Need advice on dog - chicken relationship

[Robbins.farms2]

Hi all,

This morning I’m mourning the loss of another beloved hen. It’s my 2nd one to lose in the last 6 months. Our beloved family dog Piper has officially been indicted and charged with the murders. She is great with our other dogs, cats, and any other creatures that I’ve ever had her around but is part shepherd part lab so she has herding tendencies.

My current flock of 9 have a nice coup and an open air run of 1400 sq. ft. surrounded by 4ft chain link fence. The problem is that every now and then one of them decides to fly over the fence to explore the yard. I would LOVE to let them free range the yard during the day but don’t know what to do. Should I clip their wings and restrict them to their run? If clipping isn’t necessary should I increase my fence height to keep them in? Or is there ANY possible way to make my dog behave herself? I have accompanied her around the chickens and she’s fine. She even goes with me to feed/water/collect eggs and pays the chickens no attention. What are some of y’all suggestions? TIA!

 

[LadyRed76]

Taller fence?
Its not an easy task getting a dog Not to chase chickens once they have.
You would need to catch your Pup in the act. Right now Piper don't know its wrong.
My Uncle had a dog do the same thing. Fine around them but once he left the yard the dog decided to chase. He got the dog to stop,only after trying countless of tries. He got it to stop by tying the dead chicken to the dogs collar. Several hours later the dog NEVER touched another chicken.
I see Why it worked. Hate the actual act of it,but it worked.
The Dog NO longer thinks chickens are a game.
I'm not suggesting you do the same thing,but see why it worked. The dog got tired of it...didn't want to play anymore,it became a nuisance to the dog,instead of something to play with.
Hope things get better! Frustrating, I know.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

We love our dogs, but it is true that they are predators of all prey animals. Family dogs kill by using the chickens as toys. They will either run them to death or bite them in play.

I have a Rat Terrier; they are extremely prey driven. Which is why I brought her into the family. We suddenly started to have problems with rats on the property. Her training began immediately when she arrived. You see, I know animals can learn to turn off certain instincts when they conflict with taught behaviors. Having said that, she is still an animal and if I am not present to reinforce desired behaviors, she can revert to instinct.

She has been taught not to respond to the chickens, with a hand bite from me, followed by a hand signal (the letter C). When I see her looking at the chickens longingly, I get her attention, then use the hand signal. And I use my facial expression and energy to let her know that I mean business. I sit in a low beach chair still today, and watch my chickens. This lets her know that the chickens are mine. If she seeks attention from me, I look away from her and focus on the chickens. She is here to work, so part of her training involved inspecting the chicken pens for rats, she also checks the cars. When she finds a rat, we let her go at it. She seems to understand that the rats don't belong in our family, but the chickens do. Again, having said that, she is an animal. So continual behavior checks and reinforcement will always be necessary.

She gets plenty of love and affection from my husband, and her work duties are from me. And when she does a good job, she gets attention and petted by me. Then, its back to work. Because I understand her prey drive instincts, this is how she must be handled. It will be my failure not the dogs if she kills a chicken. When I let the chickens out she sits with me and watches for a while. Then goes off to patrol the perimeter fence. Sometimes she will sniff a chicken as it walks close by, then she gets the hand signal. I can tell by the way she lifts her head and her eyes scan the yard while the chickens are out, that she feels confident and has purpose at that moment.

It's a lot of work, but it can be done. My "Raddy" is also deaf. So if she can learn your dog too, can learn.

God Bless

 

[bobbieschicks]

I have lost three hens to my now 1 1/2 year old pup. He is Lab/ACD mix and chasing & catching things are his favorite games. Unfortunately my chickens don't survive his rough "play."

My solutions have been: (1) to put a bird netting over the top of my run (40' x 30') for about $20 from Amazon I can get a 50'x50' net to protect them from overhead predators, (2) to bury hardware cloth down and out from the bottom by about a foot, (3) never let the dog out when the chickens are out, and (4) run hot wire around the perimeter of the run at dog height to discourage Milo from chewing at the sides of the netting attached to the 2x4 welded run.

