My savage dog.

[WoodlandWoman]

It's a natural behavior for dogs to kill chickens. It's also natural to chew up the house, poop and pee in the house, jump on people and a few other things that they aren't allowed to do. Killing chickens is just one more thing on the list.

How trained is your dog, really? Is she trained to respond to commands all the time, or just when not much is going on? Does she come when called? Does she come when called, when she's in the middle of chasing prey? Does she know commands like leave it or drop it?

I would work with her until she's reliably trained on all the important commands under any conditions, then work with her around the chickens.

How does she act around the chickens when you're out there with her, now? How do you react to her behavior?

We work with new dogs on a leash, to start. After they're good on a leash, we work with them on a long line. Eventually, we allow them off leash, supervised. It can take a long time before we test them while we're just inside the door of the house. It depends on the dog. If you have multiple dogs, then you have pack behavior to deal with. One dog can set the others off, so you have to be even more sure of their behavior. For a problem dog, I always work with them alone, until they're well trained.

A favorite thing for us is to also have the dog on leash while we sit on the patio and the chickens wander around, to acclimate them to the chickens.

You might want to lay heavy duty wire fencing on the ground around the run, to extend the no dig zone outward. I'd stake it down and also wire it to the base of the run. I'm wondering if the concrete band is just too narrow. You could also widen the concrete.

If you're unwilling to leave her in the house until you get this resolved, I would tie her. I don't think it's cruel to tie a dog temporarily. It's just a tool. The problem is when people have dogs living their entire lives tied out, with no interaction.

 

[mstricer]

Everyone is answering this question and the OP hasn't been on this thread since page 2. Just an observation

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Page 2 was only last night.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Quote:
Its not so much answering the question just for the OP, but for others who are interested in the same information.

 

[Ibicella]

I'm afraid if I was in your situation, my dog would be on permanent house-arrest. No more unsupervised visits outside or only being allowed in a kennel outdoors.

I also liked the suggestion of testing the fence to make sure the shock is up, and reworking (again) the chicken coop to eliminate the digging. That's all you can do outside of getting rid of the dog or the chickens.

 

[ChooksinChoppers]

I question the integrity of the chain link....I have seen some pretty poorly constructed chain link dog pens before. And the chain link should be covered with hardware cloth as well to keep out other preditors ! A hardware cloth covered pen with attached 2ft skirt at the base weighted down with rocks or buried shouldnt allow anything in. That PLUS an electric fence (not an invisible fence meant for keeping your dogs on the property, which do NOT work when your dog is in high prey drive mode)
Once your pen is really secure then you should start the leash training mentioned.

I won't even go into the beating the dog, or dead chicken around the neck thing or I might get banned.

 

[mstricer]

Quote:
I thought if I added anything else to that I too would be banned. It blows my mind how people think.

 

[bstarr20]

What about burying a wire bottom in or around the pen. That way even if he digs under the fence he will still hit wire. A welded wire or hog wire maybe. Even if its just a couple feet around the pen either inside or outside.

 

[DuckLady]

Due to multiple reports, we are at an end here.

Thanks