Texas

[showbarnmom]

This is my pointer mix. She went through bird dog training, exceptional, till a gun went off. Anyways. She tries to eat chicks. Licks them first, all sweet like. Then tries to bite their heads off like gummy bears. I let the girls out for a few hours at first. And just watched. She went up to investigate several times. Which would make the birds run off. She would try to catch them, and a stern "ah-leave it", and she would. For about two seconds. Rinse repeat for about three weeks.

Now when the girls are out, she goes running through the flock full speed just to make the scatter. Think the bowling scene from lion king with timing and pumba. And she runs right up to me or the porch.

 

[TexasLisa]

Once I moved my roost up high, and the boxes down low, mine stopped sleeping in the boxes.

Good morning Lisa. That sounds like progress!

Tall does has it's advantages.

Y'all are gonna make me go read the tree huggers blah blah again? They were burning up about a page an hour over there yesterday. Y'all got em fired up.
Gotta go. The chickens have finished their oatmeal and raisins and its time for their massages and then its a quick shower and nail clipping.

Tall definitely has its advantages! He is 6'4" and I am 5'1". I just wish he would be around when I am grocery shopping!!!

Keep moving them at night. May take several weeks.

Great advice! That is what we are going to do with the 3 SS.

How are you going to Galveston? Coming close to Rosenberg?

Lisa

 

[hotrodflash]

How successful are people, generally, in getting dogs to leave chickens alone?

Thoughts, please, on dogs and chickens and is there any hope to get the pit and the chickens outside together.

Thanks.

I have 2 dogs, the oldest one is almost 13 and could care less about the chickens as long as they don't disturb his naps. If they disturb him, he gets up, huffs at them and wanders away to another spot to nap. My other dog is 8 1/2 month old mostly golden lab mix. He wallowed one of my chickens, didn't hurt her, just slobbered on her. He got a spanking, not hard just enough to let him know he was wrong, and I laid on top of him for about 5 minutes. He has not touched a chicken since that day. The 3 week old chicks eat out of his food pan and he raises his lip at them but he knows not to touch them.

All of my pets, dogs and cat, know that the chickens are "babies" and they can't touch. My chickens free range all day and are all around the dogs and cat all day long.

 

[yinepu]

No, I think it was actually our mockingbird teasing me, LOL! Its OK, I love our mockingbirds for their sense of humor and interpreter skills But we have one that is a night owl and does chicken calls, guinea call or even car alarms in the middle of the night. One day she was out there imitating the sound of my radio fence alarm that goes off when my goat eats through one of the wires

I didn't see anything obvious and I still heard "chick sounds" in the distance. So pretty sure it was her again

I sure hope it wasn't one of my new Blue Isbar or Cream Legbar chicks being carried off by a bird of prey somehow. I am pretty sure my headcount at bed time was good, LOL!

Oh I feel your pain. We have a couple mockingbirds that love to see me run out the front door in a panic because they are calling with a little critter distress calls.

I can just picture them pointing at me, laughing and then high-fiving each other

 

[PSJ]

Good morning Lisa. That sounds like progress!

Tall does has it's advantages.

Y'all are gonna make me go read the tree huggers blah blah again? They were burning up about a page an hour over there yesterday. Y'all got em fired up. Gotta go. The chickens have finished their oatmeal and raisins and its time for their massages and then its a quick shower and nail clipping.

Don't forget to use some essential oils for those massages! haha!

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
mine know to leave the birds along. Stray cats are fair game though.. so is any animal that doesn't "live here"


The last of our rabbits has been "free range" for the past few months... (we let her in with the baby emu and she eventually left the pen.. only to come back every day when it's feeding time. then lounges in the front yard in the tall grass) our barn cats like to harass her a bit.. but they all know each other so it's never anything more than play stalking only to leap up in the air like a maniac at the last moment. Wild rabbits are dinner though. We find bits and pieces of them on the front porch about once a week or so.

 

[bnjrob]

Although, something funny about bed time tonight... I have two main coops set up. One for juveniles/chicks and one for adults. I let everyone out today to free range. The babies stay in the run but everyone else was out having grasshopper for lunch

I had to get my boys to bed and the youngest still nurses and he was taking for.e.v.e.r to go to sleep. So I went out well past dark to lock up the coops knowing everyone would have put them selves up except the seriously stupid guineas who would still be banging their heads into the fence for a few hours....

I was right, they did put themselves up as usual. But this time they all decided to mix it up. Some of the juveniles were in the adult coop, some of the adults were in the juvenile coop and the roosters decided to switch coops, LOL! Alright, whatever... as long as everyone is safe from the boogie man

No kidding! Much better than having loose birds or having to actually find them and carry them to their coops.

