Teaching the puppy not to chase the chickens

[possumhunter]

Any great ideas on this one? We've had the puppy for about 2 months now. He's a small breed mix (about 20 lbs) and he is very playful. He actually prefers to chase the rooster, because the rooster with turn around and "chase him back". Yesterday I saw him "catch" 3 hens. And by catch I mean he tried mating with them after they squatted... He doesn't actually hurt them and I am sure he is trying to play, but I've seen a couple of them run into the fence in the frenzy of trying to get away and I don't want them getting hurt.

Our last dog was older and had no interest in the chickens and I never had to deal with this. So I'm not really sure how to get him to stop. We are still training him to come when he's called, so that doesn't always work, especially when he is in the heat of the chase.

Oh yeah, and he just discovered the delicacy of the eggs in the chicken coop last week as well. So any ideas on getting him to leave the eggs alone would be appreciated too!

 

[Dar]

I brought my puppy to the coop on a short lead and trained the puppy that they were babies. anytime a chicken came close to us and she lunged for it she got a stern NO! when they came near us and she ignored she got a treat.

as she got better at ignoring them her lead got longer and now she is unleashed but still supervised

 

[25bengood2me]

You could try my trick - shoot him with a blast from a super soaker squirt gun!

 

[chickygrrl]

We had dogs first and then got chicks. At first, I'm pretty sure the dogs really wanted to kill the chicks. We kept them separated (dog on leash, or chickens behind a snow fence) at first and always made sure we were close by if both dogs and chickens were out at the same time. A stern "no" kept the dogs in order. We weren't sure how to finally allow the chickens to free range when the dogs were out until one day I saw the pit bull inside the chicken run. I figured all the girls were probably dead, but found them huddled in the corner of the coop and the dog was only eating out of their scrap dish. Now they all range around the yard together, but the coop is totally off limits to dogs.

My advice: train your pup to follow basic commands before you let him loose around the chickens and introduce them slowly, on a leash. Teach him that the coop is off limits.

 

[RAWR]

shock collar??

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I whipped my puppy for catching a hen. It worked.
About the egg eating. There is no way a dog could reach my nesting boxes. I would suggest you fix it so nothing can help themselves.

 

[drumstick diva]

If you let a pup(dog) run free BEFORE training them they won't come when you call. You train first on lead, so they can't disobey. You can always reel them in. Once they tasted freedom and learn you can catch them it's too late.

 

[drumstick diva]

sorry meant to write "once they know you CAN'T catch them it's too late.

 

[chookchick]

I would take this very seriously. If he is already trying to chase chickens it is only a matter of time before he will kill one or all. I am going to have to disagree with earlier posters in that I really don't think the chances of training him to ignore chickens is very good, with the behavior he has shown. Please take a look at the Predator and Pests forum for all the posts titled "MY Dog Ate My Chickens" or something like that. Some of these dogs had ignored the chickens, been trustworthy for months, and in a moment they killed all or almost all of the entire flock. IMHO you should build a dog-proof pen, and plan on never allowing them to interact in any way.

 

[possumhunter]

Thank you for all the advice, I will try leading him on a leash more and work on the training more in that direction. I have my birds free ranging, but we are in the process building a more permanent run (hubby is tired of poo on the deck). So that will make things a bit easier in that regard.