I would LOVE to have Milo work along side me outdoors while the chickens free range our yard, but I'm realistic about his age and "play" habits. Maybe later in life he will be better able to listen to Leave It in the face of such a huge distraction.

 

[Hen Pen Jem]

We love our dogs, but it is true that they are predators of all prey animals. Family dogs kill by using the chickens as toys. They will either run them to death or bite them in play.

I have a Rat Terrier; they are extremely prey driven. Which is why I brought her into the family. We suddenly started to have problems with rats on the property. Her training began immediately when she arrived. You see, I know animals can learn to turn off certain instincts when they conflict with taught behaviors. Having said that, she is still an animal and if I am not present to reinforce desired behaviors, she can revert to instinct.

She has been taught not to respond to the chickens, with a hand bite from me, followed by a hand signal (the letter C). When I see her looking at the chickens longingly, I get her attention, then use the hand signal. And I use my facial expression and energy to let her know that I mean business. I sit in a low beach chair still today, and watch my chickens. This lets her know that the chickens are mine. If she seeks attention from me, I look away from her and focus on the chickens. She is here to work, so part of her training involved inspecting the chicken pens for rats, she also checks the cars. When she finds a rat, we let her go at it. She seems to understand that the rats don't belong in our family, but the chickens do. Again, having said that, she is an animal. So continual behavior checks and reinforcement will always be necessary.

She gets plenty of love and affection from my husband, and her work duties are from me. And when she does a good job, she gets attention and petted by me. Then, its back to work. Because I understand her prey drive instincts, this is how she must be handled. It will be my failure not the dogs if she kills a chicken. When I let the chickens out she sits with me and watches for a while. Then goes off to patrol the perimeter fence. Sometimes she will sniff a chicken as it walks close by, then she gets the hand signal. I can tell by the way she lifts her head and her eyes scan the yard while the chickens are out, that she feels confident and has purpose at that moment.

It's a lot of work, but it can be done. My "Raddy" is also deaf. So if she can learn your dog too, can learn.

God Bless

Raddy is one year 8 months old.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Some dogs will go after chickens and others won't lock at them twice. Teaching them to leave chickens alone is best done very early in life, otherwise you are fighting instinct.

I would clip one wing on each bird. You can allow ranging, just keep the dog elsewhere during it.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

My rat terrier would never have gone after our chickens... The biggest thing she ever tried to go for was a cat, but I trained that out of her. Currently, though; my husky has an extremely high prey drive, and I've never been able to teach her to leave chickens alone. My current terrier hasn't learned yet, but I need to work with him.
That said, my chickens do not go outside their run without supervision, especially if the dogs are out on their lines. I simply do not trust them with the chickens.
Yesterday, for instance, I let my chickens out late in the evening so they could get some freedom before bed. My dogs were out when I did this. The girls all ran for their normal foraging area, which is inside my husky's area. Even with me standing 20 ft away, my dog got into full stalk mode and started tracking on one of the girls, walking slowly forward. I yelled at her, and she immediately knew she wasn't supposed to be stalking the chickens. She knows she's not supposed to, but she just can't help herself.
So, to save your birds OP, I'd say supervised, keep them in the run and or keep them separated at all times.

 

[lazy gardener]

My Jack Russell mix will be 2 next month. I got her to be a chicken guard dog, hoping it would cut down on the hawk predation. She never maliciously chased chickens, but she enjoyed watching them run. She has a strong prey drive, loves to chase moving objects. She was at risk of getting hit in the road because she wanted to chase cars. She catches mice and birds.

