My dog chasing chickens. --solved!

[tasymo]

We had the same problem with my Son's Pomeranian/Dashund mix, Bradley. He absolutely LOVES chasing my Girls, they hate it. We installed a zip line for the dog. Now he can run around, but the Chickens are smart enough to avoid his territory. In fact, shortly after it was put up and the dog was attached, two of my hens walked up to the point where they were just out of reach and gave poor Bradley a MAJOR talking to. It was quite funny, watching their indignant attitude during the rant, and their satisfied air went they stomped away to go about thier business.

 

[laughaha]

The hose spray is great and easy to combine with the "mine" command. Just say MINE before spraying with the hose. Your min pin will get to the point that it will associate the mine command with being sprayed by water.

 

[newchik715]

I use Cesar Milan for my blue heeler. Works well. But I do the bite and dominance along with the pssst sound. The little dog is afraid of the chickens. Glad to hear it worked out for you. I do not think I would trust your dog alone with the chickens though.....

 

[gryeyes]

Here's my former chicken killer, Zorro. He's nearly 12 years old. The chickens he killed were adolescents, not all grown up. Now that the chickens are certainly taller than him, and when they fluff up they're "bigger," the positive reinforcement tactics and occasional firm "No!" (with one or two instances where I bowled him over with my foot at the same time), he is no longer chasing them. I also use the hose to spray him, if necessary.

I'm still not going to relax my vigilance, though. Zorro is a clever little fellow.

 

[floridamel]

Quote:
I agree that no matter how well behaved she appears, I wouldn't trust her 100%. But, the chickens are much bigger than her now (they are 4 months old), and despite us clipping their wings, they can still fly, so I am not too worried. We don't leave the dogs outside when we are not home anyway, so we are always around when they are all are sharing the yard.

gryeyes - I enjoyed the picture!

Here's a pic I took a few weeks ago of Kiwi behaving with the chickees in the background

 

[MareeZoCool]

My husband found a broken fishing rod................ just a quick flick through the air, NO Touching! ALL of my chickens & dogs seem to re-act immediately to that "whipping" noise. No one gets hurt, but DH gets all the attention he wants immediately. "SPARE THE ROD"? no way! use it or lose your mind!

 

[columbiacritter]

When I first got my chickens and ducks it didn't take long to convince my male greyhound they were MINE not his and touching them was very, very bad. Never had to hit, just a raised voice is enough for him. But my female greyhound was recouping from a badly broken leg and on a leash for months. She watched the birds, but seemed to ignore them. We learned when she was finallly allowed to be leash free she was just biding her time. Thankfully she was still moving slow so no one got nabbed. She took several weeks to become chicken trustworthy, especially when she thought we weren't looking. She never hurt one, but she sure wanted to for a while.

They were both completely chicken safed when our huge Cochin rooster got his first surge of hormones and started going after the dogs and cat when he thought they were to close to his women. The rooster is long gone, but htey remember those talons!

 

[Cynthias chicks]

We have 2 Cavaliers and a Dane. Last night we came home to 5 dead chickens all over the yard. The Dane got the gate open and it was a free for all from there! It was devastating! Other than ensuring that the dogs never get in that area, I don't know what to do now!

 

[Beekissed]

You could try doing some one on one training with each dog on chickens...training is the only thing that will stop that. Now that they have a good taste of the fun of chasing and killing chickens, it will be much harder but still worth the effort. I wouldn't get a whole flock anymore until you've gotten a few old birds for training purposes...unwanted roosters are good for that...and trained those dogs so well that they won't even look at a chicken, even when you are not around.

It can be done...others are doing it, you can too.

 

[GuppyTJ]

We have 2 Cavaliers and a Dane. Last night we came home to 5 dead chickens all over the yard. The Dane got the gate open and it was a free for all from there! It was devastating! Other than ensuring that the dogs never get in that area, I don't know what to do now!

Cynthias Chicks,

Were the 3 dogs trained to not hurt/chase the chickens prior to this? I think it would help us help you if we knew at what point you are with training the dogs. Try to give some details on the current situation with each dog individually as every dog is different and therefore, different things work for different dogs.

In my case, I train dogs for a hobby and have been on the board of several shelters, including one that trains dogs to give away to mobility, seizure and hearing impaired individuals (www.circletail.org) I got to test my skills when I trained my 2 dogs to not hurt my chickens. One is a beagle mutt and the other is a blind Shepard mutt. The Shepard is a killer and has strong predator instincts, it's in his nature to kill little rodents, rabbits, wild turkeys. The Shepard went blind about 3 months (degenerative disease of the rods and cones) before we got the chicks so I expected he would be the bigger challenge to train of the 2 dogs.

