My D'Artagnan is gone! UPDATE

[Moonwalker]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=506635#p506635
I am starting to think maybe it wasn't the dog I thought it was....



My little Red SIlkie Bantum is gone. He disappeared out of the coop yesterday afternoon. All I found were a few feathers inside, nothing outside. I had kept the bantys in the brroder longer because they were so small and just put them out day before yesterday. They were scared of the bigger chicks and were keeping to the corners. I think my dog may have pushed the wire in a couple inches with her nose and made a space in the corner where some body part was sticking out and then pulled it out. Kinda funny not to find any blood on the frame ot any feathers outside the coop. But it WAS a tiny thing, hardly a mouthful. I am just afraid now that if she has figured out that the chickens are FOOD, not just things to chase, she may be more eager to get to them.
SO I moved the coop out to the edge of the yard and fixed her underground fence so she can go all around the coops, but not up to them.Hopefully, this way, she can still deter predators. Since she goes in the house at nite, I will most likely put one of my other dogs out with the collar on.

 

[SpottedCrow]

Darn..I'm so sorry...

 

[Redfeathers]

I'm so sorry. That's a hard loss. I love the name you had chosen him.

 

[Moonwalker]

and he was a sweetie, one of the few of my entire batch that I had actually made a pet out of. GRRR! if I had actually caught the dog in the act and knew 100% that she did it, she would have gotten a LOT worse!

 

[farmgirl53]

I'm really sorry.

I too went out this afternoon to find one of my two sweet aracaunas gone. I did find a bunch of feathers, no blood. I've lost chickens to coyotes before but I haven't lost a chicken for 5 months and one of my dogs WAS outside at the time, I believe. I'd hate to think it was him and don't know why it would be - except that I found him the other day with a headless wild bird.

Do dogs sometimes turn on their own chickens? Or get confused?

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
Yes, sometimes the prey instinct just takes over. Animals don't have the same moral code as humans. When I was a kid we had chickens and dogs. Two dogs lived in the barn. The coop was in the barn also. We never had a problem until one night when the dogs turned to the "dark side." We ended up with about 30 dead birds and about 30 injured. It was gruesome. Dogs are dogs. I love them but they do not think like we do.