 

[wlhtx]

We have two dogs: an 11 yr old boxer (super arthritic and slow, but she loves to chase goats even though she is so slow now that she can't really catch them or do them any harm) and a 2 yr old South African Boerboel. The boerboel was/is our problem with the chickens. When we first got them, he was still a puppy and we figured out pretty quick that he has a high prey drive. This breed is very large (he has still not quite matured and he is edging on 160lbs) and they were bred for homestead protection. Google them and it will tell you that they are the most protective, non aggressive breed. From a puppy he has instinctively done this thing where, when any strangers come around, he will literally sit right beside you and lean into you so that he can keep a watch on the stranger while still maintaining physical contact with you. It's pretty cool. BUT, he likes to chase. Goats, deer, our other dog, the cat, the chickens. When he was a puppy, the first time he caught a chicken, I think he was unsure what to do with it and we were thankfully there to make him let it go unharmed. To be honest, we have him too much credit in the beginning. He would be fine so we would turn out attention elsewhere, then look back up to realize that he was chasing and - eventually eating a chicken. He killed and ate 5 hens from the established flock that was given to us when we started out with chickens before I just started leaving the birds penned all the time. For months we played musical animals, letting each of them out at separate times during the day - never together. It was a total pain. Then we eventually moved our chicken pen to the other end of our pasture, much further away from the house. We started letting the chickens out more and more, while letting Timba out at the same time (with me keeping eagle eyes on him). He would (and honestly still does) periodically try to chase. But he has not deliberately caught and killed one in nearly a year now. He has - during brief chases - swatted at and struck one hen and one of our ducks. He is so dang big that it cause both of them to have internal injuries that hey died from...

All this to say, I still free range my birds. We live on a large piece of property and the goats and birds are free to roam where they want - though they mostly only roam within 1-2 acres, maybe 3 from their pens. Timba is allowed out with them during the day so long as one of us is home. (My husband's a high school football coach, so he's home a good bit right now.) if we are gone, Timba stays in our shop. Thankfully, we are so active outside that we have not had any instances of day time predators (no coyotes, fox, etc,), knock on wood. Our predation problems have been at night, so now we do make both dogs sleep outside at night. The birds are penned, of course.

Ours is not a perfect free range scenario. But, again, the husband is home a good portion of the day. Thankfully, we live very close to the school so he comes home during the day during the schoolyear to check on everybody. I think (hope) that as he continues to mature that we can eventually trust him to stay outside all the time to guard the place, including the chickens. I'm continuing to work very hard on training him to understand that the birds are MINE and that chasing them is not okay. I've recently created a new pen for the juveniles that is right off our back porch. The juvies get to free range during the day as well since they stay right by the house. He has gotten MUCH better and will now mostly stay still, watching them if they come up to us while we are outside. I don't 100% trust him yet, but we're getting there.

From my understanding of dachshunds, they were initially bred for a very high prey drive (chasing and killing weasels, etc.), so I am not sure that you can train them otherwise. The pit bull mix I bet you could. Especially as he matures and if you train him to understand that the birds are off limits to him. I will say that I would maybe take him outside with the birds by himself (without he dachshunds). One thing we found with Timba was that of our kids were out (my kids also get a kick out of chasing and trying to catch the chickens), then Timba would get excited and try to join in the fun. If your dachshunds stir up havoc, then the pit mix will feed off of them and will never learn to be settled when he's out with the birds.

Sorry for the long post, and I'm not re-reading it before posting it - so please forgive any weirdness that my phone's auto correct may have done.

 

[yinepu]

From my understanding of dachshunds, they were initially bred for a very high prey drive (chasing and killing weasels, etc.), so I am not sure that you can train them otherwise. The pit bull mix I bet you could. Especially as he matures and if you train him to understand that the birds are off limits to him. I will say that I would maybe take him outside with the birds by himself (without he dachshunds). One thing we found with Timba was that of our kids were out (my kids also get a kick out of chasing and trying to catch the chickens), then Timba would get excited and try to join in the fun. If your dachshunds stir up havoc, then the pit mix will feed off of them and will never learn to be settled when he's out with the birds.

we have a dachshund who is three years old. We have been doggy sitting him for almost a year now (he will be going home soon). At first chicken was on his menu. He would go after them like they were the last bargain at a dollar day sale. FINALLY broke him of it.. but it did take a lot of correction and watching to get the point across. He will still go after any other critter that doesn't "belong" here. But at least he has learned that chickens are not his prey.

 

[NickyPick]

I have 2 young dogs (5) that were absolutely fascinated when I first got chickens 2 years ago. The lab/shepherd mix has a high prey drive and has gone after the wild doves, squirrels and foxes that roam our yard. She also has an extremely strong willing to please attitude. The first time she went after a chicken (it shot out the door of the run before I could stop it), I shouted and she immediately dropped it. Never went after one again. I was completely stunned at the immediate compliance. My other dog is a Australian Shepherd that was stuck in a condo with minimal attention for her first 3 years of life. She got so overly excited about things when I first got her, that she would lose her mind! But, she's so smart and it didn't take long for her to also realize the chickens were off limits for chasing. We did a lot of on leash walks through the barn when they were loose.
Now, it's funny. I'll head from the house to the barn with all three large dogs (mom's border/golden mix that wouldn't hurt a fly) and the chickens will see me coming. We all go through the feed room and when I open the door to the barn, the 3 dogs shoot through the mass of chickens that have gathered right in front of the door waiting for me. No one acts afraid and the dogs just go through them and start hunting for treats, while the chickens mug me for their treats. Cracks me up every time.

Now, If I could only get them to quit barking at the horses.....