My dog and 29 chickens

[Verboten]

Hello,
I am very confused about attitudes toward canine predation of domestic livestock - If it is your neighbors dog that kills your chickens then it should be shot or confined- If it is yours - then it is “in its nature” and nearly “bygones and all“???
Imagine that the OP was your neighbor whose dog killed all of the chickens in their coop (and surely yours next) - would you really be telling them that “dogs will be dogs”?
The poster is trying to take responsibility for HER animal! Just letting things be (as IMO she has portrayed her husband as doing) is horribly irresponsible.
Assuming that the poster lives in a somewhat rural area (because of the 30 chickens) these are the choices now: Her dog will now either have to be chained (which is obviously considered cruel for such a noble creature) , confined to a small run (because making a large area that a dog can not escape from is expensive to impossible) , or kept inside for its entire life! (yes I do mean no “supervised” free time - the fastest humans can not out run all but the most unfit dogs. (**The quality of life that the dog could have enjoyed at one point in time is G-O-N-E**) or lastly, the best thing for the animal if it is to stay alive is to be rehomed (as others have said) in an area free of poultry and livestock - which is actually pretty hard to find in some areas.
TALK to your husband and reach an agreement about what to do! If you agreed to get married and have been together for any length of time then you surely should be able to overcome this. Whatever you decide I hope that the dog is fixed as this behavior should not be considered normal. This is a very sad situation already and it should not be allowed to continue (per the post her rooster had already been attacked 3 times) or escalate (I don‘t know how much money the OP has but other peoples‘ animals can get really expensive).
Best of luck to you. Sometimes there are no easy answers.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Quote:
It doesn't confuse me one bit. If *I* have chosen to keep both dogs and poultry (which I have), then it is my responsibility to keep them absolutely separated, and to keep the birds absolutely beyond the reach of the dogs.

It is ALSO my responsibility (in my mind, even MORE so) to keep my dogs confined to my own property, and to ensure that they never, ever have the opportunity to roam the neighborhood, to trespass, annoy, or harrass my neighbors and their animals.

Likewise, if someone ELSE's dog is on MY property (which has happened here, despite the fact that we have a 6' chain-link fence around the entire perimeter), then I have every right to protect my own animals. So far, the worst a trespassing dog has gotten from us has been yelling and the occasional zing from an air-rifle pellet to the hindquarters. However, if the situation were escalated, and it was a matter of life or death of my livestock or pets, I wouldn't hesitate to use deadly force to defend them. The law in this area supports that, and offers compensation for livestock destroyed by dogs belonging to others, sometimes at 7 times the value of that livestock as a punitive measure.

To the person who said that "you can't outrun" a dog who's chasing poultry, I'd suggest that that's a dog who never had a solid "recall" trained into it, and that, again, is the owner's responsibility, and not the fault of the dog. When people ask me what is the #1 MOST important command you can teach a dog, my answer is, unequivocally, a solid recall. You should have a command that STOPS THAT DOG IN ITS TRACKS no matter what it's doing, and it should be the very first thing you work on with any puppy.

All of my dogs have a high prey drive, and in most of them, it's what I would consider extremely high. But there's not a one of them that I can't "call off" when they're after something.

 

[Cetawin]

well said ninjapoodles

 

[DuckyBoys]

I am so sorry about your loss. I can almost relate - we had a big scare today when I forgot to barricade the barn door like I ususally do and 2 of my dogs got into the pasture with my 4 week old giant dewlap toulouse goslings. They didn't do anything but chase a little but boy I was freaked.

I don't knoww hat I would have done if they had been killed - but I'm sure my kids would not have been happy aterwards.