How To Train Your Dog Not To Kill Chickens

[charlotte1996]

so all I would have to do with my puppy is go out with her and tell her no with the chickens everyday?

 

[centrarchid]

so all I would have to do with my puppy is go out with her and tell her no with the chickens everyday?

That is a part of the process. You need to make certain you have control over dog. A leash during early stages is very helpful so as to provide a physical signal as well as verbal. Instead of "no" I recommend a specific word or phrase for telling dog not to do something such as "leave it" or "no-bother" (latter is mine). The word or phrase used to be consistent and ideally used only when dog is acting improperly. Their are a lot more details you can find in other threads. You are working with a pup so expect times of naughtiness and possibly not having reliable control until dog is 18 to 24 months. You will also have to go through a stage where dog will test rules when you are not present. Again see other threads for that issue as well. Many training systems work but being consistent really speeds process.

 

[fluttervale]

"so all I would have to do with my puppy is go out with her and tell her no with the chickens everyday?"

Somewhat. You want to teach her a "leave it" command that applies to WHATEVER you tell her to leave. "Leave it" means "you may not have whatever it is that you want." So in my house, it means: Stop begging, leave the cat alone, don't bother the kid on the sidewalk, you do in fact NOT need to pick up that dirty sock, stop staring out the window, etc.

Training dogs is not a one-and-done. It's an ongoing process through the animal's entire life. You will have a partner, not a pet, by the time your dog is about 2 years of age. You don't just take the dog out to the coop once a day and tell her to leave the chickens alone. You use a generic command in a specific circumstance. You'll use the same command when telling her that she can't steal food from the kids. As your puppy ages you'll leave her in the coop for a minute while you grab a scoop of feed, once you think she's trustworthy. It's not a test of her obedience, but a demonstration of your trust. So you don't do it until you know she won't do anything but wait for you at the door, just like you don't leave her alone with the kids until you know she won't steal their snack right from their hands.

Some dogs you will never be able to trust with chickens. I have a Labrador girl that I've had since she was 4 months old that can't be trusted with a cat. I have a Labrador male from the same breeder that I'd trust with anyone, anything, anytime, after an appropriate introduction. Current cat I would have no issue with plopping her into a pen of day old chicks and leaving her there for the day. She'd be mad but no one would get hurt (except maybe me.) Want to add that the Labrador girl that I would never trust with cats has the softest mouth imaginable and brings my Dad ("her human") at least a dozen baby birdies every single year. I wouldn't leave her with chickens, though, as she'd mouth the entire lot.

Dogs can't be used just as "things" that serve a purpose, they are best used when considered a partner in your venture. Dogs that aren't fulfilled mentally become destructive and dangerous. You have to have the relationship in that even if your dog does the unthinkable (killing a chicken, etc.) you can still reach in his mouth and take something away from them without worrying about getting bit. My Labrador boy is a partner in everything. We go for rides together (Yay, Rides!), we go for walks together (Yay, Walks!), he's within arm's length whenever he can be.

He does have one weakness. He would very much like to kill himself a raccoon (he is neutral about everything, though does flush pheasant) and while he can be called off, he makes it really clear that you are ruining his day when you do it. I won't let him tackle a raccoon. I'd rather use the .22 and not risk the vet bills.

 

[HillTopChicks]

Interesting to see so many poodles interesting in "playing" with chickens. My Labradoodle has the same traits. Balck Lab Mom, standard Poodle Dad. Better ratter than our cat, will chase anything that moves, with great success! The solution? A chicken tractor with a firm base.

The dog is very dear to us but his instinct is to attack anything that moves. We hunt, why should he be any different?

 

[centrarchid]

Interesting to see so many poodles interesting in "playing" with chickens. My Labradoodle has the same traits. Balck Lab Mom, standard Poodle Dad. Better ratter than our cat, will chase anything that moves, with great success! The solution? A chicken tractor with a firm base.

The dog is very dear to us but his instinct is to attack anything that moves. We hunt, why should he be any different?

You may need to help me understand my predator killing German Pointers.

 

[aggiemae]

The dog is very dear to us but his instinct is to attack anything that moves. We hunt, why should he be any different?

Actually... it should be different because the chickens/cat/other dog etc belongs to YOU so,regardless of breed, a well trained well bonded dog will not disobey you or harm your belongings.