Her first spring with us, I put her on a radio frequency collar so that she could run freely in a well defined area of our yard. I spent a fair amount of time working with her to "leave it". where chickens were concerned. No dice. If she got excited, which happened often if I was talking to a chicken, she'd break into a run, and go charging through a group of chickens. The chickens would then cluck, flap, and scatter... Oh what fun! So, I bought a remote control training collar. It took 2 corrections for her to learn that it was in her best interest to leave the chickens alone. She will now lay out in the yard, while the birds range around her. Unfortunately the collar had a short life (cheap import) so I will have to buy a new one if I need to renew her training.

 

[mizz9]

We have a rat terrier as well. VERY high prey drive. He goes nuts every time there is a squirrel, and I honestly don't think there's any way to train "squirrel mode" out of him. That being said, when we got our chicks he was REALLY interested in them but maybe not "squirrel mode" level. I was determined to make it work so I used a combination of positive and negative reinforcement to gradually get him used to the chickens.

We would bring him around the chicks ON LEASH for short periods of time to gradually get him used to them. At the time the chicks were small and confined to coop (no free range yet) I would have treats and if he was able to focus and do commands like "sit" and "down" near the coop he would get a treat because he was focusing on me instead of the chicks. If he could only accomplish this 20 feet away from the chickens we did not go any closer. Eventually he was able to do it 10 feet away from the chickens, and then almost right next to the coop. Around the same time we were about to start letting the chickens free range. He was becoming calmer even with them ranging but we would still keep him ON LEASH every time we let him outside.

The spray bottle was as a last resort if he was getting too hyper or focused on the chickens and then he would be brought back inside the house immediately to calm down.

As the chickens got bigger, they became just about as big as he is so I think that in combination with our exposure training got him less and less interested in him. They were no longer a small peeping novelty. Actually he became more interested in hunting down their poops in the yard for snacks. We still only brought him outside ON LEASH. After several weeks of him completely ignoring the chickens we were confident enough to try off-leash, and we have been fine ever since! In fact, the chickens sometimes chase HIM and try to peck at his butt/tail! He doesn't like that and runs away from them and they will chase! LOL. If he starts to get rambunctious he goes back inside immediately because I still don't trust the underlying prey drive. Sorry that was really long. Hope it is helpful to someone

 

[Frazzemrat1]

We have a rat terrier as well. VERY high prey drive. He goes nuts every time there is a squirrel, and I honestly don't think there's any way to train "squirrel mode" out of him. That being said, when we got our chicks he was REALLY interested in them but maybe not "squirrel mode" level. I was determined to make it work so I used a combination of positive and negative reinforcement to gradually get him used to the chickens.

We would bring him around the chicks ON LEASH for short periods of time to gradually get him used to them. At the time the chicks were small and confined to coop (no free range yet) I would have treats and if he was able to focus and do commands like "sit" and "down" near the coop he would get a treat because he was focusing on me instead of the chicks. If he could only accomplish this 20 feet away from the chickens we did not go any closer. Eventually he was able to do it 10 feet away from the chickens, and then almost right next to the coop. Around the same time we were about to start letting the chickens free range. He was becoming calmer even with them ranging but we would still keep him ON LEASH every time we let him outside.

The spray bottle was as a last resort if he was getting too hyper or focused on the chickens and then he would be brought back inside the house immediately to calm down.

As the chickens got bigger, they became just about as big as he is so I think that in combination with our exposure training got him less and less interested in him. They were no longer a small peeping novelty. Actually he became more interested in hunting down their poops in the yard for snacks. We still only brought him outside ON LEASH. After several weeks of him completely ignoring the chickens we were confident enough to try off-leash, and we have been fine ever since! In fact, the chickens sometimes chase HIM and try to peck at his butt/tail! He doesn't like that and runs away from them and they will chase! LOL. If he starts to get rambunctious he goes back inside immediately because I still don't trust the underlying prey drive. Sorry that was really long. Hope it is helpful to someone

Wow, my rat never had high prey drive. She was afraid of mice, even. Frazzem, my name on here, loved her ball, loved fetch, loved my lap; but she didn't have a prey drive.