My (beloved) dog ate a second chicken yesterday.......

[savingdogs]

I had these four beautiful new EE pullets my husband bought me as a gift, and yesterday my karelian bear dog Bandit ate one! Dang her!
I have to admit they had learned to fly this week and flew out of their pen and into the dog pen. I bought them from someone who had let them 100 percent free range and they were supposed to be behind the fence at that particular time, but they had their own ideas about that and just flew over the fence while she was out.

I cannot "get rid" of this dog, she is beloved to our family, but it sure is discouraging. She is old and possibly even not going to be around long so this isn't something I can train out of her or anything. She is a lymphoma survivor with a recent crop up of health problems which kind of signals she will be leaving us soon and going to dog heaven without our help.

But my EE! I'm just sick that I didn't clip her wings as soon as I saw her fly. She was my absolute prettiest and most favorite chicken too, dang that Bandit! But I'm mostly mad at myself, I knew what the dog would do.......she killed a Buff Orpington two months ago. I actually got these four to replace some that I lost to predation so this is especially discouraging!

I really really wish I had clipped those wings sooner!

 

[coloradochick]

So sorry, but don't beat yourself up. I think most of us have experienced this or something similiar. We learn by our mistakes and the rest of our girls are safer for it.

 

[theoldchick]

Hind sight is 20/20. Just take good care of the others. Your dog is just being a dog.

 

[PurpleChicken]

Raw chicken is good for dogs.

 

[verlaj]

Each one of our dogs has killed one chicken. We were able to teach them NOT to harm the chickens, and now they are the protectors of the flock, particularly a mixed breed, stray dog we adopted and a Jack Russell, believe it or not. Even our old golden retriever killed a chicken; he leaves them alone now, but does not defend them.

I spent time being with the dogs and the chickens together, chastising the dogs when they seemed excited about them or interested in chasing the birds. This had to be repeated when I had new juveniles that we released with the adult flock - the dogs seemed to distinguish between the old birds (ours) and the new young ones (interlopers).

If a JR can be taught not to kill chickens, I expect your dog can too. Don't feel too bad - and good luck!

 

[coloradochick]

Nice PC

 

[RedRoosterFarm]

Forgive me for being gross. We went through 3 dogs that kept killing and chasing. We got other dogs that we thought would be ok but when one went after them the other joined in. I was told by an old farmer to tie the bird to the dogs neck. Well we tied some pullets to both dogs necks and the dogs tried and tried to rempve them but could not. It was hot out and the birds stayed for around 8 days. When the dogs came near you would almost vomit.This was real hard cuz are inside outside dogs. Well its been almost 3 years now and still have the dogs. It worked for us. I will say that if I am with a net and they see me they are so exicited but I say no and they will watch but not touch them. We have not had our dogs chase anything now unless I tell them to and I will not tell them to get the birds. They still get to go get our horses and they love that but thats a job for them. Good luck. Now if I could only controll the neighbors dogs....

 

[MysticScorpio82]

I am sorry for you loss

 

[savingdogs]

Thank you for all your kind words and suggestions.

This is a karelian bear dog, anyone familiar with them? She is pretty weird. I got her because I do dog rescue and I was coordinating the fosters for a group I used to volunteer with. Nobody could contain this dog, she would stay around a few days and then split. I had her a couple of times and our backyard was like Fort Knox, no dog could escape. So she ended up staying with us while we looked for a home for her.
During this time, she developed lymphoma. But she miraculously became one of the few dogs that actually went into remission and recovered. At this point however she was unadoptable and so our family decided to keep her permanently. About that time we moved to the country.

No more Fort Knox fence. This dog became a free spirit, absolutely won't come when called. She fends for herself, feeds herself, and unless we keep her totally locked up, cruises our property at will. She actually kept all the predators away when we allowed this. But eventually she began to wander too far away and we just could not let her "free spirit" run around anymore. And about this time she had the FIRST chicken fly into her mouth and she (as Purple chicken noted) found them to be very GOOD for her.
Around this time we created a big fenced yard for the dogs, but unfortunately chickens must stay on their side of the fence.
Training? I am a dog trainer by default...I've lived with and fostered over 350 dogs. But this one will not learn come. The concept is apparently foreign to karelian bear dogs, because they are a very independent breed. The thought that I could possibly train her to not want to eat the chickens makes me smile and maybe, just a little bit, not be so mad at her.

 

[ellieroo]

Since you know about these dogs you know when they came to this country the public was warned these are not pet dogs They were bred for one job of immense danger, Bears! So I think it is great that you have one as part of the family.I have a dobe that raises all my chickens but had a schnauzer that could Not keep from killing a chicken no matter what.So it was up to me to keep everybody safe the chickens from the dog and the dog from my anger. He survived til he was 14 and I survived til he was 14. We only lost 5 chickens in those yrs. I bet you will do an excellent job from the lesson learned and the dog will be loved and the chickens safe. Best of Luck!