how to keep my dog from eating my chickens

[ChickBond 007]

excellent illustration, Cara

 

[prancie]

Our dogs have a very large fenced in yard (attached to the house) with an electric wire running around the inside to keep them from digging out. THe chickens have the rest of the yard. It works!

 

[chickenwhisperer]

I could be Alpha till Im blue in the face . . .

Some breeds have been specifically bred to be independent and self-reliant, like my JRT who was made to be fearless and smart enough to get a fox or badger out of a hole, once he is in kill mode he dont stop.

No matter how much I yell or try to stop him, he will kill if given the chance and come bring the animal and lay it at my feet and look up at me sooo proud of himself . . . "look what I did for you dad, I killed this nasty old bird".
I cant fault him for that, thats what he does.
Im the one who wanted him, and Im the one who wants chickens.

I just do what I gotta do to make it work.

For me, that means using a shock collar, like I said, he was a quick study with it, and these days its more a preventative measure.
He knows what could happen when that collar is on him.

But, on the other hand, I dont need to worry about raccoons or skunks or rats or anything like that, he does his job well.

Like someone else said, even well-meaning wanting-to-play dogs can "love" a chicken to death . . .

Some dogs work with chickens, some dont.
If you have any doubts at all about your dog, just be safe rather than sorry and keep it well separated from your chickens.

 

[fowltemptress]

Cara, that is too adorable, and perfectly illustrates what to do.

I don't know how to explain my method . . . I just try to make it real clear that the chickens are MINE, they belong to me and are not to be messed with. This involves a lot of me playing with chicks and chickens in front of the dogs, and strong reprimands every time they feel the need to investigate what I'm playing with. Eventually they just lose all interest, like it's too much of a bother.

Every now and then I do get a dog that I just can't feel comfortable with . . . it may act disinterested in the chickens, but there's a constant niggling in the back of my head that the dog ignores them to please me, and not because it has genuinely lost interest. No matter how well behaved that type of dog is, I ALWAYS go with my instinct in that case and keep them separated.

 

[pride&joy]

Well I have five dogs and had them all before I got chickens this time around. We kept chickens as a boy long time ago (seems like) ha ha. At first it was a shore and sadly there have been some looses 3x but now all is well. My two Anatolians are great around the birds and usually have full access to poultry yard and goat pastures completely unsupervised. My others have been left alone with the chickens sometimes for hour and now prob but it is always a work in progress. You have to reward positive behavior and correct negative behavior at all times. Good luck

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[Tala]

If you can't set a hamburger on the floor, walk away and leave it in the room with your dog.....and then come back to an untouched hamburger, then you probably can't do the same thing with a chicken. Probably if you can teach your dog not to eat the burger even when you aren't watching, you can teach him to not eat the chickens even when you aren't watching. The dog puts more focus on what you said, than on the really tempting item.

You can teach them that the chickens are yours, part of the pack, and not to harm them, but it will depend on how much your dog wants to please you versus how strongly he wants to chase/kill. There's no magic recipe. Some dogs are just wired eager to please, and some dogs are wired to go bonkers when they see small moving things. On the other hand, chasing some things doesn't necessarily = killing chickens. My Lab can't think straight in the presence of a Frisbee, but he ignores the chickens.

I'm 100% confident that Dusti wants to please me above everything else. I'm also 100% confident that my sister in law's dog would kill the chickens in a heartbeat. Different dogs, different things drive them.

 

[TGarcia]

I'm having the same issues with my dogs. Just happened friday, and I lost 2 of my roosters. I hate to do it, but I'm seriously thinking of re-homing my 2 dogs.

 

[scbatz33]

Quote:

So very true!

 

[Angelline]

Teach them the word 'No'. We have a great big white dog. Every once in a while he will chase a rooster around the yard but that's about it.

 

[Backyard_Chicken_rancher]

Quote:
Dog whispers site www.cesarsway.com/