My Dog broke into Henhouse to sleep with the Chicks... need advice!

[chicknerd]

Our cocker spaniel, also a retriever dog, loves the chicks. I could see her sleeping with them as well. They have been her babies since the day we brought them home. I KNOW she would never hurt them. Even by accident. She can poke her head into the pen or brooder and they act as if it is nothing special.
My goofy 110 lb Great Pyr is another story. She accidentally killed three a few weeks ago. Totally by accident and she felt so bad - she was only trying to play. She simply does not know her own size. The Great Pyr loves to guard the dogs and I have to let her check in on them in the morning and at night or SHE WILL NOT BUDGE from their brooders. She will not go to bed until she sees they are safe. During the day outside she comes running if the girls start squawking or making a racket. So she has the guarding down pat, but I cant even think about letting them free range with her, at least until they are much older and bigger. She is just too big and too lovable.

BTW - we reinforced our chicken wire on our portable chicken pen/coop with 2'x4' heavy gauge wire.

Deb

 

[Bird Collector]

Hi Sue, It can work out as you said with work. I have 4 dogs and 6 cats and they all get along. I have a fairly large shepard/chow mix who is my flock keeper, one pure dachshound and a dach/beagle mix and one that there is no telling. I took each one out on a leash and watched how they intially reacted to the chickens and if there was any concern I just tugged back on the leash. In time the chickens became like plants in the yard and nothing of interest. Two of the cats love to sleep in the coop with the chickens and the chickens don't mind. That is until one was sleeping in a nesting box that needed to be used. The cat lost out.

Now they all free range when I am home. Good luck and enjoy.

 

[elmo]

Quote:
Gauge is a measure of the thickness of wire. Somewhat confusingly, the lower the number, the thicker the wire. Thus, 14 gauge wire is thicker than 19 gauge wire.

Wire spacing is different. You can have wire with 1/2" inch spacing (the spaces formed by the vertical and horizontal wires) in different gauges.

 

[CityChook]

Well, it's a sweet story. I'm glad that no one was hurt. I have a lab, too, and she is totally reliable with the chickens. It sounds like your girl will be quite trainable. Slow, steady and consistent wins the race. Regardless, it sounds like this is a wake up call to strengthen your coop.

 

[Jeeper1540]

my dog was good about chickens. he doesnt bother them, or chase them, or break into the coop to sleep with them (lol). he is a dog and i think he thinks about eating one, but he knows they are my animals and he doesnt bother them. actually, when we are not at home i put him outside to watch that nothing gets our birds. your dog sounds like he likes the birds and will be good with them, but dogs are strange sometimes and he might try to get one, you never know.

 

[Siler]

Labs are excellent to have around birds since they have the instinct to retrieve and not kill. That is unless it's not right in the head, but the way you explain your rescue dog I'd say she's trying to be a mother dog and will take care of them. There are videos online of such things. I would worry about her accidentally crushing one as she lays down in such a confined space. I think it's cute, but at the same time I'd be thinking about all the poop she's laying in and around. I'm a neat freak in the house and worry about poop coming in the home even though I do raise the babies in my house.

I have a Black Lab/Pitt or American Bulldog mix and he's wonderful with my girls. Occasionally the urge to chase comes in with the Pitt or American Bulldog part of him, but we stop him before it escalates. He's never hurt anyone and at 3yrs old we don't expect him to get worse now. We expect him to start calming down from here on out.

I think she'll make a great protector, but she's also beginning to obsess over them so I'd break her of that before it gets worse. Give her something else to do to take her mind off of them. JMO

 

[PriceFamilyFarms]

I'm still looking for the right breed of dog to get for our family that will get along with chickens. We have a barn cat (well, a stray that decided to call our place home) and she does very well with the chickens...evens naps with the runner duck.

I have thought about a springer spaniel - I used to own one that was a springer/St. bernard mix and he was the best animal in the world - soft mouth, gentle disposition, only heard him bark once!

Sorry, got off topic there...

I think it depends on the actual animal, not the breed. Watch them closely and see what happens. They just might end up best friends!

 

[kimb]

yikes - dunno whats more scary: how easily she got in or that she was in

...

glad everyone was safe ... ! ...

as for the dogs interest in the chicks - have you ever had her on a leash with the chicks free? ... my dog "appears" to be very concerned when her chickens are penned - she'll stare at the chicks if they're in a pen, but free range flying around her she's perfectly content to cohabitate very well

I think it's healthy to never quite totally trust a predator to be around prey - but they might be fine under your supervision to mingle together

... of course I would start with the dog on leash and the chicks free ...

Good Luck!

 

[Wolfwoman]

Quote:
No, they're programmed to RETRIEVE dogs, hence the name. If they maimed and did what it took to kill a bird they wouldn't be fit for human consumption, so, they have very soft mouths that hardly disturb a feather when brought back.

To answer the question, she seems quite trainable, go at it slow and see how she progresses

 

[bobbi-j]

Quote:
No, they're programmed to RETRIEVE dogs, hence the name. If they maimed and did what it took to kill a bird they wouldn't be fit for human consumption, so, they have very soft mouths that hardly disturb a feather when brought back.

To answer the question, she seems quite trainable, go at it slow and see how she progresses

We had a chocolate labrador RETRIEVER several years ago. One day when I was working outside, he showed up from our little pond area carrying a very confused blue-winged teal. The bird was alive, just looking around. Not a mark on it. Locked it up to call our neighbor who is our local waterfowl expert. Before the neighbor got there, the dog came back from the pond. He was holding his mouth funny, and grass was hanging out of it. So, held my hand under his mouth and told him to "drop it". He deposited two INTACT duck eggs into my hand! Wish I could say that we incubated them, but didn't have any equipment or broody hens to do so at the time...