he untied the dog and let it go it took off like a shot and he never saw it again.

TO bad we can't do the same with chickens.

 

[Justaheifer]

I've had many eggs and chicks come out of this dog bed! The bed is shared between lab/rotti and a Chesapeke bay retriever!(2 bird dogs)

The lab/rotti killed a couple of chickens when he first came here(about 6mos old). He was tied where I feed the chickens, he got attacked by the dead chickens, and was corrected when ever he looked at the chickens! I might have used the shock collar too, before it lost it's shock, been a long time, don't remember.
He's 8 or 9 now!
Last year he had a little duck hunting training! He brought in a couple, but he gets bored in the blind, and comes home!

The way I see it, a bird dog is not bred to just go after birds willie nillie! It is bred to retrieve the birds when the hunter says so. So it needs trained!

 

[fshinggrl]

Quote:
I agree with this. I wanted free ranged chickens. We have 5 acres and a neighbor who's many dogs leave their chickens/ducks alone. Well, even after asking here, I will not let my golden retriever around the chickens w/o the fence between them. She is VERY well trained and smart. But, I know if my back was turned... well, you know. She has not done anything to them, but if my chickens were free ranged, she would. I know this.

Good luck!

Oh, I'm LOL on the possum story! I guess it was 'playing dead!'