Official BYC Poll: What Kind Of Relationship Do Your Dogs & Chickens Have?

[AgnesGray]

you're a very lucky dog lover.

Agreed! We for sure lucked out with this one!

 

[Audio51]

RILEY loves my chicken She's a Golden Retriever and loves everyone and everything. She especially loved leaning up after them.

 

[Bridget B]

We have a German Shorthaired Pointer that has a huge prey drive. We did some training on quail as a pup and the first time he found one and pointed, all was in order. The pro's want pups chasing the bird to "up the drive" so the bird was kicked up for him to chase. He actually chased the bird down and caught it. He brought it to me totally unharmed, still dry and none the worse for wear.

We did not keep up on that training, and I'm glad we didn't. He is so gentle with our chickens. He still goes on point around them but mostly he is on point with the doves that are always around where the chickens free range. One of our hens introduced herself to Dutch by nailing him hard when he got too nosey. That pretty much cured him of getting too close. I allow him in with the chickens when I'm there to monitor the behavior. Once the birds flew over their fence into his yard, I don't know how long they were together but nothing happened, no feathers were ruffled. I know it would be different with chicks, and would not dream of letting him near. We are looking forward to many years of chickens and Dutch.

 

[obsidian73]

I cast two votes for my two dogs that have chicken access. One guards them ferociously. The other is a chicken guardian in training and would play with them if he could get to them.

This is my girl that I adopted this spring. Anything that looks crosswise at her birds gets told that she will not tolerate it. haha She's a good, if sometimes scary, protector and gives the best snuggles too. She repays me every single day way beyond anything I did for her by adopting her.
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Is she a full GP?

 

[AgnesGray]

Is she a full GP?

No, she surprised us and is about 40% maremma, 30% GP, and 30% kangal/anatolian according to embark dna.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I have 4 dogs...

-my 7 year old Irish Setter cross & his 'mini-me' (a chocolate brown year old pup, an evil cross between a Tasmanian devil and a 2 year old child) would chase them down and rip them limb from limb if I let them anywhere near the birds. They fancy themselves as 'hunters' and their prey drive is off the charts. I've tried training the pup to be a bit less 'go git em' but she's beyond 'waiting'.... her 'go' button is stuck at 100 miles per hour at the best of times.

-my Lab cross & my red heeler vacillate between wanting to snoof them and lick their feathers while following them around for hours.. or they want to just lay in the dirt with them and eat as much bird poop as they can... they are the less bright of the 4 LOL

Ayup. Sound an awful lot like dogs to me ...

 

[HappyClucker7]

I don't have a dog right now. However, in a couple years, I plan on getting an LGD to guard my flocks.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I don't have a dog right now. However, in a couple years, I plan on getting an LGD to guard my flocks.

Cool! What kind?

 

[HappyClucker7]

Cool! What kind?

I'm thinking a Great Pyrenees. They're personalities really seem to match exactly what I'm looking for in a dog.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm thinking a Great Pyrenees. They're personalities really seem to match exactly what I'm looking for in a dog.

And will you train it yourself or hire a trainer, or ...?