My Puppy Keeps 'Nomming' and Licking My Chicken

[ZeeWeather]

I own 4 chickens, a Black Australorp, Blue Americauna, Barred Rock and a Silver Laced Wyandotte. Recently my parents acquired a Rottweiler puppy (at 2 months), now currently 7 months. We introduced one to the others with mixed results (chasing from puppy, pecking from chickens). But I have noticed when we let the dog roam the backyard, the chickens domain, dogo chases the chickens, BUT only seems interested in giving constant chase to, taunt and terrorize my Australorp, pinning her, licking her head and lightly nomming her head (light nibbles), then letting her go for a time...before doing it again. This had been doing on for a few weeks now. I applied anti-peck spray to all the chickens, and to my shock, dogo still licks and noms on the Australorp.

I do separate them on separate sides of the yard with a chain-link fence, and it usually works, yet some or all chickens find a way back to the other side of the yard, taking the risk. I do not feel she is trying (eh....) to hurt my Australorp, as she is over 80 pounds and most likely could have killed her by now...but I don't want to keep risking that chance.

Any suggestions on how to help her loose interest?

 

[Kathy Golla]

It’s going to take a while, puppies take a long time to train.
I would discourage the chasing behavior. In general it’s a bad idea to let a dog do that.

 

[lindseyloveschickens26]

Our puppy gave me a scare yesterday. One of our chickens got out of the run through a hole in the wire, and when I walked outside I saw our puppy SITTING on her. She had her head to the ground and mouth open...I thought she was dead. But she was actually just fine, except for the trauma. It could have been worse. I still don’t trust him whatsoever...as puppies are curious creatures, who knows what he might try in the future (like teething on her neck). We’ve been trying to train him by keeping him on a short leash while giving treats to the flock, and having him stay lying down. I think it’s helping!

 

[CannedMonster]

My friend had several chickens killed by her young dog that “played” with them to death.
Some dogs aren’t being predatory with them but can still hurt or kill them because they want to play and the birds aren’t going to play like dogs do.
Our chickens kept jumping our 4 ‘ chain link fence and we clipped one wing on each back in November and haven’t had a problem since.