New puppy killed my roo yesterday.

[Chatychick]

Sounds like a coon to me and the dog was just showing you where it was...A coon can dismantle a chicken and eat it thru the chicken wire fence...had it done here before when the chicken slept to close, also dogs eat the chicken from the bottom and dont take time to dehead the chicekn first either. Yep sounds like a coon or skunk...

 

[Hotwings]

Quote:
I was wondering the same thing. Dogs generally don't bite heads off. A dog will will tend chew a body up. One thing to know is know your predators hunting trends, racoons, possums and such will bite heads off. Some predators hunt only at night. If the dog had gotten in the pen there should be some sign. I wouldn't be so quick to blame the dog till you are 100% sure.

 

[Mulemom]

Well, I'm pretty sure it was the dog. She was slow to come out when we got home and when she did she came from the bushes where we found Bob. Now when I let her out she goes straight for the run and starts barking and jumping at my hens to get them all flapping. She hadn't done that since we first brought her home. I broke her of that by sitting in the run with a hose and squirting her in the face everytime she jumped at the fence.

I'm gonna put the portable hotwire set up around the coop today. That should solve that pretty quick.

Some folks have asked what kind of dog. She was a stray but we think she's got some German Wirehair Pointer (yeah, I know, a bird dog).

 

[robin416]

I feel for the frustration your going to go through, try it with 3 all puppies all part black lab. Two of those puppies learned rapidly that the birds are mine, the leader of that pack has been more pigheaded.

I caught him with one of my guineas the other day, holding it down, licking it. The lucky thing is that he soft mouths them instinctively so does no physical damage.

The thing that triggered forgetting his training was the adult flock of guineas going after the teenage flock. Since the adults are now part of his pack, the adults attacking the teenagers must be OK for him too.

His leader was hot. She would not talk to him or look at him but praised his brothers. He watches me like a hawk until I will finally acknowledge him, usually the next day. Then we go on for months without any problems.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
I have a 20 lb Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that could care less about the birds. He has been been around them since they were chicks. He used to try to climb in the brooder and catch the chicks, but we taught him not to. When they were younger he would sit in the backyard watching them run around. If any chick try to stray from the rest, he would herd them back into the group. Those birds are 18 months old now and have free run of our backyard and so does he. Even when we are at work for eight hours, they run the yard, and he has free access to the backyard all day long. He doesn't pay them any mind and they don't pay any mind to him.

With the new batch of chicks we've raised the past month he has sat at the edge of the brooder for hours at a time watching them. Since we've moved them outside to the coop/pen at four weeks old we let them run the yard in the evening and he is right there with them, but never touches them. Every now and again they get brave enough to peck him on the nose, he jumps back and then goes on to do something else.

 

[Happyhenz]

Hi the fact that the head was taken off your roo suggests to me that it wasnt your puppy.
You say there was no hole where she could have gotten into the coop so maybe another predator got the roo?
then the puppy finding your roo played with it and maybe chewed it up a bit?
Dogs will generally pull at the back of the bird and remove feathers before eating the bird.
Of course the puppy is going to be a little slow to come out, you were searching for your roo probabaly knowing something bad had happened coz of the feathers and the energy you would have given off was picked up by the pup and she stayed hidden.
Dogs dont have the capability of guilt or remorse so if she had done it she wouldnt be thinking "oh oh im in for it now i killed the roo".
She would have been thinking "geez shes mad/upset about something im staying right here".
If another predator got in your coop and chased your birds around a bit your pup would have run up and down the coop barking excitedly at the flurry of birds, so naturally when she is aloud out she remembers the great game that went on before and goes back to the scene for playtime.
I would seriously look at how the predator (whom ever it was) got into the coop in the first place and removed your roo.