If you have a dog.....

[Rozzie]

I have a yellow lab. She's 10+ years old -- we have no idea exactly how old. She was trained as a bird hunting dog -- waterfowl for sure & probably gamebirds, as well.

We do not allow her near our birds. Now, when she goes through the garage to get outside she does not even LOOK at the bird cages or try to go over there, even if we intentionally ignore her for a second or two to watch her reaction. However, it's just not worth the risk. We walk her through the garage and take her outside then walk her back through. (To clarify, this also keeps her from stumbling down the basement steps which are in a bad place right by the backdoor. We have a strong gate at the top of the steps but it's still dangerous for a dog.)

I don't think she'd try to get the birds without being told to do so (whatever those commands might be.) We found out by accident that she is trained to respond to a lot of hand signals. In fact, she responds to those FAR better than verbal commands. I'm always afraid I'll accidentally tell her to retrieve a cat or something.

 

[Ed62]

You know what kind of dog we have.

I always thought she'd kill the chickens if we weren't around. But one day I heard the chickens making noise, so I went to the back yard to see what was going on. They were all in the back yard, outside their territory. Our dog was also there, checking them out, but did not hurt any of them.

Ed

 

[chickerdoodle]

I love hearing all about everyone's dogs and how they get along (or not) with the chickens.

I am so happy ours is doing as well as she is and have more hope the next dog we adopt (shhhhh---hubby doesn't know yet) will also be able to be trained to live happily with our feathered divas.

 

[michickenwrangler]

I have a 10 yr old lab/husky mix. She's great with the birds, keeps an eye on them when they're free-ranging and runs off anything that lingers too long near the run.

She's even good with wild poultry

 

[harleyjo]

I have finally heard from my husband that he wants another dog. He said he wants one a little bigger than the chihuahua we had and one that can handle the cold a little better. He wants one that can come in the house and sit on his lap but not too big. Doesn't want the froo froo dogs. I would like something that isn't going to shed tons. I am wondering about a toy or mini aussie, or border collie. I have read that they don't have undercoats so don't shed too bad.

I just miss my little dog.

Please keep the stories coming. I am loving this thread!

 

[Aves]

Two Aussies (10 1/2 months old) and two scorgies (7 1/2 years old) (scottish terrier/corgi mix). All good with the chcikens. We had to condition the Aussies to be good. One we got at 8 weeks and we let him hang with the chickens in the pen quite often. The other Aussie we got at 7 month old, first we tied him outside the pen, then we started tieing him inside the pen with the chcikens, and now he is loose now and then with heavy supervision. He becomes less interested as more time goes by. One scorgie never was a threat, the other we had to train him intensively for 1 session - if you know what I mean, and now he is great as well.

Aves

 

[henney penny]

This is Tilley she is 2 months old here and we had just got her,we also had a house chick that was a few weeks old,so we trained Tilley with her.Tilley was on a leash for awhile then set free with all the chickens while we were out there with her.She is 5 months old now and she mostly just walks around behind them and sniffs them ,but I would never leave her alone with them,not yet anyways.She is Sheltie and boarder collie mix.There is one bo that really likes her she will follow Tilley around in her run and Tilley will try to play with her and the bo will peck Tilley on the nose and they run back and forth along the run doing that,its so cute.

 

[henney penny]

This is Tilley as of a few minutes ago,she is growing fast

 

[Tianychickies]

Quote:
My mini Aussie sheds so I don't believe that's true. She is great with the birds though. She would like to be able to herd them but she knows better so she mostly ignores them.

 

[CluckCluck18]

I have an 8 year old Weimaraner, 8 year old Shi-Tzu , 11 and 14 year old cats, a 5month old EE, 5 month old Marans and 4 -12 week old Production Reds ( they are trade-ins for all the roosters I raised and had to give back

) Everyone gets along great, free ranging in the yard, sniffing one another, pecking at one another, co-existing with no trouble. My Shi-Tzu is in love with the chickens; follows them around, eats their food and sits in the coop with them. In the morning he runs right outside to check on his "girls" We call him Chicken # 7!

I've loved everything about chicken keeping so far, especially that we got some eggs this week, but really the best thing has been how well and happy all the animals are together. A friend said it's like they all have the message that this is a safe place for animals....a peaceable kingdom.