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

[Nslangton]

Unfortunately once a dog kills it is a hard habit to stop. I don't agree with hitting dogs either, but what were you to do. If I caught one of my dogs in the act, I would have done the same thing. My current dogs are 4, 6, & 8 all born and raised here. I have never hit any of them, but just last week, my black lab got a boot in the chest. She raced for the bus driver with hair up. I grabbed her collar and she turned and growled at me. Immediately I put the side of my boot to her chest reminding her I am the boss and her behavior is unacceptable. In a split second what are you to do. The behavior needs to be corrected immediately. You cant reenact that situation. One minute later she was back to licking me and wagging her tail. There was no setback in her training. One smack isn't gonna teach a dog that you cause pain when they are loved all day every day. All of this dog whisperer stuff is pretty amusing to me. They leave so much of how they really get results out of the filming. You are not going to get the same results with every dog in the world. A few years back a famous horse whisperer held a clinic on hands free training. The finished tape made it seem that this new technique worked on all horses all of the time. What they didn't include was the techniques he used off camera and lets just say they were way off camera to make the horse do what he wanted on film. So don't stress out over one smack to the dog I am sure he was not near as devestated as you finding your hens dead. I feel bad that you rescued this dog and now there is a problem. My only advice is to keep the dog away from your chickens. You did the best you could for him, but a dog needs to run around and not be chained all day.

 

[FireTigeris]

That's not the same as taking an already dead bird away from a dog and beating the dog with it...

what they see is you waked up, took their kill, and caused pain.

We were not talking about this dog being caught with teeth around a living chicken that was than a dead chicken...

besides training on leash and leash corrections are not 'hands off' or non physically punished- it is just short and quick.

 

[Nslangton]

That's not the same as taking an already dead bird away from a dog and beating the dog with it...

what they see is you waked up, took their kill, and caused pain.

We were not talking about this dog being caught with teeth around a living chicken that was than a dead chicken...

besides training on leash and leash corrections are not 'hands off' or non physically punished- it is just short and quick.

Ok I understand, I just feel bad for her because she tried to save a homeless dog, her poor chicks were killed, and while reading this thread It seemed that she was being kicked while down. I don't think she should be treated as a vicious dog beater, thought she could use a little encouragement. Love this site and am so thankful to everyone for teaching me so much. I Only want friends and don't want to upset anyone.

 

[FireTigeris]

If I did something inappropriate to my animals that I'm seeking advice on, I'd want the truth-

Lets say I wanted to help a duck out of an egg and took it out and it felt too hot to me so I put it cold water or something silly- I would want everyone to tell me that was silly and might have hurt the duck.

I understand doing something as punishment the second the behavior is presented (leash correction), I also understand us imperfect humans getting angry and doing something we shouldn't have (dumping the cat on the floor when it jumps up with claws, not holding on the the new cockatiel that was biting me because she needed a wing trim and having to chase her around for hours, screaming at the dog who should have been let out hours ago)

It happens to all of us.

 

[CitySilkies88]

I would never expect a once feral dog (no matter how tame/well trained now) not to kill chickens or any other prey type of animal. It's unfair of you to expect that.

I have three of the most gentle well trained dogs. But I would never EVER trust them loose around my chickens. I also live in the city where there are leash laws and I don't have a fenced in yard. So when my dogs are outside they are always supervised and each is on a long tie out (I love cable runs).

I wouldn't CHAIN this dog. But look up different cable run/tie out options some give yards and yards of length.

Also important and as others have stated...A dog (especially a prey driven dog) needs ALOT of exercise. And no just roaming the property does not count.

I don't want to seem hateful. I am very sorry that you lost chickens. But you were the one at fault not the dog.