Testing My Dogs with the Flock

[uniqueblacksheep]

We often expect a bit too much from our dogs. A few have outstanding protective instincts; most are just dogs. Her presence might make a hawk a bit nervous, but also might not. She's not a fence, merely a deterrence.

Thank you. I'm not counting that she is hawk deterrent, I was honestly just not loving having to take shifts with letting them free range and the dogs playing outside, but it wouldn't hurt my feelings if it helped a bit to be out with them.

 

[uniqueblacksheep]

Sounds like your dogs know that the chickens are part of “the family”.
I have a 90lb lab/boxer/greyhound mix who is actually somewhat afraid of my girls. He will be around them, but if they come to close he’s gone. I do think just having him around does help with hawks and coyotes or any other critters that may comes around. He’s a big boy and looks tough, but a total baby inside. Good luck on your chicks!

Aww he sounds like a good boy. I think it can't hurt with the hawks, right . Thank you

 

[uniqueblacksheep]

Honestly I never really thought about it? The dogs have been around all sorts of animals at my dad's farm, when we added chickens, it wasn't a big deal -- often when we throw out food scraps you will see the chickens jumping at the dogs to try and steal their food! And they are both cattle dogs, they just all live together in harmony! Could something happen? Well, I mean it could, but it's more likely a chicken will have something else happen to it before one of our dogs hurts them...and we definitely are low on what animals even come close to the house with the dogs running around peeing on everything all the time and trying to "chase" every turkey vulture in the sky

That is a very good point!! Thank you so much

 

[Chickengene]

I wouldn't trust any dog 100%. But our daughter dumped two dogs on us and they too are acclimated to the hens. Plus both of them are old. I can let the hens out with them. I only let them out for periodic runs because we too are overrun with hawks, which I personally consider varmints rather than something nice, but admittedly that's my biased opinion as a poultry keeper. True free-ranging is in my opinion an ideal rather than something that is actually feasible.

Admittedly, I know nothing about the in's and out's of raising chickens; thus the reason I joined the site.
I think my birds are true free-range birds, if I understand"free-range".
I am on six and a half acres. I turn my birds out at the crack of dawn, and they come back to roost just before dark. On one or two occasions I have seen one or two go outside the fence on the backside of the property, but they tend to use about half the six acres.
I have seen the occasional hawk, and an occasional bald eagle. I was a bit concerned too.

 

[uniqueblacksheep]

Well I thank you all for your time and advice. I wanted to update on how it went. So far its been about 3 weeks and the dogs are out with the chickens alot now. So far no agression at all. My poodle will get close and sniff, but that's the extent. My goldendoodle wants nothing to do with them