My dogs+my chicks=???

our small weiner dog mix had to learn the hard way by getting her butt kicked a few times by the chickens. I think the last incident we had from her was when we saw our RIR walking around witha bit of dog fur in her beak and the dog sitting on the back porch begging to come inside. Our gordon setter was a different story. We kept him on a walking leash or whenever he reached to the chcikens at all we would distract him and turn him, like the lady on its me or the dog. after a couple of weeks we would have supervised outside time with him when the birds were free ranging. eventually it got to the point that the birds could approach him and everything is fine now. We do watch him when he first goes out because he will herd them for a couple of seconds sometimes (He has a bit of border collie in him). Patience and training for the big dog, trying not not laugh at a dog getting beat up by birds for the little dog.
 
LOL! I have a Rotti that is now 6 years old. And I have an Olde English Bulldog who is 5 years old. We've had both of them for quite some time. The biggest issue I have with the Rotti......? He wants to clean the new babies, and one swipe with the tongue to clean them throws the poor 1 oz baby chick across the room.
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I think too that it must be the dog itself in MOST cases. However, I do know that any trouble I have had with dogs, was usually due to bird dogs (hunting dogs) and Labs.
I was on the other side of the fence years ago, and my beautiful yellow lab Cricket...decided to eat all of the neighbors, not one, not two, but allllll of the neighbors chickens. Needless to say, I replaced them and I felt horrible. Besides ...my dog got out when the kids got home from school, so technically it was our mistake. But ...we became good friends after that, and Cricket was not allowed near chickens or anything that resembled them. BTW ...He loved kittens? Go figure!
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I have 2 Jack Russell Terriers. We had our first set of 6 peep inside our home until they were completely feathered, and ready to move outside. We taught those two dogs not to bother the chicks or there'd be BIG trouble! One year now, no problems with my dogs & chickens. We usually are nearby for extra reminders!
 
I have two german shepherds who love our chicks! The chicks were in the house for a good month and around the dogs everyday. I do think that a lot of it just depends on the dog's personality though.

This is our male german shepherd with his favorite chick at a few days old.
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Same chick almost 6 weeks old. They follow each other around the entire pen
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a good leave it, management, and some classical/counter conditioning should work in getting them to tolerate eachother. check out kikopups video on youtube for teaching leave it.
I have a beagle mix who's very good with other animals, particularly baby animals. She mothered the emus we hatched last spring and she's now tending to the chicks. My lab terrier mix is only allowed to watch at a distance because he's not as tolerant of birds biting him. I do trust him not to harm them though, even if they bite him he usually just sulks around.
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OP, you are wise to inquire about this. There are countless posts here on BYC where people who thought their dogs were trained suddenly attacked and killed their birds. One heartbreaking story after another. There is risk here. Everyone is different in how much risk they accept. I personally could never forgive myself if I had a dog that terrorized, maimed and/or killed my birds - not even one oops moment is acceptable to me and since I can't be certain whether or not there would be one, I won't have dogs and chickens at the same time. It's more than enough stress worrying about irresponsible neighbor's dogs. That's just me. To have both while also having a failsafe situation means having a sophisticated separation system, one where someone forgetting to close a gate does not bring the two together.
JJ
 
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