My Dog...He was being So good??? advice plz

[MakNat]

this dog has been in the woods for almost a year. Back in dec we tamed him and got him fixed. he has been in the house with our dogs and running free with all the poultry. For almost a year and he is only about a year and a half, seems young enough to train. all of a sudden he has killed 4 young chickens, all at once and I think he ate one. will I have to get rid of him or keep him on a chain. I love him but don't want a chained dog

 

[True Grit]

I agree I wouldn't want a dog on a chain either. I would find him a new home.

 

[FireTigeris]

Beating the dog teaches one thing, "you cause pain".

Dogs 'forget' their manner much some like teenager humans do, this occurres between 1-2 years old. Dogs need retraining and refresher courses.

There might have been something else going on, if you free feed instead of kenneling each dog separately for each to eat the other dogs/animals may have eaten all his food, something else may have startled the chickens and cased prey- chase, something else might have killed them (unless you saw the dastardly deed) and he took advantage of the meal.

I use leash training.

My greyhound on a leash is perfect, off a leash is ok as long as she can see me, off the leash without supervision she is still a danger to my birds.

From Chickens​

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I agree with FireTigeris: Beating the dog teaches one thing, "you cause pain".

I have a dog that I trust when I'm outside with her. I was nearby and heard a lot of commotion. She was chasing a young chicken. I was surprised because she's always so good with them when she's with me. Now I wouldn't leave any dog unattended with the chickens.

You're better off trying to find a home for the dog, no dog should live it's life on a chain. Sorry

 

[mfowlers]

If the dog seems smart and responds well to training, maybe try the Dog Whisperer techniques? You can train a dog to leave the chickens alone, even when you are inside. I trained my dog by introducing them early on, and it seemed to understand the chickens are pets, not prey. We took a couple of afternoons to train the neighbor's dog, too, since he's always over here, playing with my kids. I've had some pretty dumb/independent dogs before, that didn't respond well to training, before we owned chickens. We had to adopt out those dogs to different homes. Not an easy decision to make....It def. depends on the dog.

 

[gickelvolk]

Sorry about your chickens..... It's a bad deal all around.

• NEVER beat your dog!!!!
• Show/Prove to your dog what their place is in the pack!!
• Make them lay down
• Firmly lay across the dog's shoulder/neck: The dog will naturally snarl and throw a fit for a few minutes..... DON'T BACK OFF OR YOU LOSE YOUR PLACE IN THE PACK ORDER!!
• When the dog ceases to snarl and yap, wait another few seconds then allow them to show you their appreciation (nose licks, ear nips, shoulder rubbing). These are signals of resignation to your dominance in the pack.
• Praise good behavior, chide bad behavior. You do not have to strike a dog, a firm voice will generally do.

It's neither cruel, nor mean. When the dog understands who YOU are, they willingly do your bidding and most importantly they will show you respect.
It's a bonding thing natural to the dog, and necessary to keep order.

When the respect has been attained, training will be much less troublesome.
They will understand what is allowed, and what is off-limits/restricted......

 

[MakNat]

I REALLY WORDED IT WRONG. I walked up on him and was so shocked at what I saw, a pile of dead chickens. So I grabbed one and smacked him with it a couple of times. He snarled and ran away! I didn't continually beat him. And I know its horrible, but I was SO FREAKIN MAD. I am going to work with him. Just don't understand. Hes been left outside with the other dogs and the poultry free ranging for hours upon hours. I feed the very well and they can't get too bored as we live on a dead end road so they run free. And no it wasn't another dog, it was him.

 

[brandislee]

I totally understand where you're coming from. I also agree with everyone else about hitting dogs- it's never appropriate. But last week my 4 month old puppy (big puppy) killed one of my bantams. I got mad and smacked him on the nose. It was wrong and I know that, and I won't do it again, but it's hard to think rationally when you're that mad. Especially because once I calmed down I realized it was 100% my fault- he's a puppy, and I shouldn't have let him out of my sight, but he had been so good with the chickens so far that I got overly confident. I know everyone says once they've tasted chicken it's over, you can't train them NOT to kill them, but I refuse to believe it. I mean, in my case he's still a puppy, and he knows his place in our pack (the dominance thing above, btw, is really good advice- dogs who respect you like a pack leader are much more likely to listen... I know people think Cesar is "mean" or whatever, but his methods make the most sense to me because he treats dogs like dogs, not people, and communicates with them in ways that make sense to dogs, which is why they are so effective so fast... anyway, I digress...), and it only happened because I couldn't see him (and he couldn't see me) and he's still learning. I feel that I can counteract whatever positive reinforcement he got from killing the chicken by maintaining our pack order and showing him that the chickens are mine and he isn't to touch them.

And, of course, I won't be letting him around them unattended until he is 3, which is when a dog is considered an adult (0-1 is puppy, 1-3 is like the teenager phase), and then only if he proves himself worthy of my trust. I won't chain him- he ignores them when he's with me, and I'll just make sure either he comes inside with me any time the chickens are free ranging.

No, I have no advice to give- at his age I wouldn't be as faithful that this event could be overcome. I just wanted to say I understand what you're going through!

 

[dainerra]

what you did, however, is cause a huge setback in your relationship with the dog. It doesn't matter if you smacked him twice or if you jumped on top and whaled on him for 10 minutes, the end result is the same.
Letting your dogs "run free" doesn't mean that they aren't bored. It means that you are expecting them to entertain themselves AND stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, a dog's definition of "fun" is a human's definition of "trouble"

 

[FireTigeris]

Hitting an animal with anything is beating... sorry your temper got the better of you, at least he has human bite inhibition- that is he didn't rip your arm off...if he's leash trained you can retrain him, but you'll have to rebuild trust first.