My dog is a chicken eater, don't know what to do

[Tonyroo]

I'm thinking this is the part I'm misunderstanding. I don't believe the dog has a fence. The way I read it is that the dog gets to run loose and broke through a chicken pen.

I agree, there was no clarification on where and how the dog was situated while the owner was tending the chickens.

 

[Brooks_]

The way I read it is that the dog gets to run loose and broke through a chicken pen

That's the way I read it too. More pen security.

 

[Folly's place]

Fencing! And if your dog can get into the chicken pen, so can anyone else.
Electric fencing is great, if it's legal where you live. And your dog might be trainable, but time spent will be necessary, with the dog on leash and expect it to take real effort on your part. And good fencing for your birds and your dog.
Mary

 

[cherrynberry]

1.) I have a free range pen for my chickens. Penning they up does not mean they are trapped. They have plenty of land to stay in.
2) I teach the chickens right when they move out to NOT fly over the fence. If they still do, I clip their wings. How do I teach them? Its quite funny actually Whenever I see them on the fence (which is about 5ft tall), I make loud noises like a crazy person (which triggers the smallest dog/MY dog). The little terrier mix then runs up to the gate and puts her teeny weeny hands on the gate. Then, I run up to the chicken and block his/her eyes.. I do not touch the chicken, just block their eyes from the sides of their face. This scares them, as they cannot see past my hands. Then, I take my hands away and the bird flies down.


Out of 3 dogs, 2 do not kill chickens, 1 semi herds them/helps me, 1 will try to kill them any chance she gets, and NONE have killed a bird, EVER. We have a terrier mix (8-9 lbs), a husky mix (40-50lbs), and a border collie (40-45lbs). The terrier mix is the one who helps me catch the chickens. She is a people pleaser. When I am chasing a chicken, she goes on the other side and helps me corner them. She receieved the MOST training with chickens.

In the beginning, I sat with her on my lap and taught her obedience. She doesn't get off of my lap UNLESS I say so. I would sit in the chicken area and do this everyday or almost everyday, for about 3 weeks. Afterwards, while she was still a puppy, I started letting her out on the ground to stay around the chickens. She follows me everywhere and has really taken a hint on to my schedule and she knows what to do. Now, whenever she sees a chicken on the fence, she runs to the fence and puts her hands on the gate. Its like a drill for her. She never attacks a chicken, she never even touches them. Unless I am catching a bird, she is actually a little afraid of the chickens. Mainly because a broody hen attacked her (the dog) a few months ago. She also doesn't eat chicken poop.

 

[NatJ]

just barely a year old, and we didn't socialize her very much with chickens when she was younger, and now we're worried it's too late.

It is not too late to train the dog.

I do not know whether you will ever be able to trust the dog completely loose around chickens, but you can definitely make things better than they are now.

Just training the dog to obey you can help quite a lot. For example, if you tell her to sit and she sits, she cannot be chasing chickens while sitting!

Late August she caught and killed one of my Australorps while we were gone. We tried to tie the hen to her neck, but she got it off and ate more of her. It was a mess.

I have seen almost exactly this story a few times before-- tieing the dead chicken to the dog does not teach the dog to leave chickens alone, but it does let the dog eat more of this chicken.

I have had all my chickens confined in their coops since then, except sometimes in the evenings when I watch over them while they play in the chicken yard (which is fenced off from the rest of the yard, and we do our best to keep Rosie out of).

If you do your best to keep Rosie out of the chicken yard, does it work?
If not, I suggest that you improve the fence of the chicken yard.

Also, consider putting a leash on the dog and tieing the leash to a sturdy belt around your waist. (Or run the belt through the handle loop of the leash, before you put the belt on.)
That lets the dog spend time outdoors with you, prevents her from running and chasing chickens, and lets you grab either the dog or the leash at any time if she misbehaves.

Today I had one rooster isolated from the others in a small pen. But in the matter of a few hours Rosie broke into the chicken yard and broke his pen open. This time she ate him pretty fast and all I found was feathers.

