Need Advice from Owners of Chickens who Have dogs that eat them.

[centrarchid]

My dog lives right next to the run. Today my dad was out with tucker, just reading on the porch. Whenever the chickens went into the garage, Tucker chased them out. He stopped as soon as they got out. Also, he was off the leash and the chickens were free ranging, and he chased one of them. But he definately WAS NOT going for the kill. He can run fast when he wants too, and he was just leisurely running. And i could get his attention away from them. should i take that as a good sign?

Baby steps being made. Dog is showing a level of restraint in not going all out for chase. Regardless of speed, dog or even you, has much more endurance than a chicken of any age even if chicken is a jungle fowl. Smart chicken when pursued would up and out of dogs reach but smart is based often in surviving unpleasant experience. Work on getting dog to stop chasing. If dog has seen you shoo a bird from garage or otherwise regards garage as territory then that is not so bad but even that will need to be worked on to control.

Can you get dog to engage in some other form of play with chickens present? This would be a step to get dog thinking birds are just part of landscape.


Also when out with dog and birds, avoid your fixating gaze on birds. Almost all dogs selectively breed to key in on what we are looking at. Try to avoid looking at birds directly even when with them.

Expose dog to new scents or other stimuli when it is with birds. Effort to make chickens old hat.

 

[dragonlair]

I have a variety of dogs, most of which would love a meal of fresh chicken (Alaskan Malamutes and an Alaskan Husky). My English Setter will "point" at them and helps me when they get loose. The 2 Great Pyrenees I think would be ok with them but I am not 100% sure.

My chickens are housed in a very large chain link dog kennel to keep them safe from my dogs and the fox, hawks and anything else that wants a nice, healthy meal.

I don't trust any dogs around my chickens. Comes from having very prey driven dogs I guess.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

They have been ranging for several days now, he has been free and he hasn't chased them at all!!!!!!!

 

[LadyinRed]

I own a High prey drive German shepherd. She was raised with the chickens. completely ignores them when I'm outside, Anywhere outside. She plays around them with me throwing a ball and everything. NEVER shows any prey drive towards the chickens around me. The five acre property is sectioned into three equal sized areas. the center for the dogs around the house and two pastures on either side. If the gate is left open to the chicken pasture then she will eat A chicken. Not two, not three. Not playing with them. She will go down, catch ONE chicken. Pluck it and eat it. and she eats it ALL. She only kills the ones she intends to eat.

My advice to anyone who owns a dog who 'Eats' chickens rather than flinging them around in play is to ensure your dog and chickens are separated. I believe a dog who wants to play can be trained to leave the chickens alone, but as it stands dogs who hunt are far more difficult to train to leave the birds alone because they do not do it all the time. Especially dogs as smart as my girl who fully understands that chickens are OFF LIMITS when I am there.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Please don't rehome your dog. One week is not even close to enough time to properly train a new dog. It takes time, effort and patience but I whole-heartedly believe that any breed of dog can be trained around your birds.

I have posted this on other threads, so sorry if this is repeat but I really believe that any breed of dog can be trained to be around your animals safely if you work on training them well in overall impulse control. Here is the method I use to train my dogs:

I have a pit-bull mix and three pugs. The pit and two of the pugs are rescues from urban shelters with mixed histories of abuse. All four dogs are out in the yard with my 5 chickens everyday without any problems. In fact I once had a chicken attack a dog but never the opposite. Everyone guaranteed me that the pit would kill my chickens but she has never been a problem. I have also chicken trained my neighbors dachshund. It took longer but has just as successful.

Here is what I personally recommend: The most important thing to focus on overall is improving your dogs impulse control. No matter what your dog has a natural prey drive but more than that they are pack animals that want to please their master. Good basic training makes teaching them anything else so much easier. Make sure that you can snap your dogs attention back to you even when they see something they want. (I can't snap so I use an "aht." noise - this means sit and pay attention to me) One of the best ways to work on this without a live animal present is during feeding. Do you free feed your dogs or do they eat at regular times? I would recommend taking them off of free feeding if you are doing that. Focus on training your dogs so they they will not eat anything unless you give a specific command. I set down all four bowls of food and make the dogs wait. They do not eat until they hear their own name and see a hand gesture. Also work on them stopping eating at a command and willing stepping away from their food. I say "Name, wait." and they stop and sit until told to continue. These skills help with impulse control in many areas of training. It may seem unrelated but to a dog, the one who controls the food is the ruler of them all.

Once you have basic training down, I would introduce the dog to the chickens on a leash and just sit and be calm. (One dog at a time if you have more than one) As soon as she starts to fixate on the chickens in any way other than simple curiosity or barks or is excited (even happy excited) I would scold her with the same word every time (you only need to say it once, firmly) and immediately take her inside. It is important to take her in even with happy excitement. You are training her to ignore the chickens not to like the chickens and there is a big difference. With my dogs I brought them back when they were calm and started all over again. and again and again. lol. I allowed them to glance at them or sniff them but anything else was a no. It took a bit of patience but all of the dogs ignore the chickens and now find very little interest in them at all other than a sniff here or there. I never yelled or hit them or used a choke or a shock. I just said no and took them away immediately at any sign of fixation or barking. You will need to do this everyday until they get it. Patience is the key and consistency. It sucks because sometimes you are busy and don't want to deal with it but starting and stopping will just make it worse. I leave them all together unsupervised regularly.

Here is my pit, Lou, with a silkie chick who fell in love with her.

I believe in you!