My Husky is killing my chickens and ducks, I need help!

[Butchers Wife]

This situation seems to call for strict separation management:

When the chickens and ducks are out, the dog has to stay inside the house or his kennel.

When the chickens and ducks are confined to their secure run, the dog can run freely.

As Huskies are known for their strong prey drive, there will not be much else you can do but to keep them strictly separate.

I am sorry for your losses.

And by the way: Welcome to BYC! Hopefully we will be able to help you with your problem.

I agree with you. I don't think the dog could ever really be trusted around poultry. I use Premier 1 electric fencing around everything. It's moveable, solar powered, you can link them together, and it keeps a roaming pack of fox hunting beagles off my flocks every Sunday. I live where horse and hound hunting is still a thing. My chickens, ducks, rabbits, and pheasants are a major attraction, and those dogs are usually pretty fired up by the time they get here. I've yet to see one get through a fence. My black lab can hear them coming from a mile off. I think he thinks they just come to play with him. Some might complain that 30 unleashed dogs randomly tearing across the landscape followed by a crowd of horses and riders jumping rivers and fences is an alarming inconvenience but I'm not sure why those people would choose to live here. We really like that we can take a hike without worrying about who's property lines we've crossed and that our dog will most likely be treated kindly and returned with a full belly and a smile on his face if he ever gets lost.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

A neighbor's husky mix broached a six foot fence into our yard. He killed a chicken and maimed another one before jumping the fence again and running loose through the neighborhood.

The law in the county is that your animal can't kill/seriously injure another person's animal when your animal is on the other person's property. If the other person pursues charges when it happens, the dog owner is stuck thousands of dollars for SPCA to confiscate and keep the dog at the pound for proceedings that could take months or even years. If successful in keeping the dog, they then have to raise their fences to 8 feet, post county-approved "dangerous animal" signs with a biting dog motif all over their property, tell their homeowners and also look forward to visits from Animal Control for the rest of the dog's life after getting a lawyer involved. That's about $30K right there and not for a guaranteed outcome.

From a financial/social standpoint, consider that this dog is already physically capable of jumping a 6-foot fence. If he does that and injures or kills someone's pet--especially if that pet was an Easter present to a 10-yo--you can't count on the authorities, let alone your neighbor, to be accommodating about it.

So, first thing, make sure that the neighbor issue has zero possibility of happening so the only issue is that happening between your dog and your chickens.

I worked at an animal shelter for a decade, and I've never seen a high-prey-drive animal be trained to not follow the prey instinct. For some dogs, it is as instinctual as it is for hens to lay eggs. Which means, at best, that they will always have to be separated at all times with all that extra work.

 

[McChooky]

Hey all,

This is my first post for this site. I am in DESPERATE NEED of help with my 4 year old husky killing my chickens and ducks.

We began letting out our ducks and chickens to freely roam and forage our property this year. Knowing she may attack them like she did as a puppy one time, we got a shock collar and tried training her not to mess with them. It seemed to work for a few months as she showed no interest in them until one day she killed 7 out of 10 chickens in one day. She ran through the invisible fence straight to their coop while we were gone. The shock collar appears to no longer work as she now just blows through it. We also had it on the highest setting. We did scold her when she came running up to the house with a dead one in mouth. Last week, she killed two Pekins and today killed one call duck.

I am at my wits end and need any help / advice. We also tried putting her on a 15ft leash close to the house while the chickens & ducks are out(she has access to food, water, and shelter), but that does no good as she still manages to get a hold of them(probably them getting too close). She won’t attack them while we’re present, but if we go in the house for a few seconds, bam, she kills. I hate scolding her and hate keeping my chickens/ ducks up, but I can’t have her eating them anymore. Please let me know if you have ANY advice!

**EDIT: Thank you all so much for the advice! **

My advise to anyone who keeps chickens and has a dog that kill chickens is contain both. If you can't train your dog or contain it then re-home it or surrender it to animal control or give it to a rescue group that specializes in that particular breed (whatever you think is best) Husky's aren't the kind of dog you want to have around chickens or livestock. They must be trained and contained at all times especially if you or any of your neighbors have chickens or other livestock that free range. Husky's have a high prey drive .

 

[cassie]

Take chicken dog has killed. Wire chicken firmly around dog's neck. Let rot, two weeks is enough. Obviously, keep dog outside. Dog will not kill another chicken.

Unless it is a Husky or a Malamute.

 

[McChooky]

Unless it is a Husky or a Malamute.

I let mine go out to potty one day and he took off for hours before returning .He'd never done that before. I scolded him and thought that would be the last of him doing it. Nope.Next day same thing. By now I was feeling stupid for letting it happen twice. On Day 3 I let him go out and he watched me closely as if surprised I actually let him go out alone.(Yes. They're very intelligent) I let him out the front door and sneaked out the back and followed him without letting him see me .I found him less than 100 ft behind our house eating the carcass of a white turkey that had been dead for days.He hadn't eaten his food for 2 days.Hmmmm Never found out whose turkey it was.

 

[cassie]

Maybe it is better you don't know.

I let mine go out to potty one day and he took off for hours before returning .He'd never done that before. I scolded him and thought that would be the last of him doing it. Nope.Next day same thing. By now I was feeling stupid for letting it happen twice. On Day 3 I let him go out and he watched me closely as if surprised I actually let him go out alone.(Yes. They're very intelligent) I let him out the front door and sneaked out the back and followed him without letting him see me .I found him less than 100 ft behind our house eating the carcass of a white turkey that had been dead for days.He hadn't eaten his food for 2 days.Hmmmm Never found out whose turkey it was.

 

[Isadora]

I let mine go out to potty one day and he took off for hours before returning .He'd never done that before. I scolded him and thought that would be the last of him doing it. Nope.Next day same thing. By now I was feeling stupid for letting it happen twice. On Day 3 I let him go out and he watched me closely as if surprised I actually let him go out alone.(Yes. They're very intelligent) I let him out the front door and sneaked out the back and followed him without letting him see me .I found him less than 100 ft behind our house eating the carcass of a white turkey that had been dead for days.He hadn't eaten his food for 2 days.Hmmmm Never found out whose turkey it was.

 

[StinkyAcres]

I scolded him and thought that would be the last of him doing it.

Scolding a dog after he returns will just make him think that returning is a bad thing.

 

[McChooky]

Scolding a dog after he returns will just make him think that returning is a bad thing.

I caught him eating the turkey and scolded

Scolding a dog after he returns will just make him think that returning is a bad thing.

Smarter than I gave him credit perhaps.He returned nonetheless lol.Thanks!

 

[FlarryEyeGrey]

I've got three dogs — one's a chihuahua mix who killed a number of chicks when she got access to the brooder about 8 years ago. I came down on her so hard that she simply steers clear of any sort of poultry, period. Doesn't want anything to do with them now and hasn't so much as made eye contact with a bird in years.

My newest is a husky. Never in my life have I seen a dog with a prey drive like this. No amount of kenneling, scolding, or attempts to traumatize him with the corpses of his kills has had any impact whatsoever on his desire to chase down and destroy any feathered thing that moves in his vicinity. The only solution is to keep him and the birds away from each other. He will quite literally chew through hardware cloth to get at anything that clucks, and you can imagine what that does to a dog's mouth. My brooders look like maximum security chicken prisons now, just on the off chance that he gains access to their room. If you have a husky and chickens, bless you, and may God give you strength.