Is my labrador safe with chickens?

[Yardmom]

Many people leave dogs and chickens loose together. Start with the dog on a leash. Then loose supervised. Hopefully this will show what instincts are strong. Most dogs will protect not harm.

 

[danceswithronin]

I have a golden retriever and two terriers and I do not trust any of mine around loose chickens. They have killed mauled one escaped rooster and killed a hen, so I know they are not trustworthy around birds. They also kill rats, possums, squirrels, chipmunks, moles, and will drive off raccoons. So even though they are predatory, they have their place on my homestead.

Personally I think if you put your chickens loose around your dogs you're always going to be taking a chance that the dog will injure or kill one of them, even by accident.

 

[DellaMyDarling]

I'm going to have a slightly different word, although I don't disagree with anyone else.

My dog has a strong prey drive. She's also the dog in my avatar. She's a German Shepherd/Black Mouth Cur type of mix. She's made for all variety of hunting, flushing, guarding small things, herding, good old farm dog.

Most intelligent breeds can be trained to ignore an instinct. However, throwing a dog into a sudden new scenario with overwhelming instinct drive can be a recipe for failure.
I would assess how much training you have already completed with your dog. Will dog aim to please you under all circumstances? Does this dog have "run of the house" in dog terms, which includes taking food without permission, running out open doors, sitting on furniture, jumping on people, etc? Or have you thoroughly established a dog pecking order in your house that the dog respects and understands? Does dog obey such commands as "leave it", "come", "no", every single time?

Once upon a time, my lovely pup would hunt the neighborhood fowl. Because we had a very strong training and respect relationship with her, we were able to correct this behavior. We did utilize a few small shocks and plenty of beeps from a shock collar when interacting with neighbor flocks because she was repeatedly catching and tearing off feathers. She sees us caring for our flock, which has thoroughly established that her hoomans would be very displeased to have these birds hunted.

You said you only have two birds? They could be super simple to keep in a run. I simply have too many birds, my choice of course, and so I absolutely needed my dog to understand that they are not her prey. She coexists beautifully.

 

[Mimi13]

I lucked out extremely well with the relationship between my dogs and chickens. I am very fortunate. One thing I will mention that may have helped. In the very beginning of keeping birds they were confined in a solidly built run, chain link with hardware cloth attached. In addition, I put a two string electric fence around the run. Every one of the dogs (7) and cats (3) got zapped at one time or other just being curious. I’m not sure if that initial pain stuck with them or not, but I have not had any trouble. Two of my dogs are outside dogs 24/7 and are more or less flock guardians, a Catahoula and a German Shepherd/Great Pyrenees mix.

 

[jas humbert]

I'm not saying it can't be done. I had a thoroughly reliable sheltie who lived with our chickens from 7 weeks old until he died at age 18. But I'm saying there is no "magic" right breed that can be guaranteed to automatically respect your chickens with no training. Dogs are individuals and not all behave like the expected breed profile (although I think it would be short sighted to buy a herding breed believing he wont herd just because you don't want him to). ALL dogs need training. Many puppies will play too rough for chickens and don't intend to hurt them. Many dogs have solid prey drive that can a challenge to overcome. And in some dogs it can't- at last not 100% reliably. I think training is just as important as the dog you choose. You can't turn a new pup loose with free range chickens and walk away. In the beginning, the only time the dog should have access to the chickens is when you are there to supervise.

 

[Mimi13]

I'm not saying it can't be done. I had a thoroughly reliable sheltie who lived with our chickens from 7 weeks old until he died at age 18. But I'm saying there is no "magic" right breed that can be guaranteed to automatically respect your chickens with no training. Dogs are individuals and not all behave like the expected breed profile (although I think it would be short sighted to buy a herding breed believing he wont herd just because you don't want him to). ALL dogs need training. Many puppies will play too rough for chickens and don't intend to hurt them. Many dogs have solid prey drive that can a challenge to overcome. And in some dogs it can't- at last not 100% reliably. I think training is just as important as the dog you choose. You can't turn a new pup loose with free range chickens and walk away. In the beginning, the only time the dog should have access to the chickens is when you are there to supervise.

Everything you’ve said is true, however, my dogs had zero training, in anything, ever. See why I “lucked out?”

 

[mixedbreeds]

You need to train your dog not to go after the chickens. If you have no plans to do training or just stink at it you should not leave the dog around them. I have a lab as well he hunts ducks, geese, quail and pheasant it took me about a month to train him around the chickens. He is in my avatar that should give you an idea what a trained dog can do, even a bird dog.

 

[jas humbert]

Mimis13:
I get you and I know can happen that way with some dogs. I think the electric fence might have been "training" of a sort. Plus your dogs had a good while to get used to the chickens and grow up some before they were loose with them. It just worries me that someone might think that if they can just find the "right" breed , it is going to be simple enough to turn an unsupervised pup loose with the birds. Maybe sometimes we luck out (my daughter's pup was chased by a rooster at 8 weeks old and was forever more terrified of chickens) but maybe not.

 

[Mybackyardpeepers]

My dog has never showed aggression towards my chicks and pre adults, does that mean I trust her out with them loose in the yard...... NO! My dog is even tethered out, she can interact with them through their run fence. I still would not trust her, but that's just me and my dog.

 

[Cindy in PA]

I had a black lab when I first got chickens 26 years ago & my chickens free ranged. The first time she was out with them. she ran toward one & I told her no & that was that. Never had a problem. Next came Springer #1 & #2 & the chickens no longer free ranged, but then I got guineas. Both could be called off the guineas, but were not as docile as the Lab. They didn't interact much, as the guineas were usually out in the field. Fast forward to Springer #3. She did OK with the guineas at first, but then nabbed a female, as the females were always too stupid to fly away. Never lost a male guinea to any predator, but a total of 9 females went to foxes over the years. With a lot of work, I think I could train this one too, but I only have chickens now & can't free range, so the point is mute. I don't agree with the bird dog will kill chickens. Bird dogs are meant to retrieve birds, not kill birds, but YMMV.