The downside of raising chickens with dogs....

[Nicole01]

My chickens do NOT see dogs as predators. A couple days ago I was free ranging my girls when a big black lab dog came into our yard and was just a few feet from where they were free ranging.

I always supervise my chickens for this very same reason. People don't care that their dogs run free. I called out to my daughter to aid me into getting the chickens into saftey as I kept the dog away from my chicks. Luckily, no one was hurt and I scooted the dog out of my yard.

Here are a couple pictures of my dogs and the chickens together. This is our Golden Retriever Bailey saying hello to Annabelle.

This is Annie our Aussie and Bailey hanging out with the girls. My dogs and chickens get along very well.

 

[lowry075]

Beautiful picture though.

 

[HEChicken]

That surprises me. We had an old dog when we got our chickens. They grew up with him and didn't pay him any heed when he went into the yard to do his business. Then we signed on as foster parents for the local humane society and what I noticed was that any new dog we took into the backyard was cause for enormous alarm, flapping, squawking, running in all directions. I took every foster dog out on a leash just to be safe. A month ago we got our own new dog. Once again, they reacted with alarm to the introduction of the new dog and for the first few days, continued to treat her with enormous suspicion. It was only once they became accustomed to her presence that they stopped reacting and relaxed. So, even though they were used to our old dog, each new dog is still treated as a potential predator.

 

[Nicole01]

It surprised me too. I would think they would of run for cover.