One of our dogs killed 4 of our chickens today...

[patvetzal]

I originally bought an E- collar to train our new golden puppy. We have had dogs for forty years and are getting to old to do things the hard way if we don't have to..... The collar has worked so good that we now put it on other dogs that are visiting for a week-end so we can stop them from jumping against the door, barking at neighbours or chasing our chickens. It would be the first thing I would try on any dog that was a family member.

 

[SlipsWife]

I will admit we've been a little lazy training Khaos, our new dog. Knowing our great dane was going to be a large dog and that we would have to have control over him at all times we were very strict with him as a puppy and it has paid off now that he's 180lbs. We are still afraid he might step on the smaller chicks but once they are old enough to stay out from under foot, they will be fine. We had him out with them today and the 1 week olds were crawling all over him and he didn't care. Khaos was a rescue dog and is more than likely a pit/heeler mix. We've had him since he was about 4 months old and the worst behavior he exhibited when we got him was jumping up on people. We've turned something that was a bad behavior into fun for him by teaching him to 'hug' so he only jumps on command. About a month ago someone tried to break into our house while I was taking the younger kids to school and our 15 year old daughter was home alone, the officers that investigated believe that the dogs are what stopped him from coming into the house. Our daughter had Smith and Wesson on her side but no parent wants their child to be in that situation. We don't want to get rid of him but I don't know how to teach him that this is not ok. We had him outside with us with all of the chickens, the 3 one month olds that are left and 13 one week olds and he never even looked at them today. He acted as though they weren't there! We put up our new run today and will just keep introducing him to them until he realized they are here to stay. My husband thinks he might be trying to play with them since he likes to chase and play with our chihuahua/dachshund/terrier mix that's 11lbs. He just doesn't realize the chickens are fragile.

 

[ozarkchicks]

Once a chicken killer always a chicken killler. I've always been taught, and so has my mom who grew up her whole life with chickens, that once a dog gets the taste for chicken blood it's all over

 

[centrarchid]

Once a chicken killer always a chicken killler. I've always been taught, and so has my mom who grew up her whole life with chickens, that once a dog gets the taste for chicken blood it's all over

My expereince has been very different with lots of dogs, chickens and years. Keep and open mind and put a little effort forward to see good working relationship between past chicken killer-dog and the flock.

 

[Ellies Farm]

I think you need to resign yourself to the fact that this behavior is natural to them and you will never change it. One of our dogs is exactly the same so we have organized the fencing so that het can never get to the chickens. Easier on everyone!

 

[LauraSac]

We have three dogs, a 12 year old German Shepherd mix, a 2 1/2 year old American Pit Bull Terrier, and a 3 year old Chiweenie. Our Chiweenie is not only small, he has a malformed jaw, so he can't really do damage. Yesterday was the first day our two pullets went into the run, and our little guy was the best behaved of all the dogs. He was curious, but he only barked at them twice and when he did, they couldn't care less. Our Pit Bull, on the other hand, spooked them, as did our German Shepherd mix. Our Pit Bull is a rescue, and we're still training him. We were able to get him to "leave it" with some tasty liver treats, but that's just to leave the run alone. I don't think we'll ever have the girls free ranging with him around. But who knows. He's great with our elderly cat, so maybe he'll get over the excitement about the chickens. Our German Shepherd mix probably has the strongest prey drive. She's a crafty rat killer and is the only one who has ever caught a squirrel. At her age, and with her hunting instincts, teaching her to leave the hens alone doesn't seem as likely. She, too, is good with our old kitty, but I'd rather not find out how she'd do with the hens. Better safe than sorry, especially since we only have a two hen flock, and can only add one more per city regulations.

