How To Train Your Dog Not To Kill Chickens

[ChickensRDinos]

I completely agree. Whatever methods works best for you, repetition and consistency are so important and make everything easier. And thank you! I am madly in love with her.

 

[sjshaw1980]

Thats so funny about your chickens! Ours hatched right around 4/1 as well, and 3 of the 4 began laying last week! We think the 4th may be a roo in disguise tho, so no surprise there.

About the doxies, yes they do generally have a high prey drive as a breed, but it's odd because out of my 4, its only one of them that is the consistently aggressive one. Layla is an angel, she NEVER does anything that would get her in trouble including chasing poultry, even when the others try to chase, Duncan could care less about most everything, including the chickens (unless of course Cisco is trying to kill one, at which point he tags along for the fun), and Spartacus is a 9 month old pup, he only chases if Cisco does, but otherwise has no interest at all, so I think that's monkey see monkey do.

Go figure...

 

[terrilhb]

Glad I found this thread. My 7 month old puppies were so good with the chickens and know they love to pull their feathers out. So it is back to square one. Like when I 1st brought them home.They definetly know no leave it. They have not killed one yet but I know it is coming if I don't get them under control. But it is my fault for setting them up for failure. I left them alone with the chickens. Not again till training is done. Here is a picture of my babies.

They are Great Pyreneese, Lab and Husky.

 

[FOWLEDPEAS]

The Pit-Rott mix that I had to shock about 3 times when I first got chickens is now their guardian. She has never attacked one of my fowl after being shocked. She has learned to come running if she hears the birds make any distress calls and has saved them on many occasions. I trust her completely with my fowl. If you cannot trust your dog around your birds, then it needs more training. I also believe in positive reinforcement and praise her when she acts in a protective way. She is also very protective of me and I would much rather have her go with me to check our game camera near our woods then carry a gun. We have feral hogs and I have seen her run them off. She is so laid back now with our birds that they daily go and steal her food while she watches!

 

[clfehler]

My mother-in-law did that to the Great Dane my husband had when he was a kid and it worked like a charm. She was raised on a farm in Wisconsin so I don't question her methods! I'm going to have to do this myself, I think.

 

[LaynaDon95]

I have one dog that I completely trust alone with the chickens. She's a 1 year old black lab mix and I've had her since she was 2 months old. I started immediately training her to leave them alone. It took quite some time, but she does well with them now. (She has figured out that eggs make yummy snacks, though, so I have to keep her away from the nesting boxes.) I've recently gotten a new dog and he's 2. He has never been around chickens and thinks they are very fun to chase. I'm trying to teach him to leave them alone now... Now a fun process, but I've done it before. I know I can do it again.

 

[OregonRoots]

When we had Siberian Huskies (loves to kill cats and chickens) we would put them in the crate, 24 hours. Solitary confinement. They stopped killing the neighbor's cats when they came over the fence. But it unfortunately took a few times. (poor kitties)

 

[cadams]

did the same thing except I also tied the wings and left it till it came off on its own. dog learned not to mess with the chickens.

 

[TMNfarm]

I have 6 dogs, which does complicate the training and lengthens the process... 2 of my dogs (my Jack Russel and my Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mix) are completely trustworthy. They are the only two that are allowed unsupervised with the chickens and turkeys at the moment. But they are also the only two that are allowed free run of the farm without worry of them disappearing for hours at a time. The others enjoy a 625 sq. ft. outdoor kennel with plenty of shade trees. The rest of my "pack" consists of a Golden Retriever, an Australian Shepherd, a Mini Aussie, and an Australian Shepherd/ Australian Cattle Dog cross. All of them are between the ages of 1 and 4 years, so relatively young. I have let them have access to my flock when I am right there to closely suervise. Mostly, they want to get the food, but if the chickens run, they love to chase! They will leave them and follow me back to the house if I start walking away and call them. None of them has tried to hurt the chickens, but I am afraid if they were left to their own devices, eventually it would lead to that. Some of them have a strong herding instinct, and I have used that to my advantage when I need to get them cooped up in a hurry. My AS/ACD actually helped me herd them from the woods into the coop when there was a terrible storm blowing in fast and found the one stray missing chicken even after it had started hailing. I also have them help me get the horses to the barn. I think part of being successful is understanding your breed, and using their natural instincts. I don't try to tell my dogs they can never herd my chickens, but that there are times when it is appropriate. I need to spend some time with each dog and the flock individually to try to get them to be more trustworthy, I just haven't had a chance. I did have an incident with my AS/ACD getting my turkey hen when the dogs got out of the kennel accidentally. She was trying to hide from him, and I truly believe he only wanted to get her to run. He had plenty of time (about 1/2 hour before I noticed) to kill her, but she only had ripped skin. No deep punctures at all. The Tom was holding his own against the other 3 dogs!! I never blamed the dog, only myself for not locking the kennel door. And like I said, I haven't put in the time I need to get them to where I would trust them.

 

[ket806]

Just have to add in, I have grown up in the hunting world as well as livestock, and you would NEVER want your working dog to kill ANYTHING! The dogs purpose AND breeding was NOT to kill back yard chickens OR ducks! Their PURPOSE is to AID their owner in something WE bred and trained them to do for OUR sport! For example our pits were bred and trained to hog hunt. NOT to KILL the hog but to TRACK it and keep it confined for US to KILL! Another example our German shepherd was bred and trained to herd livestock NOT kill them! Or our daucshund whi was bred and trained to hunt BURROWING prey NOT flying, but YOU tell me, whi has ANY toy breed to do ANYTHING they are bred for(besides the people who show in that sport)?!! A bird dog was bred and trained NOT to KILL birds but to DIRECT us to them and RETRIEVE what WE killed. I am sorry but NONE of our animals were bred or trained to specifically hunt or kill backyard chickens or ducks and more then HALF of y'all have them as little play pets which goes AGAINST their breeding/training y'all are trying to throw at us! Dogs NEED a leader and NEED to be praised/punished THAT is what they have KNOWN for decades! I am sorry but you can NOT sit there and say "oh I don't ever punish my dogs or scold them" I'm sorry but that's b.s. because you sure did! You had have done some training at some point whether it be not to get in the trash or eat of the table I poop or pee on the carpet! You teaching them NOT to do those things is SCOLDING! Dog thrive for attention and MUST be trained in some way shape or form or they are RULEING YOU!!! That is a dogs job is to obey! Now you tell me a hunter that wants their bird dog to slaughter their birds they are hunting??? You can't because NO hunter wants that! They want the sport THEY want the kill the dog is there to do as told!
I will get to my point--
Point is NO ONE wants to have their backyard chickens and ducks slaughtered by their own pets and NO breed has been SPECIFICALLY bred/trained to kill back yard poultry and water fowl. Also 98% of dogs today are NOT used for what they are "bred/trained" for! Really people?! Come on all your dogs are mostly pets and lap dogs unless you actually get them to do their job and no matter what their job is NOT killin your birds.
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Everyone traines their dogs different and has them for different reasons but when it all boil down to it we ALL have them to make us happy in some way or form!!!

Ok I am off my box so sorry guys I just wanted to set a lot straight! We are supposed to help each other not attack each other because you don't like the way someone does things. When you ask for help you take in everything people say but in the end YOU choose what is best for you WITHOUT all the negative feedback from people!