My dog ate my chicken

[jjredpower]

How do i get my dog to stop eating my chickens. They all roam free together, than out of the blue last week dog eats one. Tied him up and scolded him, he even had a guilty face. Than fine for a week, now he did it again......help

 

[Paganrose]

How long has the dog been around chickens? How old is the dog?

My gut reaction is to pen the dog or the chickens. Some dogs are hard to retrain after getting a taste of blood.

It may be a boredom thing. And a scolding isn't really a good training tactic.

If you want to risk the chickens- You can do what i did to trian our dog when we first got chicks or other small animals. Please note she never showed any signs of aggressive behaviour to any other animal.

We take the leashed dog near the birds- every time it display any interest or excitement of the birds- make a forceful NO, with a (light) tap on the nose and imdently put the dog into a restricted area (for us it was a kennel) for an hour. We only needed to do this twice for our dog when introduced to small animals the first time as a puppy. If the dog displays relaxed behaviour around the birds- give praise and a small treat. Repeat until you are absolutely sure the dog will not harm the chickens. If the dog shows jumping/bitting/lunging for the chickens do not let the dog off leash.

 

[bobbi-j]

Separation at this point would be a good thing. There are a lot of threads here on training dogs to leave chickens alone. Try Paganrose's method and see if that works. If not, try another. If you can't find an effective solution, you'll have to always keep them separate.

 

[jjredpower]

We had the dog as a puppy than he went to my in laws and now he is back as of a couple months he is 18months. Him and our other dog hunt and run and play all day. I hate to have him pinned up and i hate to keep chickens pinned up. He is on chain now. People have said to tie the dead chicken around dogs neck. Wasnt sure if that works?

 

[Paganrose]

At 18 months the dog is still very much in puppy mode- and a couple of months of being around chickens is very little in the scheme of things.
Pen up the dog or the chickens and work on some training....

 

[bobbi-j]

Better to pen up the dog or the chickens than to have dead chickens. I agree with Paganrose - this dog is still very much a pup and needs training. What kind of dog is it?

 

[jjredpower]

He is mixed maybe but maybe has so pit, he has a big box head,wide chest and lots of muscle. But hes super sweet. ....and never even looked interested when they all come filling out of the run....