 

[shmccarthy]

I have an English lab that I am working on training to not harm or chase chickens. I have been working with him since I got the chickens and I have learned that consistency is probably the most important thing. I brought him around the chicks first and he did great. He knows the commands "sit, stay, go get ___, leave it, and drop it" and I used those as guidelines on how he should act. I let him smell the chicks so he could no what they are while saying "leave it" over and over when he wasn't paying any attention to him. He got rewarded for ignoring them. He is so good now with chicks that even when they are squawking and chirping and flapping about, he pays no mind to them and actually will walk away from them.
The adults were a bit more challenging because they get excited easily and it's hard to separate the chickens getting excited and him wanting to "get or retrieve" with a bird dogs instincts. I bring him outside with me every morning when I go take care of the chickens. He would wait outside the coop and watch me feed and handle them. I did this for quite a few months until I felt he had seen them enough to free range with them. He did try a couple rounds of "chicken bowling" but stopped when I hollered at him. He responds very well with verbal commands and understands what you're saying. After working at this a lot, I can now take him outside with me when my chickens are free ranging and he does not pay any mind to him. If he starts to show interest, I tell him to "leave it" and he goes back to ignoring them.
NO I will still not leave them unsupervised together. I still have a bit of work to do with him and he is still young. But he has come a long way from wanting to chase and play with them to completely ignoring him. I have not physically disciplined him once, just verbally. Positive reinforcement works wonders. I know he won't protect them, but I feel fairly confident he won't bother them too much at this point.

Also he is being trained to water retrieve ducks and is very good at it! All I am saying is you definitely can train a dog with hunting and retrieving instincts to leave chickens alone.

Edited: I pressed submit too early when in the middle of typing.

 

[centrarchid]

I took a longer route with respect to interactions between chickens and dogs. I expect protection and use hunting dogs where their territorial nature is promoted and their prey drive with respect to chickens is subdued. The take anywhere from 18 months to 2 years to get up to speed since what is desired is not innate, rather reliant upon their abilities to learn from me, chickens and even predators. Usually more than one bird is lost in process but in the end dogs prevent a lot more losses than they cause. The dogs can detect threats directly just like dogs used for protecting sheep and goats but my dogs also read the chickens communications effectively using the flocks as a radar for detecting bad guys even when down wind and out of sight which is easy to realize on my place. Once dogs are on the job I can sleep easier at night even with birds roosting on ground in a pasture. I live in an area without leash laws so fencing helps with free-ranging dogs but fencing does not stop most wild predators except under very specific conditions that do not protect my free-ranging birds. Just before starting this post my dogs ran off two pit bulls which is not as good as it sounds. We know those dogs and I have already invested effort in one of those dogs to keep from chasing by birds. This was done in part to develop good relationship with neighbor owning dog. Those same dogs if not causing me problems inadvertently help protect my birds as well because they are hostile to dogs and even coyotes coming from farther away. We do very well against other predators in part because my dogs do not ignore the chickens except when close proximity to them.

 

[aggiemae]

We do very well against other predators in part because my dogs do not ignore the chickens except when close proximity to them.

To me this is pretty much the ideal situation and it does take time, consistency and control to train this behavior especially with high prey drive breeds.

Slightly off topic but I wanted to add that because they are around our dogs so much and they seem to know they are completely safe I was concerned that my chickens would not be afraid of any dogs. A friend of ours let his dog out into the yard a while back it wasn't aggressive with the hens but it turns out that, when confronted with an unknown dogs, the boss hen sounded the alarm and all the hens ran and hid in the shrubs.

 

[castvania]

I have a jack russell crossed with a mini foxy
When we first got our hens, we put them in the coop and we were a little wary, but then i built a run and let the girls out

Our dog was more curious then anything and when he came into the run, he got pecked by a couple of them. We laughed and we have free ranged them since.

For us it helped having 2 cats. They didnt get along initially so we trained the dog to leave the cats alone. Lots of firm NO's and leaving him outside when he did something very wrong helped.

He will occasionally try and sniff the hens as he walks past but he usually gets pecked. He knows the girls rule the yard though, if i go and give him a snack such as a bit of bread or left overs for the girls and him, they will usually gang up and steal his bit, and then he looks at you with a sad face.

Slightly off topic but the only problem i really had was my dog bringing eggs into the house, and every now and then eating one. We would find them on the couch, or bits of crushed egg on the floor. I would get an egg from the fridge, put it on the ground and say NO. Eventually he did it less, but when he did i would get the egg out and repeat NO. It got to a point where i would get the egg out and he was off running outside the flap door because he knew it was wrong. Needless to say he doesnt do that anymore