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

[eggburritos]

For dog owners who are open minded, check out Cesar Milan's Dog Whisperer show and books. We used some of his training techniques when introducing our chicks to our dog and haven't had any problems. Just a thought. Good luck.

 

[deerman]

Quote:

point is train them....none of this dogs will be dogs

 

[NeeleysAVLChicks]

Quote:
I'm sorry if your feelings were hurt, sometimes the truth does just that, hurts. I wonder how your pain compares to the terror your 10 chickens must of felt. I'm sorry, I may be coming off as harsh, but I'm not exactly sure what you expected others to respond with based on your OP. Dogs will be dogs?

I am sympathetic to dog/chicken issues. When I first got chickens, my old golden retriever and chickens co-habitated peacefully until one day my retriever decided to retrieve a chicken. The chicken lived thankfully, I worked with my dog extensively, changed my setup so everyone would be safe and then we all lived peacefully together until my dog passed from old age.

This is what you do, you LEARN (being the human and supposedly in charge) from your mistakes. Your chickens aren't going to LEARN not to go into the dogs area, you have to make sure they won't. Why haven't you done that yet? Why did it take 10 chicken deaths before you suddenly realize there is an issue here?

I am more than happy to give advice and offer suggestions, but you weren't asking for that in your OP. Either figure out a way to keep everyone safe or give your chickens to someone who will.

Sorry, JMHO. I'm done here.

 

[ellieroo]

Montana Clucker,

if you caught my early post I so was where you are now.Our schnauzer could not resist the chickens saw him try but nope! If a chicken flew in the backyard Finn had them asap! Eventually the Chickens learned the backyard was a no go zone! Sorry and Good Luck! On the other hand neither of my girls cared in the least if the whole flock visited!

 

[savingdogs]

Could we please turn this thread back to dog/chicken safety in general and away from Montana Clucker's situation specifically?

Thank you in advance.

 

[Amyh]

My dog has killed chickens too. I do everything that I can to protect the chickens and now she is trained to leave the big girls alone. They can defend themselves pretty well and she will leave them alone.

She will go after the little ones because they are easy targets. If I have the little chickens out free ranging, then I'm either out there when the dog is outside, or I have the doggy door blocked so that the dog cannot go outside.

Good luck to you. Dogs and chickens can live in harmony if you train them.

 

[ginbart]

This is my dog, no one gets her chickens. BTW, this was just something I made so the chicks could enjoy the day outside. It's long gone and they are in a better cage. As soon as the chicks hatch I take them to her and say look at the babies. I have introduced all my chicks to my dogs. I put them on the floor and watched the dogs with them. If they do something wrong I would just say NO. Now if you have a dog that listens to you it's very easy to train them. This dog could very easy jump the fence here. The dog is 6 years old and I didn't get chickens until 3 years ago so she was full grown when I started. So the saying, you can't teach an old dog new tricks is wrong.

 

[newchickmom]

We have 5 acres outside of town. I have chickens for meat and selling eggs. Last spring (2009) my son thought we needed a dog, so he brought us this TINY little stray puppy (we think a beagle/britany mix) he found in his back yard playing with his german shepherd. My husband agreed to give him a home (but of course, who took care of him?). I let him follow me everywhere. Especially around the chickens. He learned real fast not to go close to the chickens because they peck. (5 times bigger than him). I would set him in the empty water trough when I fed the horses, because I was afraid he would get stepped on. Over the summer, as he grew, the chickens made sure he knew not to chase them. By the end of summer, I could leave him outside unsupervised with no problems. He and the cats became friends and played together.
In the spring, we got meat birds. As soon as they were the same size as the other chickens, I started letting them out to free range a little. I noticed Harvey taking an interest in them. I decided he could no longer be trusted alone with the chickens. One day, my husband left hime outside alone while he was getting ready for work. I came home that day to find 2 dead meat birds and 2 seriously injured and had to dispatch them. After that, Harvey could only be outside on a leash or tie-out. Then he broke his collar and headed straight for the chickens, trying to get in their pen. Another day, I came home and he had slipped out of his collar and had mangled 3 hens and killed another. Soooo mad, I almost got the gun but I decided not to give up yet! I tightened his collar and got him a different type of tie-out. He slipped his collar again but didn't hurt anyone because I caught him right away. At this point, I decided he did not have a very good life so I started looking for a new home for him. Then, about 3 weeks ago, I had put him on the tie-out while I got ready for work. I looked out the back door and he was out by the coop with a chicken in his mouth and chasing another one! He wouldn't even drop it right away when I yelled at him! THAT WAS THE LAST STRAW!!!! I had to catch him and put him in the house. I went back out to assess the damage. I found 1 dying hen and 2 a little roughed up and several in shock. I called my son right then. Told him to come and get Harvey and I went to work after taking care of the hens. (my son had to dispatch 1 when he got there). He had to take him to the shelter, but they said he would find a home fast because he was so friendly.
If it had been my dog that I had for 15 years, I could not have done that! But Harvey had only been around for about a year and I knew from the beginning what might happen. He just could not be trained to leave the chickens alone. I do still miss him some times, but I will not get another dog. I love dogs, but I cannot keep one tied up all the time when we have a fenced yard and I cannot have one that will kill my livestock.
It is a hard decission to make.

 

[savingdogs]

Newchickmom, not all dogs are like that!

That one just had too much prey drive and got the idea of how great chickens taste. They have a hard time forgetting that. Hopefully he found a home in the city at the shelter, away from chickens. As we would say in our rescue group for the dogs, he wasn't a "match" for you.

I have four other dogs who are excellent with the chickens, althought I still supervise. It did take a little work. But the KBD just doesn't have a real need for people so has a low desire to please. There are lots of other breeds that would likely be a bad choice around chickens, too. I would be interested in a thread about what breeds of dogs are the WORST around chickens and why people think so.

 

[jzarabs]

To the OP, my dogs are SERIOUSLY segregated from our chickens! They already have a history of entertaining themselves with poor chickies! I love my dogs and I love my chickens, but I'm VERY careful to seperate the two groups. It's unfortunate that I cannot integrate the groups but at this time my dogs are too old to expect to change, I hope that in the future I can raise chicken friendly pooches to help protect and love my birds but at this point I love my dogs as much as my birds and acknowledge that the two cannot mix! I'm so sorry for your loss!