Introducing Dogs to chickens with success?

[centrarchid]

Even if the dogs seem fine with the birds while you're around, don't leave them out with the birds while you're gone.
Quite a few members on here have realized their dogs were not as friendly towards the chickens as they thought.

It requires work beyond getting the dogs to leave chickens alone while you are watching. Many have done it successfully, on this site. Probably more have failed because they were over confident or did not follow procedures that actually work.

 

[cmom]

It's a crap shoot. Some do and some don't. We were lucky. We inherited an older dog, a walker hound. She could care less about the birds. She may have been somewhat of a protector because when she was alive she had the run of the place day and night. I didn't have any issue with predators then. After she died the birds were discovered and then plan B went into effect. We covered the pens with good netting, put electric wire around the coops and pens and concrete under the gates all due to predators. Good luck and have fun

 

[oldhen2345]

Good luck with that. I never learned the trick using humane methods. My Penny was an adult that I introduced slowly to the chickens starting when they were babies. She obsessed over catching them. She is a rescue, but the vet thinks is part beagle and part lab. She certainly is a bird dog. One slip off the leash and within seconds had killed a hen. I got a shock collar and locked the chickens in the run. Every time she acted aggressively and charged the run, I gave her a shock. Well, eventually, I had the collar up as high as it would go. She would bend her neck in, like she knew it was gonna hurt and still charged the chickens. So now we have a chicken yard and a dog yard. Penny is not allowed in, but sneaks in when I have to open the gate to get the ride mower out. She heads straight for the coop and the nesting boxes. Chickens flee at the sight of her. I also have button quail in the house. Occasionally one will fly out when I am feeding or changing the water. She is on them in a second -have lost a couple to her. Now, I lock her up to feed the quail.

 

[centrarchid]

This is were people with repeated positive experiences need to lead the charge, not those wanting to go the other way.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Thank you. He is incredibly intelligent and I think we can train him to leave them alone. I am just expecting maybe one casualty that way if it happens I won’t be so upset and if not it will be a pleasant surprise. I’m pretty sure the reason he attacked the cats is because my husband would point them out to him and say attack which I would get so upset with him about. To no surprise my husband finally stopped doing it when he had to bury the neighbors cat...

Oh, don’t expect any casualties, just keep him on a very tight leash. It won’t be good if they even attack once. It will make it that much harder to train them. you need to go into it with the attitude that you will never allow a mistake to happen because you will always be in control of the situation. It could take 4 to 6 months of total supervision depending on how obedient your dogs are in the first place before you can leave them unattended and off leash with your flock, maybe less or maybe more.

 

[BGcoop]

We have 2 adult dogs, a german shepard that killed a young pullet once, but i believe she was actually trying to play with it, and a Lab who snarls and snaps at EVERYTHING in HER yard. It took about a year of VERY slow integration, with the chickens safely behind a barrier for most of the time before we got to where we are comfortable that the dogs and chickens can be out together, but only if supervised(mildly).
Like I said, start very slow with introductions behind a barrier, praise the dog when they start to ignore the chickens, a stern "no" command if they start to show aggression. Make introduction sessions very short to begin with and very slowly increase the length of time the animals are together. Very slowly increase the exposure, as some have said, go from barrier, to leash to off leash tight supervision etc. If you see aggression, step back a bit and give them more time.
It can be done(depending on the dog ) but will take work.