Introduced friendliest chick to dog..

[Morgan7782]

And it went WONDERFUL! Munk is the friendliest chick I have at the moment, she is a BIG EE chicka, very friendly and calm. So I was holding her this morning and my dog was in the room. He is always in the same room as the chicks, because they are housed in my bedroom at the moment. I called him over, and was holding Munk, and I offered him a sniff test. He didn't even wrinkle his lip at her! No sign, no look, nothing that would be a threat to me. He merely sniffed her, and when she started flapping her wings, he backed off. It went so smoothly, and I am so proud of my boy.

Now I totally believe instinct overpowers any training, so these chicks will be safe and monitered closely when anywhere near the dog. My dog is also a Pit Bull, and I watch carefully for any prey drive. Haven't seen ANYTHING! If anything this dang dog fathers these chicks.

The ONLY problem I have, is the dog chasing the cats away. It was cute and protective at first, but now it's just getting redonkulas. So does anybody have any tips to help an overprotective pitbull loosen up a bit? LOL. He never harms the cats, but he is rather insistant with his nipping for the cats to GET OUT.

 

[silkieroo]

Congrats on the good introduction! (I love pitt bulls) Sorry no tips on the protective issue though.

 

[Morgan7782]

No worries, I mean it could be worse right? If anything, the dog might keep the cat at bay until the chicks are hens, and can peck the living daylights out of him.

Thanks, I am glad and am happy my dog can be a good pitbull advocate. Plus, Munk is so calm, she was the best to introduce because she doesn't freak out. Even all her flapping of the wings didn't faze the dog.

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

That's a wonderful sign! I love pit bulls, never had one of my own, but my brother has two and they are the most well behaved dogs I've ever seen. Though my brother isn't particularly a great dog trainer, he somehow has these two love muffins trained to listen to just about everything he says.

I would warn you though, my old golden retriever was the same way with my chicks, never interested in them, spent months of supervised free time with the girls in the yard once they were full grown and free ranging with absolutely no problems. Until (I see a lot of these stories that end with until...) one morning she was out there alone with them and I heard squawking. I ran out and my dog was bringing me one of my hens in her mouth. Fortunately, the hen was fine, freaked out and missing a couple of feathers, but fine. I think Hannah was just trying to retrieve her, makes sense being a retriever and all. She was immediately disciplined (though she definitely knew from my screaming and carrying on that she shouldn't be playing with the chickens with her mouth

) and now won't even look at a chicken. Its pretty funny watching the hens walk by her and her very obviously avoiding eye contact. I'm getting closer to feeling more comfortable with her around the hens, but still always on guard.

Just a warning, don't ever get too comfortable, its their nature.

Good luck and have fun!!