My dogs+my chicks=???

[miraclz5]

I think it is entirely an individual dog thing.....our 3 year old collie had never seen a chick in her life when we brought our chicks home 3 weeks ago! The moment we walked in the door with them, she adopted them as her own! She is the ultimate "mother hen" and alerts us if one of the chicks even peeps funny, she puts herself between anyone and the brooder box....and was NOT happy when we had company earlier today who were checking out "her" chicks!

On the other hand, my brother's dogs killed nine of his chicks last summer!

I think it is an all or nothing kind of thing....I think dogs are either okay with chickens or not...I don't think training is enough....I think it born in any given dog....just my opinion!

 

[WalkerH]

I know when I brought mine home my American Eskimo Dog adopted them as her's. But then when 5 weeks came all she wanted to do was kill them. I let my three other dogs out because they all know the leave it command and they will drop to the ground if I tell them. The other dog, well I just make sure she doesn't get anywhere near.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

I love my dogs. I love my chickens. And I keep the two totally separate.

 

[Wildflower_VA]

Quote:
That's because Cavaliers are hunting dogs--BIRD hunting dogs. Parakeet = bird. Chick = bird. I wouldn't count on them having a loving relationship with your baby chicks.

 

[koakritters]

i have a mini aussie- huge herding instinct in them! but because she's got such a sweet loving personality she's great with them. she got her very first chick at 3 months old, chick was 3 days old. i could leave them together all day and come back to a still alive chick. now that she's older the chickens have decided to put her in her place. if they tell her to move she's moving!! lol. i've got 7 2 week olds she guards and she licks the 2 day olds... the 5 week olds have grown up with her and they love to jump around her in circles and drive her crazy, they all play together!

the other day one of the 2 week olds escaped her brooder and my dog went i the room, saw, and started whining really loud like something was wrong. went in and she looked at me and right at the chick like, "mommy it's out! it's not where it's suppose to be! fix it!!!"

 

[cooper38]

I brought my two blue heelers in today to see what they would do when I held a chick infront of them. Zip looked at it and went behind the recliner and sat there. Kirby sniffed it real good looked up at me like what have you got now, then laid her head down and closed her eyes. I dont think there will be any problems with our dogs, they have always accepted new animals as part of the family.

 

[newchknmama]

Quote:
That's because Cavaliers are hunting dogs--BIRD hunting dogs. Parakeet = bird. Chick = bird. I wouldn't count on them having a loving relationship with your baby chicks.

I had thought this might be a true statement, but I disagree, I think a lot is in the training and how it is handled. We have a viszla, that is a hunting dog, she hunts chukar, and phesant and quail. I was worried what would happen if she was loose with them in the yard, (we live in a subdivision so our yard is small) but today I am a little happier knowing that as long as we keep the right environment it will be ok. A bird hunting dog can be trained to leave non-game birds alone. They have to learn this because as puppies they will chase all birds, game and tweety birds, but most hunters will teach their dog to leave the non game ones alone. So, my dog today was out with her training collar on, and my husband let her out with the chicks. She paid them no attention, we are trying to teach her no bird=leave chickens alone. And the chicks actually charged her and she jumped back.

Now having said this. I would NEVER leave her unattended with my chickens. And honestly, I am not alpha, my husband is. So the only way I would have them out together is if she had her training collar on for this initial training period (and I will say hubby didn't have to use it at all, his verbal commands were enough) and if he is out there too because I wouldnt trust her to listen to me but she listens to her daddy all the time. Our dog is a very good hunting dog too so I think how trainable the dog is plays an important factor.

Edited to say - I don't expect mine to have a "loving relationship" but I think we can cohabitate.

 

[bragan]

I think that it depends on a couple of things............How high is the dog's "prey drive", & how well trained is the dog.
We have a Standard Poodle who doesn't pay our chicks much attention @ all.......& then we have my German Shepherd who is from a working line & has a VERY high prey drive, but he is also well trained. He would LOVE to chase them, I don't think he would intentionally kill them, but he'd sure love to "play"...........thank goodness he is well trained & knows it's no-no, so he just watches intently. I know he will not bother them with me out there, but I would NEVER leave him alone around them, instincts might become uncontrollable!

 

[MeowCluckBark]

I wish I had good advice. In theory our dog should've been able to listen to any necessary command. She knew them all. Leave it, stop, back, no, down, up, sit, potty, etc. I had that dog TRAINED let me tell you. Until... until there was a chicken in sight. A chicken or a school bus. I could not keep her under control no matter how hard I tried. I ended up putting her on a pinch collar and taking her out on leash. I left the collar on at all times. I finally ended up rehoming my dog yesterday. I just couldn't fight her instincts no matter how much I tried. To be fair to her I adopted her at 8 years old last year. She's a black lab so she has a strong drive to catch birds. She never bite into them, just scared the crap out of them and carried them to me. It was bad though. One of my 5 week old brahma pullets has feathers torn out of her leg and she doesn't like it touched but she'll be ok.

 

[Jake1297]

As for hunting dogs I had a Golden Retriever who wasn't trained to hunt. He was gentle loved the chickens, hated water, could never get him to swim. But he was a dog that got along with everyone and everything.