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I don't think this is about taking sides. I don't think it's a good idea to label a dog with human issues such as right or wrong. I don't think dogs should be tied up all the time either. And I agree, if a dog can be trained to live in harmony with livestock, it should be done, but it is also my opinion that it can also be an unrealistic goal in some cases.
For instance, my Doxie has excellent manners and is trained, but she has a prey drive that would make it irresponsible for me to trust her with small animals. If I were to leave her where she could get small animals and something happens it would be my fault, becuase I know what she is capable of doing. I'm sorry, but I know dog training and I know my dog. She just isn't safe around small animals and if she gets out and eats something, I can't blame her for that. My dog is who she is, and I am not going to engage in harsh or dominance based discipline that would in my opinion, ruin my dog. In my personal opinion, and no one has to agree with me, but this is my opinion: dominanace training and dominance theory is very misunderstood and is treated as gospel when it is disputable. Temple Grandin has some interesting thoughts about dogs and dog training, I recommend her recent book to anyone who is interested in animal behavior.
I have no idea what dominance training is....I just meant teaching your dogs to behave and know you mean it when you say "bad dog". I do understand that if you have a pet that is terrible around chickens and you know it ( but you love the dog enough to keep it despite it's faults), then it would be your fault to take the dog near them. I do think that if you are gonna own chickens and you have a dog that likes to eat them; you either have to keep your chickens away, keep the dog away, or in some cases, find the dog a chickenless home.
Back to the original person's statement...I think chickens are way easy to get attatched to. Lost one of my first to some unknown disease and three to an accidental heat stroke....it was terribly hard.
Pure dominance training (think Cesar Milan) has been proven to be incorrect a few years ago by several of the leading animal behaviorists after exhaustive research in the field and in some instances may make a dog more dangerous by teaching him/her to not give a signal before biting. Getting your dog to respect you by giving clear and consistent signals is safer, long lasting and more humane. It is also a good practice to make the dog work for praise and/or treats. I do think many dogs can be taught to respect chickens, however we need to be realistic that not everyone has the time and patience to do all the training necessary and have all family members be consistent as well to have the dog be perfectly trained to ignore its natural instincts. .
