My dogs

[MamaBear46]

ok first let me say that I am NEW with the bird thing and am in love. However my dogs were here first and are loved as well. Yeah I know you can see wher this is going....yup they are trying and sometimes succeeding in killing my birds....I know the first thing I have to do is get a coop up for the birds.. but I am mainly looking at how to train them to stop chasing the birds......Right now i am keeping them seperated until i can get the coop up.(which is hopefully be up by next weekend) I have been told (repeatly) That once they kill a bird then I will never train it out of them but I have hopes btw Demon is 4 years old and Angel is a year and neither had seen a chicken or turkey until about 3 weeks ago.

 

[MamaBear46]

oh I don't know if it makes a diffeence but Demon had been starved as a pup.

 

[kfruzen]

We have 17 brahmas, 6 black sexlinks, 1 bantam, and 1 red pullet. We also have 43 cornish cross that we are raising for meat. We have 2 dogs a 7 year old black lab mix and a 10 month old pitbull mix. The chicks were raised inside for the first 4 to 6 weeks of life and both dogs do great with them. When my husband goes out to let them out in the morning both dogs go out with him. They actually look forward to doing this with him everyday I think having had the chicks inside and having my 2 boys, myself and my husband handling them right away helped to eliminate any bad from the dogs. We do still keep a close eye on both however because you just never know. But we have had most of the brahmas for over a year now and have had no issues. It is all in the way you raise them. Good Luck!

 

[ChickSter99]

I have a 3 year old chihuahua, NaTasha. She only gets excited about the chickens when they get flighty. They are 6 weeks old now. She follows me in the run to refill food and water containers. Normally, the girls don't bother her, but something about this morning was different. They noticed HER toes & not mine. lol. She's black, brown & white. The girls went for the white fur around her toes. It was so funny. NaTasha was trying her best to get out of the way, but our dominate hen, Buffy, was not having that. She literally stood in front of the run door like she was daring NaTasha to go thru her. lol. NaTasha kept looking at me for help. All the other girls were just staring. It was sooooo funny! No one else bothers her. I guess Buffy was getting her back for all the times NaTasha tried to chase her when she was learning to flap her wings. Pay back is awful!!

 

[centrarchid]

To put this bluntly and based on expereince, breed is not a major issue. You can break even adult dogs of chicken killing. First step is getting control over dog. Second is getting dog exposed to poultry while under your control. Lots of exposure is important. If no control, success unlikely. Two dogs may have to be separated during training process, then training continues a little further when dogs reunited. If you can not trust dogs unsurpurvised with poultry, then process is not yet complete. I strongly reccommend consulting with dog people that train dogs routinely. Some folks with poultry but minimal experience with dogs not likely to be positive or to have skill set required to get job done.

 

[MamaBear46]

I do have a bit of training experience but NO bird experience....I don't no how to "read" the birds yet.....but I do know my dogs and I beleive that one will be fairly easy to get out of the behavior the other well he is just a pia but Ilove him anyways lol

 

[centrarchid]

In you case the starting point might be to construct a cage and get an old rooster that is calm natured. House the dog in close proximity to rooster so they get to know each other. Spend time with both but do not pay attention to rooster. Doing so will encourage dog to do same. I like to set out in evening reading with back to pen with dog having freedom to do mostly what it wants unless it involves harassing bird. If dog harasses bird, get on to dog quickly and consistently. Take dog for walk and give vigerous excersize then bring back to pen. You want dog calm around bird and looking for excitement elsewhere. Process will take a couple weeks and dog will not improve every day. I try not to handle bird in front of dog until late in training process.

 

[MamaBear46]

I am hoping to have my coops up by this weekend....at least something that can protect them even if its not something like I want....the dogs did very well today....I have been trying to allow them out a little longer each time.....they laid and watched but I guess thye got bored because Angel ended up sleeping and Demon came in voluntarily.....so I have hopes and every day I am seeing more progress

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

We have a 2yo male Formosan Mountain Dog mix (extremely smart and sensitive) and a 4yo female pitbull/corgi mix (dumb but sweet), both indoor/outdoor dogs, and both predate our chickens. The Formosan was rescued from the feral dog population in the streets of Taiwan and the pit/corgi was rescued from living with homeless people here in Seattle. We hand-raised our pullets indoors from day-old to eight weeks. During the hand-raising phase, both dogs were very interested in the chicks, seemed protective of them, and liked to lick them a lot, but that's it. Once we moved the chickens to the back yard, everything was fine for several months until one day we came home and the dogs had caught our Australorp hen and played with her so roughly that we had to put her down.

Before we even found the injured bird, I knew something was amiss the moment we came home because the smart dog was acting all weird like he'd done something wrong. Once he could see how upset we were at him about the bird, I'd be shocked if he ever did it again. The dumb dog, though, probably had no idea what we were scolding her for. The end result is that now our dogs don't get to be outdoors unless we can be out there to supervise them. It sucks for them, but what can I do? Since we had to kill that Australorp, I have indeed caught both dogs - usually the dumb one - in the act of stalking the chickens when my back is turned. Despite being half the size of the dumb one, the smart one is definitely the dominant one, and I'd like to think he'd put a stop to it if the dumb one ever caught a chicken again, but I just can't be sure. I did replace our Australorp with two Leghorns and I don't worry about them as much because they're so flighty. Maybe that's the answer - fast birds and slow dogs!

 

[centrarchid]

We have a 2yo male Formosan Mountain Dog mix (extremely smart and sensitive) and a 4yo female pitbull/corgi mix (dumb but sweet), both indoor/outdoor dogs, and both predate our chickens. The Formosan was rescued from the feral dog population in the streets of Taiwan and the pit/corgi was rescued from living with homeless people here in Seattle. We hand-raised our pullets indoors from day-old to eight weeks. During the hand-raising phase, both dogs were very interested in the chicks, seemed protective of them, and liked to lick them a lot, but that's it. Once we moved the chickens to the back yard, everything was fine for several months until one day we came home and the dogs had caught our Australorp hen and played with her so roughly that we had to put her down.

Before we even found the injured bird, I knew something was amiss the moment we came home because the smart dog was acting all weird like he'd done something wrong. Once he could see how upset we were at him about the bird, I'd be shocked if he ever did it again. The dumb dog, though, probably had no idea what we were scolding her for. The end result is that now our dogs don't get to be outdoors unless we can be out there to supervise them. It sucks for them, but what can I do? Since we had to kill that Australorp, I have indeed caught both dogs - usually the dumb one - in the act of stalking the chickens when my back is turned. Despite being half the size of the dumb one, the smart one is definitely the dominant one, and I'd like to think he'd put a stop to it if the dumb one ever caught a chicken again, but I just can't be sure. I did replace our Australorp with two Leghorns and I don't worry about them as much because they're so flighty. Maybe that's the answer - fast birds and slow dogs!

Give dogs another chance. I lost a couple birds for each of my best dogs. In end they became chicken safe for many years after.