The day I brought the chicks home in a box from the farmer's market, I introduced the dogs to them. I used the "these are my chicks, not your chicks" phrase in a stern but not mean voice from the very first moment and then repeatedly for the next several months. I brooded the chicks in the house, which was a very good thing because the dogs had to literally live with them, listening to their chirps and smelling them constantly. When I'd clean the brooder, I'd let the dogs sniff the chicks and I'd repeat the "these are my chicks, not your chicks. Over and over this went on for weeks. My idea was to get them used to the chicks as part of every day living and our household. Whenever either dog would show any kind of excitement like even a little whine, I'd scold them, with "bad dog, these are my chicks, not your chicks." The same if they stared at the brooder or tried to lay near it.

Finally, about 6 weeks later, it was time for the chicks to go out into the coop. I locked the chicks in the coop for 1 week so they would imprint on the coop as home. During this time, the dogs were not allowed to stare in through the hardware cloth at the chicks. They weren't allowed to stalk around outside the coop or any of that. Same phrasing, same correction. When they would lay someplace away from the coop, I'd give them treats.

Then, it was time for the chicks to free range (I have no fence, no run, just a secure coop at night). This was going to be the big challenge for the dogs. I tied them up nearby but within sight of where the chicks would free range. The beagle mutt immediately showed no interest in the chicks. She fell asleep, would stare off at something else. She seemed a little afraid of the chicks at first. Probably, all that "these are my chicks..." made her realize they were off limits to her. The beagle mutt just got it immediately. The chickens were just part of the landscape to her.

The blind Shepard mutt, however, was captivated by the chicks. It was hard for him and for me because he'd "stare" at them and it was difficult to tell at times if he was just trying to figure out where they were by pointing his nose and ears towards them or stalking them. He's a killer, as I mentioned earlier, so I watched his every move. For weeks and weeks every single day, I worked with him but it wasn't working. He was no less obsessed with them. I eventually grew tired of correcting him and rewarding him for ignoring the chickens, then 2 seconds later, he was back to stalking them. I tried teaching him to lay down when ever he was in the vicinity of the chicks or they came near him. I even tried clicker training him with no correction, just positive re-enforcement. He wasn't getting it.

Finally, two things happened. The first is I admit, I resorted to a shock collar. I'd say nothing to him and simply give him a small, mild correction when he'd approach the chickens or stalk them or stare in their direction. He got the message much faster than all the prior positive re-enforcement and negative voice correction I'd given him. Within days, he understood and was showing marked improvement. The second thing that happened is the chickens grew out of that peeping stage and for some reason, that mattered to this dog. He just sort of lost most of his interest once they started clucking instead of peeping. In fact, later, I brought in an additional 5 younger pullets that were still in the peeping stage and the blind Shepard was right back to some prior bad behaviors. Being blind,sound and smell are very important to him. The new chicks smelled different (even I could smell that they smelled different than the others, not bad, just different) and they peeped vs. clucked. Once these new chicks started clucking, again, the blind Shepard sort of lost interest.

Finally, when the chickens were about 16 weeks old, I was to the point where my 2 dogs could both be trusted around my 15 free ranging chickens without any type of correction. This process took a full 4 months of effort on my part and on the part of the dogs to learn to behave. I don't trust the blind Shepard 100%, really, I'm more at 95%. But now, he falls asleep in the hay or in the sun as the chickens wander around. He doesn't stare at them. One of them likes to scratch at his tail when he's laying near by or peck at his nose and he just gets up and moves. Once in awhile, he goes up to the barn by himself when I'm not there. I sneak up there (it's about 1/4 mile from the house) to see what he's doing and he's usually sleeping peacefully as the chickens wander about doing their thing. Or he's wandering about sniffing for something to eat that the chickens have left behind, like an old corn cob or melon rind. As I said, I don't trust him completely and probably never will. But the chickens free range and the dogs wander the farm as farm dogs do. So, this is about as good as I think I can get it to be, given the situation and the personalities involved.

I can say for sure that I did my best to teach him and I think for what he's got to work with and who he is, he's done a really great job. Each dog is different and an individual. What works for one dog may not work for another. If you're being consistent with whatever technique you're trying and you've given it a good amount of time and you see no improvement or progress, try something else. For some dogs, it comes easy, for others, it takes a lot of work.

Finally, one of the best things about investing in your dogs so you can trust (or nearly trust!) them with your chickens is that most dogs are pretty good at predator patrol. Both of my dogs run off nearly everything that comes near the barn. I free range on the border of 3,000 acres of Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky. Loads of predators live in these woods. The dogs even have different barks for different predators. I can tell if it's a coyote they're running off or a deer, for example. Despite any lack of trust I have for my blind dog with my chickens, I trust him enough now and know he's a big part of helping me keep the predators away from my chickens.

Just sharing my story and experiences,
Guppy