Introducing Dogs to Chickens

[sjmarshall87]

I have seen many posts regarding dogs and chickens. I myself have two dogs. One doesnt really do much these days the other is a young German doberman who seems to have enough energy to hunt rabbits, possems, squirells and whatever else he can locate in the wooded areas surrounding my home. Having 30 16 wk old chicks and *hoping* to be able to free range them at some point does anyone have any suggestions on how to tame this dog enough to have harmony in my yard?

We attempted a ONE chick introduction and the dog seemed to be eyeing his next meal....

 

[Watermelon_Gypsy]

Ohhh that's a hard one - I think there are times where some dogs just wont be tamed, and other times they can be. It really depends on the dog. We have a rotti black lab mix but she is the calmest thing ever - we introduced our chicks to her the day they came into our home & now she mothers them lol It's kind of funny - but I wasn't so sure how she'd behave at first. My brother also has a dog, he's full rotti & I don't think we'll ever get him calm enough to be around the chickens so if he's over the chickens aren't free ranging.

Good luck!

 

[jbrookebarrow]

I think it depends on the dog's personality and prey drive. Our Italian Greyhound just wanted to nudge the chicks around and actually seemed to herd them back to the group, but he's 9yrs old and much calmer now than he used to be. He inadvertently killed my hamsters by playing them to death once upon a time, but now that he's old and knows his limitations, he just ambles around the group and keeps watch. I had no reservations about letting him loose around the chicks in our yard. He was only interested in them for a few seconds, then set about searching for a hot patch of sunshine.

Our 1yr old pit/beagle/lab mix is a different story. She's definitely a bird dog, preferring to jump into brush and flush birds out so she can chase them. She's a much tougher cookie to crack, but because she's so driven to please us, she's willing to leave the chickies alone just to make Momma Dog (me) happy. She does linger over their temporary box longingly, eyeing the plumpest ones and licking her chops, but just a good firm stinkeye from me makes he get in line. I would not trust her alone around them. She's too driven to catch (and sometimes destroy).

The other dog in our house, a rescue I found wandering down the road, seems to not give a second thought to, well, anything. She's a 1yr old Pitbull that can't be bothered to do much more than lie around and sigh heavily. I think the chickies could peck her eyes and she'd just grumble a little. She's the same age as my other pit mix, but just has no prey drive whatsoever.

Maybe allowing the dog to come into the room with you and the chickens would be a good start. Seeing your interaction with another animal, though different from him, will teach him that the new animals are just different looking/smelling/sounding members of the family. I'd say doing this slowly would be the key.

Good luck and let us know what happens. I'm curious too about how to make my pit mix accept my new chickies.