How To Train Your Dog Not To Kill Chickens

[bemba]

My new Husky x pup is doing very well with a ll the fowl so far.... She has good role models to follow with my other dogs

 

[AshlyMommaWard]

Reviving this thread to say a huge Thank you to everyone who offered their experiences and advise! DH and I just got chickens for the first time in our adult lives, and are preparing to train our 5yo boxer/lab and 1yo pit bull/great Dane. They've both been introduced to chicks in my hand, but waiting for the little fluffy buts to get bigger to do coop walk thru on leash and asses any issues from there. thanks again everyone!!

 

[farm girl 2003]

I have a hound dog to and she has killed NY rabbit and a chick. Put a shocking collar (one that has a remote that controlls it) and whenever they get close to the chickens and are paying toomutch attinion shock them. It will make the dog think the chicken is doing it.

 

[chickens r life]

If I tied a dead chicken to my dog he would eat the instant I turn my back.. Lol

 

[kyexotics]

I have a hound dog to and she has killed NY rabbit and a chick. Put a shocking collar (one that has a remote that controlls it) and whenever they get close to the chickens and are paying toomutch attinion shock them. It will make the dog think the chicken is doing it.

We're going to try and curb a jumping over fence habit our 'puppy' picked up...First he just crushed the fence which I built to withstand the weight of a full sized duck at most, not a 70+lb Pyranees...He just bent it down and stepped over it...I went out and bought enough 6' metal "T" poles to stengthen fence to withstand his current and soon to be larger weight so he can't crush it, well, now it's so strong he can just lean on it and jump over, it's strong enough to help him now! LOL So, since then we've had to leave him on his chain at night...Oh, he'll also dig and go under it, he's really resourceful and I respect that as long as it carries over into killing predators, since he's been with us, we haven't even seen one which used to be a nightly event...So before I build a bigger fence that is buried in ground, I want to try and break the habit since he;s still a puppy...We know, we're late to the party but we couldn't go out there this winter in the minus temps and work with him as we wanted to...Bad timing we and he are paying for...So, the collar is next, we know as soon as we're out of sight he'll try to get out so it won't take long to see if he'll make the connection to the attempt to get out and the shock...

 

[Mini Meat]

I had an adult Aussie that when on a killing spree...15 chickens over a three day period. Everyone told me "once a chicken killer, always a chicken killer." I took a live chicken, a rolled up news paper and cornered the dog on the porch. I held the chicken in front of the dog and when she showed interest in it..WHAP! MY CHICKEN!!! I continued this until I could walk around the dog with the chicken in her face and she would not even look at the chicken. She completely averted her eyes. Harsh? Yes, but it was life or death... I intend to have chickens and frankly, there are other dogs that need good homes.

I was explaining to the dog that these chickens belong to me and are not to even be eyeballed by her.

Good news, she got the message and lived a long, contented life among 30 free range "invisible" chickens.

 

[Phoenix5ire]

First of all, either the dog or I need help. One of us is obviously having a failure to communicate. (if ask the wife, she would agree it's probably me).

So we rescued a pit-mix puppy from the local animal shelter, he's about 10mths to 1 yr old now. He's a really great dog and also a very smart dog. We have free-ranging chickens at the house cus' we're country pumpkins. When I introduced the dog to the flock, he didn't show much interest and when he started to sniff or show any interest, I would say (loudly) "Leave IT", and he would back away, and now just shy away completely. So far, he has not bother the adult chickens, he leaves them alone. However, he's got this really bad fetish with baby chickens, this Spring we started having baby chickens and so
far he has killed almost all of them, like 20+. He will go out of his way to chase and then eventually maul any baby chickens he sees to death.

Here's my predicament with our dog:
Problem #1: he will leave the adult chickens alone and will only go after baby chickens, does not eat them, only mauls them until their body becomes lifeless, then next baby chicken.
Problem #2, he "understands" and "acknowledges" the work "Leave IT". He will run away as soon as he hears these two words.
Problem #3, IF I'm in the yard or he knows we're outside, he will NOT bother the baby chickens.
Problem #4, dog will only go baby chicken hunting when it's "quite" outside and nobody is around. <= sneaky little canine!

Training so far:
Walking on leash with dog, he doesn't bother the chickens. He knows the words "Leave It". I've had a baby chicken in his nose/in front of his face and he will look the other way, as if he either "knows" I'm going to yell at him for looking at the baby chicken or he "pretends" he doesn't have any interest at the baby chicken.

I am not sure about the dead chickens around his neck training, doesn't sound inviting to me or having the kids see their dog with a stinky dead chicken tied to its neck. I'm open for shock-collar solutions but also don't want to invest a lot of money for something that's only a band-aid solution.

My question is, how does one deal with a dog that only kills baby chickens when nobody is around? Love the dog and he's great with kids, guards the house well and keeps stranger and critters away but just can't handle him annihilating my flock of chickens.

I open for any suggestions/help.

Thank you.

 

[Sunshine42]

Mine also "leave it" when told. We have 2 dogs we got as strays. One is a lab mix who herds the chickens and the chickens love her. The other is a beagle mix who is obsessed with small creatures. Needless to say with the beagle who is a hunting breed, we do not leave unsupervised with the chickens. He is on a tie down if he is out in the back yard. Please keep us posted!

 

[Sunshine42]

Adverse conditioning works really well with dogs!

 

[Skipton Farm]

I did this with my adolescent maremma and he ate the chicken