Made a decision

[llombardo]

on top of attempting to build Fort Knox, I am going to allow my dogs to patrol the chicken area at night. I have 3 german shepherds (7 total dogs)and any predator that decides to come in would have to be suicidal.

Right now as I type this I have most likely a raccoon lurking around the front and my youngest GSD must hear it or smell it and he is not happy. I believe this will offer the best protection at night. I'm pretty happy with how alert he is.

They have gotten pretty used to the chickens. They ignore them for the most part, plus the chickens and ducks will be locked up in Fort Knox. The dogs are pretty loyal to those that belong. Roosters crowing don't even phase them, they are used to it. They are actually pretty watchful over them. They could easily jump the fence to get to them and they respect their space, which I'm grateful for

 

[SueT]

Dogs that don't hurt poultry are worth their weight in gold.....I had one such dog.....

 

[djhowe69]

Be careful with dogs, they have a strong instinct to hunt and kill things that scurry around. I remember after My chicks fledged I moved our them out of the house brooder and into a wire kennel in the barn. My German Shepard was tied out and he managed to pull the kennel closer to his area and flip it over on it side. The cage door fell open and the birds all escaped. I thought he cut himself on the wire because he was covered with blood on his front paws and legs. Then I noticed the chicken feet with no body. The dog caught a Rhode Island Red Cockerel and had eaten about 65% of it. Of course he puked it out and ate it again. Thankfully, my daughter never saw what he did.

 

[Dayrel]

Unfortunately, dogs (as a group) are not great fowl protectors. Some will do it naturally and some can be trained, but the prey instinct is strong and chickens/ducks are prey animals.

I'm certainly not an expert on the subject, but you should take precautions initially and do some research on how to test/train your dogs to deal with birds. Good luck.

 

[Teila]

Beautiful dogs! You might find this thread helpful: Topic of the Week - Dogs and chickens

 

[llombardo]

The dogs will not be unsupervised when any chickens or ducks are in the enclosure.

The sole purpose will be at night when the chickens and ducks are securely locked in the coop/house in an secured enclosure.

My dogs are actually raw fed. My oldest used to get in the garbage all the time, it stopped once I switched to raw. There is no need to go through the garbage when you get the good stuff daily.

Of course it all depends on the dog. A couple years ago during the day a couple miles from me a coyote tried getting to the chickens. The german shepherd chased that coyote off pretty quick. It looked like a scene from a comedy if it wasn't a life/death situation. Around the pen they went and then around a tree, the GSD did not stop and chased that coyote into the woods. Came back only after it knew it was long gone.

My hopes are that my guys will do the same.

My golden alerted me to a raccoon in the tree a couple weeks ago. Did not expect that from him but he was relentless until I came out. I was very happy with that because he is a solid dog. One of the ducks actually nibbled him and he walked away. Not sure what she was doing, but she seemed to be completely checking him out.

Here is my raccoon the golden found--2 hours later there were two in the tree--ugh

 

[pennyJo1960]

We have a 17 year old GSD she patrols the grounds at night would not want another
we have pyrenees cannot be trusted yet as long a zeph yra can still patrol the pyr gets a break

 

[llombardo]

Here is the whole group.there are a couple that won't be allowed anywhere near the enclosure. Most of them have had experience with animals like turtles, birds, squirrels, rabbits, toads and frogs without issue.

 

[pennyJo1960]

one max of two trust on this please

 

[llombardo]

We have a 17 year old GSD she patrols the grounds at night would not want another
we have pyrenees cannot be trusted yet as long a zeph yra can still patrol the pyr gets a break

17 is amazing for a GSD. Why would you not want another?