Man's best friend, Chickens worst nightmare!

[fancy]

Just went outside to feed the horse and put the chickens to bed, and lo and behold all 4 of my 6 week old chicks were gone, vanished, no telltale feathers, NOTHING. I thought they must have gotten out of the run somehow so I shook the feed dish and 2 chicks appeared, got them put into coup and went to search for the other two. I saw one of my dogs eating grass, or so I thought. He was eating the EE chick. Looked around for the other dog and she was laying in her favorite spot by the back porch with the other chick between her front legs like she does with her toys. Of course it was dead.

I'm new to chicken keeping and thought I had done my best to keep them safe. It's hard to believe my beloved companions could do this, but they did.

My philosophical husband condolences were that "they were only doing what dogs do." thanks for letting me air my grief.

keeper of the flock (2 dogs, 5 cats, 2 horses, 1BR hen, 1RR, 1 EE, and a husband who doesn't understand)

 

[BLaBauve]

I'm very sorry! I too love my dogs and my chickens. We have 6 dogs and about 15 chickens. A chicken got loose once and 1 of our dogs grabbed it - the chicken died from shock a day later.

Dogs are dogs. Most of my dogs are fine with my chickens but it took some training on our part. I can now trust most of them with chicks as well as hens. I have lots of pictures on my page of the dogs with the chicks. Just figure out how your dog's got in and fix it. . . and get some more chicks.

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[GrandmaAnn]

I'm so sorry. Hope it works out with your next chicks. I agree with the above post.

 

[nzpouter]

Quote:
"they were only doing what untrained dogs do".

properly trained a dog/ dogs are good assets to have around your poultry.

 

[fancy]

If you have any suggestions on how to train them not to kill things, let me know. I've taught my dogs obedience, agility and had one that would bite (people) on command, but I have never faced something like this. I'm still in shock but bet your britches that tomorrow we start brushing up on our leave it command! Just hope that I'm always there to give the command when needed.

 

[badwolf7914]

I'm rather curious about your training methods myself. We adopted a Siberian Husky mix from a shelter when she was barely 6 months old if that. She's around 10 months now. We have had a time training her to be a good dog. She had been leaving our chickens alone, but she got shot by our neghbor because she got loose and went in his yard where he has baby chicks that ecscape his pen. She's doing ok now, but for some reason she was shaking one of ours around in her mouth yesterday. She droped it when my hubby yelled at her and it was ok, but we need a good way to dicipline and train her about the chickens in the future that will work well.

 

[GeeVee]

i don't know about the whole "trained dog wont ever kill your chickens" thing. we have 2 very obedient dogs, but we learned the hard way that they are sneaky when we aren't around to stop them. our last batch of 12 chicks were all killed by our dogs. we started off with a fenced pen for the chicks. now we have a dog pen, a chick pen, AND an additional fence in between the chickens and dogs (not only for our dogs, but stray dogs as well, which we have had problems with). our fully grown hens are completely fine around the dogs, but we don't feel able to completely trust the dogs anymore, so they still go in the pen when we aren't around.
don't feel too horrible- unfortunately many of us chicken owners have to learn to fix things by mishap, because sometimes there is no way to predict it happening. all of my fences and barriers have accumulated over the years due various chicken deaths (weasels, raccoons, dogs).

 

[nzpouter]

no secret in it really, just time, consistency and common sense.... you got 2 species to train, the dog and the chickens a running flapping chickens in front of untrained dogs is a big temptation... at the moment we have 1 bull terrier, 2 bullie/ pitbull crosses, age 14, 10 and 7. the youngest killed a chicken when she was 4 months old, but that's about it. Most problems people have with dogs usually start with a chase....

Our dogs are fed raw diet (chickens, pigeons, mutton, pork, beef, ducks and rabbit), and I can leave them with the other live animals here 24/7... They also babysit all our orphans animals (lambs, kids, piglets).

They know well what "leave it" means, and they know what they can/ can not hunt/ eat... they can rush into a bush when they heard rustling but stop dead on their tracks when a chicken walk out....

so... yeah, all in what you train/ want them to do... The same way of training are used with all our past dogs.. from rotweiller to daschund.... no way I can be bothered to keep them separate.. the dogs are there to do their job... to look after their property and whatever live in it.....

 

[MMPoultryFarms]

Time and patience Pictures are worth a thousand words as above poster has demonstrated.

 

[Lorije1]

Quote:
"they were only doing what untrained dogs do".

properly trained a dog/ dogs are good assets to have around your poultry.

Baloney. My dog is CGC and went through multiple obedience classes. He has an impeccable leave it.... and he is a convicted chicken killer. Are there dogs who can be around chickens? Of course.... but "proper training" is not the end all / be all in a predator /prey situation.


OP - I am sorry for your loss.