My dog chewed a hole in the coop

[BYCLover]

Hi all,
I need some serious advice on how to dog-proof our newly built coop. We just built it and the chickens haven't even been in there a week yet. I thought it was predator proof, we even spent the extra money to buy hardware cloth. omg, we spent forever building that thing from scratch (no plans), and our dog in literally chewed a hole in the door already. The chickens were not harmed since I fortunately got there in time but geez, honestly I don't know what to do other than install a steel door on the thing. We haven't really any other problems with her. She's a sweet dog and a great guardian, so I'd rather not re-home her if I can (we got her from the shelter a while back and I'd feel terrible re-homing her). But...I'm beginning to get the feeling I need to choose between the dog or the chickens. :-( that's a really hard choice. Any better solution that doesn't cost a mint? (I'd do the chicken tied on the neck, but we live in a suburban area and I don't think my neighbors would like that)

 

[blucoondawg]

My chicken door is steel, I am going to buy a regular steel service door for the human door on my coop when one goes on sale. I am still hoping my dog can eventually be trusted with the birds, it takes time and training. I wouldn't ever get rid of my dog because it gets in trouble with the chickens, I would find a way to keep them seperated, if that means no free ranging then so be it, I enjoy chickens but the dog was here first.

 

[centrarchid]

I would invest in training dog not to mess with birds, or at least coop if birds not free-ranged. That has possibility of turning a negative into a positive. Try spraying an oily solution of cayane or chili pepper on coop and let dog have another go at it. Also try confining dog next to to coop, ideally with you present at first to make so chickens are not so much of a novelty. Discipline dog whenever improper attention directed at birds.

 

[blucoondawg]

A training collar is also a good start to training the dog to avoid the birds or coop, if it's not too stubborn of a dog that may be a quick easy lesson.