My lsgd killed a chicken? Then skinned it?

[Jaycie1304]

Hello my names jaycie, i have alot of animals includimg goats, rabbits, ducks, chickens, and a gaurd dog. He is a pyrenees and collie mix, hes about 8 months old so still very young. I understand hes a puppy and training a gaurd dog for birds takes time, i train him but if he has alot of energy hell chase the birds( he was doing so well, i thought he was practically over the chasing faze..). So if a bird got into the pen he was in i could see him chasing it around and killing it by accident. But the thing is is the way the body was, it has no head, no legs, no skin, no feathers, and all organs and ribcage is completely intact. I have a camera that shows him chewing on the bird but i cant find where he killed it. Im just absolutely confused. Either way im assuming he killed it and ate the outsides? I have no idea how to correct this behavior and im so upset, i thought i was training him well and i feel terrible for my baby. i can completely understand him playing with it till it died but eatting it as well? And advice would be so amazing and thank you for your time!

 

[Geena]

If he ate the whole head, both legs and the skin with all the feathers on it you better keep an eye on him. That's liable to cause him some serious, possibly even deadly, digestive problems.
If the chicken jumped into the dog's pen I wouldn't put too much blame on him for that one, it is his space. First on the agenda would be making sure that can't happen again. How have you been training him around the chickens so far?

 

[Jaycie1304]

If he ate the whole head, both legs and skin with ALL the feathers on it you better keep an eye on him. That's liable to cause him some serious, possibly even deadly, digestive problems.
If the chicken jumped into his pen I wouldn't necessarily lay a lot on blame him for that one, it is his space. First on the agenda would be making sure that can't happen again. How have you been training him around the chickens so far?

He is in a pen next to my birds with the goats inside there with him, i put him there so he could watch them and the birds get used to him. We walk every morning and night to hang out with the birds and put everyone up. He has chased and messed up birds before and we would discipline him. He gets energy so i would let him run around before he got to hang out

 

[mowin]

Don't give up on him. Positive reinforcement but don't be too easy on him if you see him messing up. Too many people scold a pup, then a minute later praise them for listening, confusing the heck out of them. Scold... Don't praise too soon. If he does something good, or listens to a command instantly, praise the heck out of him.

 

[centrarchid]

@Jaycie1304 I know you situation well. Most of my poultry guardians have gone through it. Based on dog's age of 8 months, you may have more time to go with it. What I have started doing with three most recent dogs is adding a cover to dog kennel keeping chickens from getting in. My chickens are prone to getting into pen for purpose of stealing the dog's food. Still keep letting the dog out while supervised to interact with chickens. My two youngest dogs are at stage where they are out unsupervised only when chickens are on secure roosts. This gives them romping time without stressing chickens while also providing protection.

 

[Geena]

He is in a pen next to my birds with the goats inside there with him, i put him there so he could watch them and the birds get used to him. We walk every morning and night to hang out with the birds and put everyone up. He has chased and messed up birds before and we would discipline him. He gets energy so i would let him run around before he got to hang out

So he lives in with the goats, in what I would assume is a fairly large pen? Since you didn't actually see him kill the chicken it's always possible that he didn't and just found the carcass and started gnawing on it. I wouldn't get too upset about him eating it, it's just meat to him at that point. Same as it is for us humans, although we usually cook it first.

Often times LGDs are romanticized around here. You just put the dog out there with the livestock and they are supposed to somehow instinctively know to protect them. Reality is you're working against a dog's natural instinct to hunt and kill.
That takes some time and training, and he really is still just a puppy at 8 months. How long have you had him?

 

[centrarchid]

He is in a pen next to my birds with the goats inside there with him, i put him there so he could watch them and the birds get used to him. We walk every morning and night to hang out with the birds and put everyone up. He has chased and messed up birds before and we would discipline him. He gets energy so i would let him run around before he got to hang out

My discipline has gotten more focused as I gotten older. I growl the dogs name and grab its muzzle pushing it to the ground. I avoid touching the chicken at that time. I also avoid looking at chickens. After a couple repeats simply growling dog's name serves as discipline.

 

[Jaycie1304]

So he lives in with the goats, in what I would assume is a fairly large pen? Since you didn't actually see him kill the chicken it's always possible that he didn't and just found the carcass and started gnawing on it. I wouldn't get too upset about him eating it, it's just meat to him at that point. Same as it is for us humans, although we usually cook it first.

Often times LGDs are romanticized around here. You just put the dog out there with the livestock and they are supposed to somehow instinctively know to protect them. Reality is you're working against a dog's natural instinct to hunt and kill.
That takes some time and training, and he really is still just a puppy at 8 months. How long have you had him?

Since he was weaned off his mom and it took a few but i did find him playing with the bird on the cameras, after chasing it and playing with it, he bent down and did a single bite down on it and that was over for the lil bird. I know hes made for sheep and goats but the farm he came from was specifically a chicken farm. And their farm dogs where absolutely perfect. I know it takes alot of training, i just need to find good training tactics and proper discipline for him.

 

[Jaycie1304]

@Jaycie1304 I know you situation well. Most of my poultry guardians have gone through it. Based on dog's age of 8 months, you may have more time to go with it. What I have started doing with three most recent dogs is adding a cover to dog kennel keeping chickens from getting in. My chickens are prone to getting into pen for purpose of stealing the dog's food. Still keep letting the dog out while supervised to interact with chickens. My two youngest dogs are at stage where they are out unsupervised only when chickens are on secure roosts. This gives them romping time without stressing chickens while also providing protection.

Ok thank you, i felt terrible like i was an awful trainer and owner since that happened, ill keep on training him and make his pen more secure!

 

[Bhubbard]

give the dogs until they are at least 2. If they don’t have an older well trained dog to go off of it is hard to learn and correct them. Ours have gone through collars and dangle sticks and everything between to train them. We had them as 8 week old puppies and lost a few chickens along the way. Poultry is hard. It runs and flaps and jumps and to a young dog that’s not matured that’s really hard to leave alone. If they chase that’s a big no. Do not let them play with the animals.