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

[Randy]

I tried the dead chicken around the neck thing and it seemed to work. It was a fairly young dog so it may have just grown out of it anyway.

 

[drumstick diva]

I don't think tying a dead chicken around a dog's neck is punishment for the crime , it is meant to be 'aversion therapy." Hopefully, it makes the dog sick of the chicken smell which will get worse and worse as the carcass 'ripens."

 

[Kittymomma]

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A dog with a dead stinky chicken tied around its neck is also usually shunned by its people and not allowed in the house or car. I think the exclusion from the pack has a lot to do with why it works really well with some dogs and doesn't with others--kinda like how sending my youngest to his room for punishment was effective, but didn't work at all on his older sister.

 

[TrystInn]

We have two Basset Hounds, which are generally great hunting dogs for rabbits and foxes. Thankfully our two seem to know this and have never bothered our ducks or chickens. Our Border Collie is a working gal - she herds our poultry and is VERY protective of our flocks, thankfully.

Which is a Gods send - Unfortunately, I've had to shoot several feral and loose dogs unfortunately who came looking to kill our poultry. Between the ducks screaming, the Bassets howling and the Border Collie growling - I have plenty of notice when the stray dogs come around. We have several idiot pit bull & terrier owners who just let their dogs out without a fence, so this happens on a fairly regular basis. The two pit bull owners have been warned I shoot the minute their dogs come on our property. One of them has already charged me when I was in my own front yard, that one is on a short clock for the Rainbow Bridge. I have no idea why people get pit bulls in farm country, then fail to train them not to go after livestock.

I still have no idea who owns the terriers but I can scare them off with a BB gun, thankfully. Unfortunately, unlike the pit bulls who need to tunnel or destroy my fences, the terriers can get through in some places.

 

[BlacksheepCardigans]

Yeah, as a dog person, there's no way that stinky chicken actually trains the dog to not chase chickens. It would be like hanging a TV around your neck for a week - you might hate the rope around your neck, but as soon as it's off you're going to turn on the game.

Dogs chase chickens because they're hardwired to do so. Even fantastic herding dogs, who have had virtually all of the "kill" at the end of "chase" bred out of them will do it if the bird moves right or makes the right sound. They can't turn that off, any more than you could turn off flinching when you touch something hot. Some of the livestock guard dogs, if they're bonded with the chickens, can make genuinely good/protective decisions about them, but just as many will not.

You can train a dog to not chase chickens (or rabbits, or what have you) when you're around, in the same way you can teach kids not to watch TV when you're around if they know it's off-limits. But the kid, and the dog, are never going to come to the conclusion that it's universally wrong to watch TV or chase chickens.

The best option is a good run combined with good training and good supervision, and don't rely on supervision if your dog has demonstrated high prey drive. It's so, so much easier and better for everyone if you do that, instead of blaming the dog for something that is completely normal for him to do, or (even worse) rehoming the dog.

 

[NonnasBabies]

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Do NOT count on this!! I have some fat BO girls and they can get anywhere's the others can. I've also heard that clipping wings will not prevent them from getting on top a fence if it's low enough!

 

[Chicken.Lytle]

I used to have an Akita that would always try to escape and attack. We kept her on a chain or in a secure run or on a (heavy) lead at all times. Not what I wanted, but she forced us to do it rather than put her down.

I wanted to try one of those overhead wires with an attached lead wire so she could range between trees, but there were not trees that she could not destroy within a couple months. *sigh*

 

[savingdogs]

Well since this thread has been revived I'll give an update.

I clipped all the wings of the birds and they can't seem to escape. We also tether Bandit, the chicken eater, out in a different yard when she has her outside time, but she is generally an inside dog now. We haven't lost any further chickens. I've also spent some time training Bandit and I think she at least understands that I do not approve of chicken-attack.

I see how the chicken-around-the neck would be aversion therapy, but I don't think I want to smell rotten chicken or wash that smell off of her. That just sounds too gross!

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

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Haha, agreed! Glad everything got sorted out!

 

[theFox]

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Don't forget those feathers will regrow so keep an eye on them. Some of them may also discover how to compensate and fly the coop so to speak.