My new future chicken guard dog

[centrarchid]

It wouldn't surprise me if he did join them at the feeder someday. He does love chicken feed! 

Work on getting him to leave feed alone. It can make for some explosive bowl habits and increases odds pup will mess with feeders. I know both games all too well.

 

[bobbi-j]

Work on getting him to leave feed alone. It can make for some explosive bowl habits and increases odds pup will mess with feeders. I know both games all too well.

Good reminder! We will start on that right away. It's been 10 years since we've had a pup - it's all still kind of fuzzy. Our last dog was so good - even as a pup - I never had to worry about him. Hopefully this one will get there some day.

 

[bobbi-j]

Well... Ruger was left unsupervised yesterday (NOT my choice - I've been gone since Sunday) and killed at least 6 chickens and wounded at least one more. I haven't done a beak count yet to see how many are left. The one wounded one has an open wound on her rear. DH is going to see if he can find some Blu-Kote tomorrow. We'll see how she does. Tomorrow I'm going to see if I need to separate her. Of course it's THE one hen I wanted to keep because she's so pretty.... Sigh. I'm more upset with DH than the dog. He said, "But he was good with them for three days..." So, the chickens are locked up for awhile. Probably the next couple of weeks while I'm gone again. I'll work with him while I'm home. Right now, I'm thinking that DH needs more supervision than the dog.

 

[centrarchid]

Dog still pup. If my math is right your pup is at about 6 months so another year yet before no supervision. You may get some additional training using a broody hen or even a rooster that goes after dog when dog acts improperly.

Also, juvenile chickens proved most problematic when it came to stimulating attention of young dogs. To keep my latest pup out of trouble she could only hang with adult birds or with chicks supervised by hen.


Training dogs to be with chickens is a lot more difficult than training them to be with ruminants.

 

[aart]

Well... Ruger was left unsupervised yesterday (NOT my choice - I've been gone since Sunday) and killed at least 6 chickens and wounded at least one more. I haven't done a beak count yet to see how many are left. The one wounded one has an open wound on her rear. DH is going to see if he can find some Blu-Kote tomorrow. We'll see how she does. Tomorrow I'm going to see if I need to separate her. Of course it's THE one hen I wanted to keep because she's so pretty.... Sigh. I'm more upset with DH than the dog. He said, "But he was good with them for three days..." So, the chickens are locked up for awhile. Probably the next couple of weeks while I'm gone again. I'll work with him while I'm home. Right now, I'm thinking that DH needs more supervision than the dog.

4 legged dogs are easier to train than 2 legged ones...lol.....that sounds incredibly sexist and I'm really not that way, I hope it doesn't offend.

Bummer, I hate it when a human allows a dog to get themselves into trouble, hopefully Ruger can get over this glitch in training.

 

[bobbi-j]

Thanks for the encouragement, Centrarchid. You're right - he's just at 6 months now, and the chickens he got are juveniles. They were 7-week old Freedom Rangers (who are not free ranging right now). He leaves my adult layers and the hen with her 6-week old babies alone. He did get into it with the rooster one day when he was about 3-4 months old, so that could explain that.

Aart - don't worry, it takes more than something like that to offend me!

I know DH felt bad about it, but I was overtired and a bit cranky when I got home (I spent the last week cooking at a little Bible camp that our church runs - 55 senior high kids and staff, so about 70 people) so I kind of let him know what I really thought...

Honestly, he's a good man - just had a lapse in judgement that day. Until I'm home from Camp for good (2 more weeks), either the dog or the chickens will be contained.

 

[kateseidel]

Oh bobbi-j, so sorry to hear about your chicken loss!!

It can definitely be done. I have three dogs who live quite contentedly with our free ranging hens. We had one incident with the collie/shepherd mix who jumped at a hen when he was about 6 months old. Put his shock collar on, sat outside with him, waited for him to do it again. Zapped him once at low voltage. He has never even looked at the chickens in almost 4 years.

 

[bobbi-j]

Oh bobbi-j, so sorry to hear about your chicken loss!!

It can definitely be done. I have three dogs who live quite contentedly with our free ranging hens. We had one incident with the collie/shepherd mix who jumped at a hen when he was about 6 months old. Put his shock collar on, sat outside with him, waited for him to do it again. Zapped him once at low voltage. He has never even looked at the chickens in almost 4 years.

Thank you - we were very spoiled with our last dog. He was a black lab, great hunter - never bothered the chickens at all. This one isn't quite so laid back, In his defense, he was left alone all day while DH was at an auction so he had plenty of time to get into mischief. In DH's defense - the dog had hardly even looked at the chickens after the first day we let them loose. I went out and counted. He did not get six. He got 11...

 

[bobbi-j]

Today Ruger may have redeemed himself a bit after last week. Yesterday DH told me that he thought something had gotten my favorite broody he since her 5 one month old babies were wandering around "looking lost". He found her remains in the coop last night when he locked the chickens up for the night (they free range). Early this morning, Ruger cornered a "big mother coon" and her 4 babies near the coop. (Problem and 4 future problems have been eliminated). I'm kind of wondering, though, if she's why DH only found 6 of the 11 carcasses from last week's debacle.

The 5 chicks seem to be doing fine. They were integrated into the flock under the hen's care a week or so after they were hatched.

 

[chicksurreal]

I just want to bring a recent experience here to inform you all of the possible dangers.

We just had our 7 year old boxer/pit mix kill two of our chickens after ten months of NO problems whatsoever. We were totally comfortable with the situation and she killed two of our babies in front of my husband before he could even react.

It's a serious shock, but looking at it realistically, we did not train her in any way. We didn't see the need because after watching her closely with them for a couple of months and her not even reacting in any way to them, we thought we were safe. Apparently not. She will never be trusted around the chickens again.