My dogs are demons.

[PeaceMary]

Our single chick from the first clutch was doing great. Her name was Joy. Then our husky killed her. Our second clutch gave us 3 chicks. Stormy, Peekaboo, and the third has yet to be named. Our Malamute ate Peekaboo. I’d have rehomed them both by now if it weren’t for my wife’s intercession. So this happened. I’m not done yet, but this is what I got done today. It will require more posts and I need to move a couple as well. I really didn’t want to section off my backyard. But at this point I had no choice.

Once a dog gets the taste of blood there is no way to retrain it. Put it down. Sorry, but he will kill again and maybe get into other's chickens.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Once a dog gets the taste of blood there is no way to retrain it. Put it down. Sorry, but he will kill again and maybe get into other's chickens.

1. This isn’t true at all. 2. Even if it was, why would you put it down just for being a normal dog when you could literally just rehome it to someone without small animals?

 

[lafinestra66]

It's probably good to remember that chickens are omnivorous too. My hens found a rat or mice nest in a pile of bricks and joyfully snapped up the pinkies and swallowed them whole. Not a pretty sight if you love little newborn animals, but it does keep the rodent population down (which is also my responsibility) and it's part of nature. Chickens doing what chickens do.

Yes, they definitely are! I've seen mine eat a frog or two, no rodents yet.

 

[Gwhite3678]

Once a dog gets the taste of blood there is no way to retrain it. Put it down. Sorry, but he will kill again and maybe get into other's chickens.

Once a dog gets the taste of blood there is no way to retrain it. Put it down. Sorry, but he will kill again and maybe get into other's chickens.

Put the dog down for killing a chicken?! My dogs kill mice, rats, frogs… basically anything they can catch and 100% would kill my chickens if given the chance.. they are dogs who were rescued from the streets and likely ate animals to survive… I would never consider putting them down for doing what is instinctual ..

 

[fluffycrow]

Once a dog gets the taste of blood there is no way to retrain it. Put it down. Sorry, but he will kill again and maybe get into other's chickens.

I think we've lost track of what we're talking about. We're not talking about a ceramic mug you can break or throw away once you're bored of it. We're talking about a dog; a sentient creature that did nothing wrong.

Being a high prey drive dog that has free access to prey animals isn't on the dog

 

[ShrekDawg]

Put the dog down for killing a chicken?! My dogs kill mice, rats, frogs… basically anything they can catch and 100% would kill my chickens if given the chance.. they are dogs who were rescued from the streets and likely ate animals to survive… I would never consider putting them down for doing what is instinctual ..

I think we've lost track of what we're talking about. We're not talking about a ceramic mug you can break or throw away once you're bored of it. We're talking about a dog; a sentient creature that did nothing wrong.

Being a high prey drive dog that has free access to prey animals isn't on the dog

Exactly!!!!

 

[ChirpChirp963]

We introduce our chicks to our Pitbull and Pittie-Kittie from the time the chicks are about 2 days old and they are all friends and look out for each other. We have 44 chickens and turkeys and we have NEVER had an issue with our dog or cat hurting a bird, and they are all free-range and interact outside every day. Here's a video of our "vicious" Pitbull and one of our chicks.

 

[Lisa-Kama]

Whoa, I came late to this thread... so sorry for your loss. We had an Aussie/Lab who would catch our chickens and literally lick the feathers off their backs, but didn't kill them before we could get to them and put them back. A low level "shock" collar trained him to leave the birdies alone (we only really ever needed the BEEP). We have a Cavalier Spaniel who is a born and bred birder, but the chickens are thankfully bigger than her so she just helps herd our escapees and they laugh when she tries to bite them. Then there is our German/Aussie Shepherd mix (Luna)... yeah. She ate all poultry who left their enclosure. And it was always our favorite hand-raised babies who wanted to be with us and came out to see us. There were lots of tears. She caught and killed Kevin, our hand-raised peacock. More tears. And I would roll her over, scruff her, and look her in the eye and tell her what a bad dog she was. But then she looked at me with her beautiful brown eyes and said to me (telepathically) "mom, I'm sorry, I know what I did was wrong... I but I don't know why it was wrong!" She was right. She couldn't help it. So we made higher fences, added net across the top, and clipped our birdies. I tell my flock I can protect them if they stay home... if they come out, you're on your own. We are the only farm in our town who has not lost poultry to predators; our dogs keep them away. But I can't protect them from their protectors. Side note, after Luna turned two (and with more training) she will still eat a rogue chicken if I'm not there to call her off, but mostly she helps herd rogues back into the enclosure. Side side note: Luna has Husky in her. We had two female Husky mixes for years... I will never have another. They are loyal and beautiful, but they are asses with other dogs. They aren't birders by nature, they'd rather run, but they will kill things. Too close to wolves. We found out the hard way that you get a two-for-one bill at the emergency vet when two dogs from one family try to kill each other. And our friend found out the hard way that you don't throw a hambone in the middle of dogs on a camping trip "to see what happens." The huskies took out his pit-bulls hands down and he ended up with a torn up hand. I agree with everyone else... it's not the dogs' fault. It never gets easier to lose a loved birdie... but we love our furry babies too. We as humans have to problem solve and come up with ways to guide our pets and help integrate their instincts into our lives. Hugs!

 

[LydiaB]

It can be incredibly frustrating to make any dog poultry safe. And it’s so hard when they eat your birds. I have LGD. My now 2 year old was SO hard. He would chase and chew any bird he could catch for a solid 1.5 years. Worked with him so much. Penned the birds separately. If any got out they were usually injured. Not always killed, because that wasn’t the motivation. Finally he was chicken safe after so much training. But not duck safe. Kept working with him, using a shock collar and going in the house so he didn’t know I was watching. Finally at 22 months he stopped. Possibly also related to neutering. Some dogs need time to mature. Some dogs are too prey driven and need to stay separate no matter what. Some dogs never kill any bird. My current puppy only licks birds. I still keep her away as much as possible, but one got in with her this week and is still fine. Was soaking wet with slobber but fine.
With a prey driven dog I’d use a two fold approach- yes, fence the birds. But also train the dog. A bird could get out. Training the dog makes that a less dangerous problem. There are many methods. Personally I find a shock collar most effective.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

Once a dog gets the taste of blood there is no way to retrain it. Put it down. Sorry, but he will kill again and maybe get into other's chickens.

Yeah you’re right…we should probably start putting down humans too then…they are absolute monsters! Once they get a taste for chicken nuggets and roast chickens as kiddo’s it’s all over! They never stop wanting more nuggets, roasts and all things chicken! If we don’t put a stop to it pretty soon they will have huge farms full of chickens raised just to satisfy the humans constant hunger for chicken! What’s next they try some filet mignon and start eating the cows too?!!Those blood thirsty humans!

**Sarcasm Disclaimer**