New puppy needs training asap *Updates and training tips for your puppies!*

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Well, last Friday some loser dumped a perfectly sweet hound mix puppy down our road and she came to my yard. She is probably a redbone mix, and is about 9 weeks old from the look of her. I have taken her in and have become attached even though I generally shy away from dogs, so I know she is special. My husband seems to like her okay but feels he doesn't have time to watch her while I'm away, especially while she is still in potty training. There are only about 3 hours a day he is alone with her so this shouldn't be hard, but I need to train her quickly to leave the chickens alone so he can just put her in the fenced in yard (where the chickens also live) when I'm gone.

We are going to train her to be a hunting dog (If he lets me keep her) so that kind of worries me because putting her with the chickens unattended for 3 hours seems like a conflict of interests in that case...the rest of the time she will be a house dog. She is sweet as can be. She has tried to chase them twice but once I said 'No' she stopped. Does anyone have coonhounds or other hunting breeds that they have successfully trained to leave the chickens alone and how did you do it? Also we have no other dogs. She currently lives in the house with my cat and though she plays a little enthusiastically for the cat's taste, the puppy does not touch her, she just 'trees' her, so to speak. I'm working on teaching her to be more gentle with the cat and it is working, but we've only had her for 3 days.

 

[mickey328]

Ours aren't hunting dogs, but we have 3 of them. When we first brought the girls home, it raised quite the stir. The chickens are in a portable pen made with poles woven thru the wire and then pounded into the ground. We move it every 2 or 3 days. The dogs rushed the fence a few times and the little ones climbed the dang thing (we've since cut those nails

Now that the "new" has worn off (it's been about 2 weeks now) mostly they go and lay down and just watch them. We finally opened the doggie door up yesterday and let them come and go without supervision.

Would it be possible for you to pen yours up till the new dog gets more used to them? It might take longer with a puppy because she'll want to play, but if you make sure she has lots and LOTS of exercise, she'll likely get to the point where they don't interest her too much.

HTH
Mickey

 

[theoldchick]

No polite way to put it: Putting the pup with the chickens unsupervised ain't gonna work. Takes time and effort to train a pup. And since she's a hound who's gonna grow up to be a hunting dog, there are certain behavioral instincts you want to encourage.

If you two humans can't work out a plan it might be in everyone's best interest to send the pup to a local rescue or to another home. Otherwise you will come come to a massacre and all kinds of emotions are going to erupt between you two humans.

Make your chickens safe. Build them a predator-proof area, and keep the pup away from them. As she grows and continues training you might be able to turn her into a flock guardian, but it ain't gonna happen overnight.

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

I'd like to pen them up for a while to get her used to them but their coop is only big enough for them to sleep in, not to live in I have too many chickens haha. Theoldchick, I understand what you are saying. We have not had a dog for a year. We have been married 3 1/2 years and have always had an amazing relationship and similar goals. A couple years ago we decided we wanted to have a pet and it was going to be a dog because I had tried to bring my cat over from mom and dad's but he had trouble adjusting to the new place because he is getting old and set in his ways, plus we couldn't take his girlfriend with him lol so sadly I had to take him back. Hubby found a pit mix at the shelter and we made the mistake of taking him because he was cute in the picture on the internet instead of both of us spending a lot of time with him before adopting. (Can you tell we are young?)

This dog turned out to be special needs in that he had the most severe case of separation anxiety/hyperactiveness I have ever seen or heard of but we had to keep him tied up a few hours a day because there was a short span of time when we were both at work and if we kept him in his kennel inside he would chew the bars until his gums bled. One day the part that connected to his collar broke and he wiped out half my old flock, which I acquired long after we adopted the dog. Now, I am by no means saying that that wouldn't happen again with this dog, it certainly could. However this pup is everything that our first dog was not in terms of calmness and willingness to learn and so I guess I'm saying I'm having trouble letting go of this shred of hope that it might work one day. I shouldn't have said 'asap' haha I know you can't train a puppy quickly, I just want my hubby to love her like I already do...I don't know what's wrong with me, I don't even like most dogs, I'm a cat person, but something is really telling me to keep her.

 

[mickey328]

Can you make a portable "pen"? Take the hens out of the coop and plop them in the pen for a few hours. Don't even have to take 'em all...just 2 or 3 would help pup get more used to them. Absolutely NO unsupervised "visits" tho...trouble can crop up in a flash and you want to be there to handle it

Mickey

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Well, my construction skills are shabby at best and we don't have enough money to go buy a prebuilt chicken tractor (I'm still in college)...hmm...what do you think if I put a couple chickens in a large live trap I have and let the puppy sniff them? Supervised, of course.

 

[CAjerseychick]

It will take more than just having your pup smell the birds-- it would be best for you to enroll in a basic obedience class with her, and if it is just 3 hours a day, maybe you could put her on a chain for those hours until you can rig up a better solution ( I have one chicken eating dog that goes on a chain in the garage when we are gone, so that the other two can come and go as they please, since they dont eat the chickens.)....

PS she sounds really sweet, and you have made a connection with her, no telling what will happen to her if you give her up -- I say try to make it work! If she is so calm maybe you can even just unroll some poultry netting and fence off a partition between her and the chickens in the yard, and just train her to respect the fencing ( I dont have any carpentry skills either-- our grow out pen was just 4 window screens fixed together and it worked fine...)

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I posted this in another thread recently so sorry if this is repeat info but 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.

Here is what I personally recommend: The most important thing to focus on overall is controlling your dogs impulse control. Especially with a new puppy. 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.

I would introduce the dog to the chickens on a leash and just sit and be calm. 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. With my dogs I brought them back when they were calm and started all over again. and again and again. lol. It took a bit of patience but within a few days all of the dogs ignored 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. 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.

Dogs want to make you happy so bad, so if you can just find a way to tell them what you want then they will do it.

For fun, here is my dog, Lou, with a silkie chick who fell in love with her.

 

[mickey328]

I hear ya! I'm no good at construction either...I leave that to hubby. I did rig the "fence" for the pen tho...got some wire...not quite hardware cloth, but similar in that it has a rectangular mesh. Got some metal poles about 5 feet tall...it's some sort of pipe, I think...about 3/4 to 1 inch. I sort of wove the pole thru the wire a few times and then pounded the pole into the ground far enough for it to stay straight, then went on to the next. If the "weaving" doesn't suit, you can also use cable ties. I went around in a rough circle till it was closed. We're temporarily housing them in a rabbit cage, pending completion of the coop so we just move the whole thing every few days. You'd definitely have to supervise puppy since the "fence" isn't very sturdy, but it did the trick for our dogs. They will run out there and look but otherwise don't fuss at all.

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

That may be what we end up doing. Hopefully it won't last too long because I think once she is potty trained and grows out of her puppy chewing stage she can stay inside during that time. Hubby likes her a lot more than our first dog (as do I). She even came out here on his birthday so it was almost like a sign lol but he's not a multi-tasker like myself so he doesn't feel like he has time to follow her every move making sure she doesn't chew inappropriate things or poop on the floor while trying to do some work around the house or his exercise routine, which I can understand.