Our dogs- can they be trained to leave the chickens alone?

[skeezix05]

We have two Rottweilers. I'm afraid their herding instincts will hurt the chickens. Can they be trained to leave them alone or not kill them? Right now we rotate who goes outside. Dogs first and then the chickens and then the dogs :/

 

[centrarchid]

The can be trained. I suggest you work with dogs singly. If dogs pups and you are not practiced with training, then wait until dogs mature.

 

[Northie]

It depends on how well you have a handle on them and how well you can read and react to their body language. Definitely can be done even with dogs with prey drive but I wouldn't leave them unsupervised with them. Strange things can happen when we're not there to stop a bad situation from escalating. I would look into controlling prey drive and start on leash one at a time.
If they show a lot of interest in the birds you have more work cut out for you than if they're disinterested. There's lots of good training information out there and plenty of techniques so you just have to find the one that works best for your dog/situation.