Labrador problems.

[yellowdog2]

Hi everyone...I just received my 10 week old pullets and everything is going well, except for the dog introduction. For information - I have 3 buffs and I keep them in an enclosed, secure coop and two attached, secure runs. They have a lot of room and they seem fairly happy and are growing fast. My problem is my 5 year old yellow lab just can't seem to stay away from them. She's fascinated with them - will watch them closely until one flutters her wings or flies to a roost, and then she'll be chasing them back and forth along the fence... She's usually a very good girl, but she does have a strong prey drive.

I've let her come out with me to see them, correct her when she starts to get excited, gets little treats when she acts well, but nothing seems to be working. Does anyone have any ideas what else I can do? They've only been with us a couple of weeks, so maybe it will just take time? My husband wants to get a remote shock collar, but I'm not sure that will work well.

Thanks for any assistance -

Kim

 

[Pork Pie]

Some articles in this search may help

https://www.backyardchickens.com/se...ens&t=ams_article&o=relevance&c[title_only]=1

 

[crazychickenlady81]

We have/had a similar problem. We have a retriever/basset mix (Nova), and she is just obsessed with the chickens. We got the chickens last year, and then adopted two dogs in January. Our border mix (Nia) is great with them. She could care less about them and the chickens can free range with her being outside in harmony. Nova on the other hand is just fascinated, and would likely tear them apart if given the chance. I've heard of cases where you can train your dog to be okay around the chickens, but it takes a lot of diligence and working with your dog to be obedient. Our Nova is young, and she doesn't listen very well, so we have a lot of work to do with her yet. We ended up fencing off a portion of the yard (outside of the run) to give the chickens a limited area to range on. We also got an electric fence to enclose the dogs (which we were planning to do anyways) and kept it a decent gap away from the chicken area. She can still see the chickens from afar, but doesn't cross over the e-fence to get to them. In the case that she did, we have the extra u-pole wire fence to keep her away from the chickens. It was kind of a pain in the butt to do all of this, but we now have no problems with the chickens and the dogs being outside together. I do think that an e-collar would definitely work for your pup, but a nicer route might be putting up an additional fence to give the chickens some extra room. That way, eventually she will get use to them being there but far enough away that she doesn't scare them every time she's near them.

 

[Hopperkiller]

Hi everyone...I just received my 10 week old pullets and everything is going well, except for the dog introduction. For information - I have 3 buffs and I keep them in an enclosed, secure coop and two attached, secure runs. They have a lot of room and they seem fairly happy and are growing fast. My problem is my 5 year old yellow lab just can't seem to stay away from them. She's fascinated with them - will watch them closely until one flutters her wings or flies to a roost, and then she'll be chasing them back and forth along the fence... She's usually a very good girl, but she does have a strong prey drive.

I've let her come out with me to see them, correct her when she starts to get excited, gets little treats when she acts well, but nothing seems to be working. Does anyone have any ideas what else I can do? They've only been with us a couple of weeks, so maybe it will just take time? My husband wants to get a remote shock collar, but I'm not sure that will work well.

Thanks for any assistance -

Kim

Remote shock collars are used to train dogs to back off from rattlesnakes! Bulls avoid electric fences as do dogs. Properly used the remote collar is an excellent tool to train dogs without injury. My yellow lab will chase anything when let out to run. But i can stop a rabbit chase with voice command. If i ever let her out when chickens are ranging i will get another remote collar because chickens are much slower than rabbits and the dog is too fast.

 

[bobbi-j]

Hi everyone...I just received my 10 week old pullets and everything is going well, except for the dog introduction. For information - I have 3 buffs and I keep them in an enclosed, secure coop and two attached, secure runs. They have a lot of room and they seem fairly happy and are growing fast. My problem is my 5 year old yellow lab just can't seem to stay away from them. She's fascinated with them - will watch them closely until one flutters her wings or flies to a roost, and then she'll be chasing them back and forth along the fence... She's usually a very good girl, but she does have a strong prey drive.

I've let her come out with me to see them, correct her when she starts to get excited, gets little treats when she acts well, but nothing seems to be working. Does anyone have any ideas what else I can do? They've only been with us a couple of weeks, so maybe it will just take time? My husband wants to get a remote shock collar, but I'm not sure that will work well.

Thanks for any assistance -

Kim

Properly used, I suppose a remote shock collar could work. But that means someone has to be watching the dog at all times during the day. I don't know about you, but I don't have all day to sit and watch the dog. Electric fence up close to your run could help. All she'd need to do is come into contact with that once or twice, and she should learn. How is she for obeying basic commands like "sit" or "leave it"? If she needs work on those, get her responding to them first. Keep working with her. You haven't had the chickens all that long. If all else fails, you may need to fence off the area so she can't get near the coop or run. Chickens can die from being chased like that. They run into the fence or can suffer from heat stroke if it's hot out.

 

[Mrs. K]

A story...my dh’s Grandmother died. My children came home to the ranch to go to the services. It was a short notice, so my daughter brought her lab. A trained hunting lab.

Our dog, an Australian Shepard, never bothers them. I kind of forgot the lab was there, went down to get the chores done before heading to town for the funeral.

That lab came in behind me, thought he’d found heaven with all those birds. He is barking, the rooster is crowing, everything is flying, total chaos. The lab cannot hear anything I say. So I reach to grab a pitchfork, to educate the dog, it is stuck on something, the dog has caught a bird...so I am watching the dog, but jerking on the pitchfork...I look back just in time to pop myself in the eye with the handle.

I went to the funeral in Jackie O sunglasses. What a shiner.

Good luck with your bird dog, they don’t bring the lab back.

 

[yellowdog2]

Thank you everyone for your responses. She's a good girl, listens (most of the time!) to commands, but the chickens throw her into overdrive. It's like I don't exist anymore, when she's watching them. Or she'll go out to the pen, looking over her shoulder to see if I'm watching (smart puppy). I don't mind if she goes near them, sniffing, but when she starts to chase them back and forth I put an end to it fast - I'm afraid they're really going to be stressed out. I think I may invest in a shock collar, if she doesn't behave within a week. (It's kind of like her instinct is overriding her obedience training).

Thanks again!

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome! Your dog is semi-trained; she listens when she feels like it only! To have her safe, you will need to invest much more time and effort into making her a solid reliable, and obedient, family member. If she ignores you when she's not excited, there's no way she'll listen over this,
Good fencing, including electric, will pay off here.
Then, lots of time spent with he on leash, then long leash, then shock collar (that longer leash!) to have a chance at her being safe around the birds.
I did a LOT of training, both obedience and field, with my Chessies and GSHP, and it worked great, and they were safe with my birds, because I said so. Now, I have very good fencing, and I've gotten lazy, and my current terriers also love chicken. They are separate at all times!
Mary