 

[pinusresinosa]

Dogs have instincts, but that's no excuse for a dog to take it upon itself to do anything, especially killing things that it sees and knows live on your property with your permission. This all stems from a very shaky foundation, and the only way you're ever going to have a dog that you can trust around your birds is if you start repairing that foundation of respect. I say this over and over again. This doesn't happen from tying dead birds to necks or shock collars or hitting the dog. It starts with you commanding that your dog respects your direction. Most dogs in families do not do this and it seems to me that people complain about this but aren't really bothered enough by it to really do anything about it... or change their way of thinking and approach to their dog or dogs. If this offends you, I'm sorry... not my intention.

A trainer can show you how to teach a dog something, but they can't instill this foundation. Only you can do it for yourself and your dog.

Once you've established this foundation which, most all dogs are perfectly intelligent enough and capable, willing to adhere to, then you can work on necessary training around the birds teaching your dog that it can be around the birds but they are not food or toys... again, perfectly attainable regardless of instincts. Dogs are smart and have a lot of self control, believe it or not. And as I always say, if a dog doesn't actually have the ability to do these things, don't let it have puppies.

Too many dogs are being bred without this basic intelligence these days.. there was a time when dogs were only allowed to breed if they worked with people in a way that was helpful. The crappy dogs were dispatched. Anyway...

But then again, most people seem perfectly fine with a dog that runs their lives, whether they want to admit it or not. And that's fine... as long as these dogs aren't going onto other people's properties and destroying someone else's birds or stuff or biting their kids or killing their cats or whatever, as I always say. I have friends and family with dogs like this and there was even a time when I had a dog like this, but my life back then was hellish because of it and visiting these people is hellish. I don't bother with it anymore. And not just because of their dogs either.

 

[LauraSac]

I agree. Dogs can be trained. Our dogs are all rescues and have, at best, suffered neglect. Our Pit Bull was abused, chained up and left to die. He nearly did. That doesn't mean he's not trainable. It just means that he's starting from scratch at 2 years old, with lots of energy and strength. He's been a joy to train. I only use positive reinforcement. People confuse positive reinforcement with letting the dog do whatever they want. It couldn't be further from the truth. But demanding respect doesn't require a heavy hand or frightening a dog. I refuse to put an electric collar on a dog that had to have an embedded chain surgically removed from his skin. Our older dog was very easy to train to leave our cats alone, despite her desire to normally chase cats. However, that was a decade ago. Because we've been more than happy to let her kill rats, redirecting her natural instincts at 12 years old isn't something I'm planning on investing a lot of time with. Showing her and the other two that the hens are cared for and are to be respected, like we did with our cats, will go a long way. But she's not mentally where she was when she was younger. I have no intention of leaving her alone with the hens. She's already lived a long life. We likely don't have that much more time with her. Besides, at this stage, she spends most of her days inside anyway. She still loves her walks, but her days of playing out back all day are long gone. It really won't be an issue, especially since the hens won't free range without supervision anyway. We have too many hawks and too tiny a flock to risk them.

 

[akelley]

Get a GOOD shock collar meant to train hunting dogs. It should have an adjustable shock, plus a vibrate feature where you have the option to vib/shock, or just vibrate. We start with ours on the lowest shock. Let the dog out and any time it goes to the fence (or displays a behavior you want to correct) issue a verbal warning and vibrate the collar simultaneously. If the dog doesn't listen, repeat the command and vib/shock. If they stop the behavior, praise them. If not, dial up the shock and repeat. The biggest thing with these collars is timing. They HAVE to associate the vibrate or shock with the negative behavior and the verbal command. Once you get the timing down, it will work quickly. We have three catahoulas ( hog hunting breed) and have only had to use the collar daily for a week with each of them. After that they respond to the verbal commands alone. The young ones need a "refresher" every once in a while, but not often.

I think if you really stay on top of your dog, he can learn to accept that the chickens are not a buffet. You will need to really secure your run, though, in case of slip-ups and other predators.

Good luck!

 

[pinusresinosa]

I have family that uses shock collars... well, "uses" on their hunting labs. They appear to be useless though, according to others. I've never hunted with them, not interested in doing so. Dogs build up to that pain, dogs that are going to do what they want how they want when they want. Pain is just an annoyance, means nothing when experienced over and over again.