I think you really need to improve the chicken yard and maybe the pen inside it as well. If your own dog can get in, so can a stray dog, or a coyote, or probably a fox or raccoon.

Rosie doesn't know that killing chickens is wrong.

So start by keep her on a leash, or with a secure fence between her and the chickens, or inside the house, or any other arrangements that make it completely impossible for her to get to the chickens. That will keep her from doing it again while you work on training.

Also, make her practice obedience (heel, sit, come, and so forth) on a leash, in a place where she can see and smell chickens but not reach them (like outside the chicken yard, AND on a leash.) This makes her obey YOU, even when the exciting chickens are right there. It does not directly teach her that chicken-killing is wrong, but it does start to teach her that she CAN control herself even when sort-of near the chickens.

If she gets really good at obeying on leash, outside the fence, you could start to work her off-leash outside the fence, and on-leash inside the chicken yard.

I'm guessing you can train her to leave the chickens alone while you are present and paying attention, but it might take months or even a year or more of steady work to reach that point. Whether you can ever trust her unsupervised, I have no idea, but certainly not in the next few months.

Please help, we don't know what to do. I've heard mixed results about shock colors.

I have also heard mixed results, and so I would probably try basic training methods first (leash and normal collar.)

I might consider an invisible fence (shock collar that activates when the dog goes near a certain boundary), and put that right along the chicken yard fence. The shock might be enough to keep her from destroying the physical fence, and the physical fence will keep her from running right through the area that shocks her (my former neighbor had a dog that ran right through his invisible fence all the time-- he had learned that once he went far enough, the shock stopped.)

 

[TheOddOneOut]

It is not too late to train the dog.

I do not know whether you will ever be able to trust the dog completely loose around chickens, but you can definitely make things better than they are now.

Just training the dog to obey you can help quite a lot. For example, if you tell her to sit and she sits, she cannot be chasing chickens while sitting!


I have seen almost exactly this story a few times before-- tieing the dead chicken to the dog does not teach the dog to leave chickens alone, but it does let the dog eat more of this chicken.



If you do your best to keep Rosie out of the chicken yard, does it work?
If not, I suggest that you improve the fence of the chicken yard.

Also, consider putting a leash on the dog and tieing the leash to a sturdy belt around your waist. (Or run the belt through the handle loop of the leash, before you put the belt on.)
That lets the dog spend time outdoors with you, prevents her from running and chasing chickens, and lets you grab either the dog or the leash at any time if she misbehaves.


I think you really need to improve the chicken yard and maybe the pen inside it as well. If your own dog can get in, so can a stray dog, or a coyote, or probably a fox or raccoon.



So start by keep her on a leash, or with a secure fence between her and the chickens, or inside the house, or any other arrangements that make it completely impossible for her to get to the chickens. That will keep her from doing it again while you work on training.

Also, make her practice obedience (heel, sit, come, and so forth) on a leash, in a place where she can see and smell chickens but not reach them (like outside the chicken yard, AND on a leash.) This makes her obey YOU, even when the exciting chickens are right there. It does not directly teach her that chicken-killing is wrong, but it does start to teach her that she CAN control herself even when sort-of near the chickens.

If she gets really good at obeying on leash, outside the fence, you could start to work her off-leash outside the fence, and on-leash inside the chicken yard.

I'm guessing you can train her to leave the chickens alone while you are present and paying attention, but it might take months or even a year or more of steady work to reach that point. Whether you can ever trust her unsupervised, I have no idea, but certainly not in the next few months.


I have also heard mixed results, and so I would probably try basic training methods first (leash and normal collar.)

I might consider an invisible fence (shock collar that activates when the dog goes near a certain boundary), and put that right along the chicken yard fence. The shock might be enough to keep her from destroying the physical fence, and the physical fence will keep her from running right through the area that shocks her (my former neighbor had a dog that ran right through his invisible fence all the time-- he had learned that once he went far enough, the shock stopped.)

