Teaching the dog?

[vanilla.exe]

Do you think we would be able to train the dog to leave the chickens alone? I thought maybe when they get a little bigger we can let him look at them while they're in the cage to get used to him and praise/treat him when he's calm or if he starts ignoring them. Any other suggestions? We'll never leave them alone with him but even so it only takes a second for a dog to snap a neck so at least if he's trained to stay away from them or whatever it might help. It would also help to keep predators away because as it is he barks and tries to get our attention if there are snakes in our general vicinity, so maybe he could learn to do the same about hawks and such.

 

[bobbi-j]

How old is the dog? What breed? You're going to get LOTS of opnions on this. I have an 8-year old black lab who has never been a problem with my chickens. He was taught from the time we got him (8 weeks old) that the chickens are not playthings. He is a bird dog. He hunts ducks and pheasants, but knows to leave the chickens alone. They all free-range all day, unsupervised. If you're starting with an adult dog, it may be more difficult, depending on the breed and personality of the dog. I hope you can make it all work.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Yes you will get a lot of different views about dogs and chickens.

We currently have 3 dogs. ALL came to us as adults. Male Cane Corso, Female Border Collie, Female Anatolian Shepherd.

All are perfect with the birds - they are out from sunup to sundown with the chickens, chicks, ducks and geese.

 

[vanilla.exe]

He's a german shepherd/lab mix, 2 years old. Has free run of the house/yard all day. My boyfriend's mom will bring him in if I ask her to so I can let the chickens out but 1. that feels rude and 2. he wouldn't be able to be cooped up in there for too long.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

I think - and it is just me - but I think it will depend upon two things:

1) how much prey drive he has and if you can redirect it. chasing the chicken is a "no" but chasing squirrels is "good boy" Our dogs are encouraged to "hunt" - squirrels, rats, packrats, mice, moles, rabbits - are all wonderful for the dogs to get and the dogs are praised greatly for bringing us what they catch - but chickens are a no, and worrying or harrassing chickens is a no..

2) how much time and attention you have to train the dog. You just cannot rely on someone else to work with the dog and be prepared for it to take time - maybe months before you and the chickens feel secure with the dog.





There are some dogs who can never be trusted around chickens - we owned one for 10 years, till he passed. It is hard work to have a non-chicken dog around birds - real hard work.

 

[carolinagirl58]

Quote:
so now, rather than go to all the trouble to answer the questions on forums, you charge people $30 for it. Dude.....this is SPAM. since you are really new here, it seems you ONLY joined the forum so that you can span. Is that it? Sorry...not too cool in my book.

 

[vanilla.exe]

Quote:
I have all the time in the world to work with him, and though he's not my dog, whatever training I do with him to keep him from hurting the chickens everyone else here will be happy to follow. He's got a pretty strong prey drive but he knows not to hurt the cats (he does bother them though by sniffing and chasing), but he was raised with a kitty since they've had the cat longer.

 

[mulewagon]

Quote:
This is interesting - how many dogs have you trained? And how long have they been tracked for relapses? How well do other people do with the training?

And is there someplace we can hear (in general) from your customers? A specific program to help dogs lose interest in chickens would be very helpful to me, if I could be sure it was effective most of the time...

 

[franklinchickens]

We have a grown lab who was 3 when we got our chicks. We raised the chicks in the house in a big tub and regularly had her sit or lay down near them while we held the chicks near her. We praised her and gave her treats. She never once showed aggression (she's not that sort) or real interest after smelling them thoroughly several times. We did this the whole 8 weeks they were inside and once we put them outside, she was out with them. She considers them part of the family now, like the cats, though she will chase other animals our of our yard. I think if you condition them to understand that they are not for chasing and that they are part of the family, it may work. Depends on the dog of course but the biggest fear our hens have of our dog is getting run over when she chases the ball.

 

[Urban Chaos]

and I've experienced the other side...my two dogs ate 9 5wk old chicks in one day. They broke into the coop and it was a total loss. I found an inexpensive (I'm on a tight budget) set of shock collars on Amazon. They have 3 settings - vibrate, low shock and high shock. We've been sending them a vibrate with voice command when they start towards the chickens - only had to use the low level shock twice. Now the chicks have gotten up on the porch with the dogs, the dogs dont even look at them. We've not pushed our luck with the dogs and chicks unsupervised, and likely never will.