 

[McChooky]

1.) I have a free range pen for my chickens. Penning they up does not mean they are trapped. They have plenty of land to stay in.
2) I teach the chickens right when they move out to NOT fly over the fence. If they still do, I clip their wings. How do I teach them? Its quite funny actually Whenever I see them on the fence (which is about 5ft tall), I make loud noises like a crazy person (which triggers the smallest dog/MY dog). The little terrier mix then runs up to the gate and puts her teeny weeny hands on the gate. Then, I run up to the chicken and block his/her eyes.. I do not touch the chicken, just block their eyes from the sides of their face. This scares them, as they cannot see past my hands. Then, I take my hands away and the bird flies down.


Out of 3 dogs, 2 do not kill chickens, 1 semi herds them/helps me, 1 will try to kill them any chance she gets, and NONE have killed a bird, EVER. We have a terrier mix (8-9 lbs), a husky mix (40-50lbs), and a border collie (40-45lbs). The terrier mix is the one who helps me catch the chickens. She is a people pleaser. When I am chasing a chicken, she goes on the other side and helps me corner them. She receieved the MOST training with chickens.

In the beginning, I sat with her on my lap and taught her obedience. She doesn't get off of my lap UNLESS I say so. I would sit in the chicken area and do this everyday or almost everyday, for about 3 weeks. Afterwards, while she was still a puppy, I started letting her out on the ground to stay around the chickens. She follows me everywhere and has really taken a hint on to my schedule and she knows what to do. Now, whenever she sees a chicken on the fence, she runs to the fence and puts her hands on the gate. Its like a drill for her. She never attacks a chicken, she never even touches them. Unless I am catching a bird, she is actually a little afraid of the chickens. Mainly because a broody hen attacked her (the dog) a

I would build a good fence before I'd try to train the dog if its a Husky. They have a huge prey drive and have a reputation for being notorious chicken killers. Most dogs only kill chickens, Huskys also eat them. Mine also ate cats so he was re-homed.Everyone who tried to train him not to kill failed so eventually he was kept in a large chain link fence which is where he lived until he died from old age.

 

[Catastrophic]

I have an Aussiedoodle dog, just barely a year old, and we didn't socialize her very much with chickens when she was younger, and now we're worried it's too late. Her name is Rosie. She is a little over 40 pounds.

She tries to "play" with our cat, but he can take care of himself. She had one close call with my OEGB hen but I stopped her.

Late August she caught and killed one of my Australorps while we were gone. We tried to tie the hen to her neck, but she got it off and ate more of her. It was a mess.

I have had all my chickens confined in their coops since then, except sometimes in the evenings when I watch over them while they play in the chicken yard (which is fenced off from the rest of the yard, and we do our best to keep Rosie out of).

Today I had one rooster isolated from the others in a small pen. But in the matter of a few hours Rosie broke into the chicken yard and broke his pen open. This time she ate him pretty fast and all I found was feathers.

Both of these losses weren't chickens I loved, and they don't matter to my breeding programs, but that's not the point.

Rosie doesn't know that killing chickens is wrong. But if it came down to it, I would choose my chickens over her. But my whole family loves her (including myself) and we've had her since she was a puppy. And we bought her for over $1000 to breed her, and have spent a couple hundred on her since.

Please help, we don't know what to do. I've heard mixed results about shock colors.

Thanks in advace!

I have a Aussie And he had the exact same problem with poultry. I bought a shock collar and it really helped him improve. And now he doesn’t even chase them anymore.

 

[Pensmaster]

It’s been my experience shock collars don’t work. Dogs hair is too thick to bother them.
Or my dogs just didn’t care.
Cyclone fencing with chicken wire perimeter on the inside of the cage to keep dog from digging out. Much like you’d do for chicken coop with wire on the outside

 

[McChooky]

It’s been my experience shock collars don’t work. Dogs hair is too thick to bother them.
Or my dogs just didn’t care.
Cyclone fencing with chicken wire perimeter on the inside of the cage to keep dog from digging out. Much like you’d do for chicken coop with wire on the outside