The neighbors dog

[centrarchid]

The BB gun approach can work but must be done properly to be effective. When it serves as an effective approach, it still is not legal. The business about using higher powered weapons is more a mechanism to protect shooter from lawsuit than enhance protection of livestock. I am ignoring the animal cruelty part because killing is a wee bit meaner than spanking.

 

[The Lazy L]

Looked out the window and saw a commotion. There was a giant dog and a flapping chicken by our fence. I immediately ran outside yelling with my daughter right on my heals. The big dog must have rammed the coop and 2 of my girls escaped. As soon as we got the dog off chicken 1, he ran and cornered chicken 2. The whole chicken was in his mouth. I yelled and hit and made such a ruckus I couldn't believe the dog wasn't letting go of the bird. My daughter captured chicken 1 and put her into our house while we worked on getting the other chicken away from the dog. It was horrible and we were quite shaken from the whole ordeal. When we succeeded in pulling the dog away, we went searching for the owner. After walking for about 20 minutes, we found the owner and explained what had happened. He didn't even say he was sorry, or hoped the birds would be fine..or thanks for bringing my dog to me. Grrrrr, what a nice guy! Needless to say, the birds now have a new sturdier coop, and I'm always watching out for that dog.

Shoot, Shut up and Shovel is a proven solution.

 

[Indichic1]

I live in town, so there's no way a gun could be fired at the dog. I couldn't shoot and kill a dog anyway, unless it was attacking my human children. I am first and foremost an animal lover of most all species. Dogs and cats being #1 and #2, just not real sure of what order, guess it depends on what day it is, and who has behaved best on such day. Chickens are new to me, and I am quite surprised that they have their own personalities...just like dogs and cats..who would've thunk it? Anyhow, my chicken kids are becoming quite important to me, and I just want to do my best to keep them safe and happy. We have built a new fence with a sturdy gate. The chickens have a brand new predator proof coop..which they don't like. They prefer their little rickety tractor coop that they grew up in and was given to me when I adopted them. I let them stay in their little coop, and have made sure they have access to the big sturdy coop too. There's no way a dog could get into it. We plan on building the girls another tractor very similar to the rickety one..except much sturdier. My husband wants to purchase a big heavy duty dog pen to put inside the fence, so the chickens would have 2 layers of defense.

 

[21hens-incharge]

Chickens are resistant to change. If you want them to stop using the original tractor you can put them in the new coop and keep them there for a couple days. While they are locked up remove the old tractor and they should take to the new coop.
I agree on the 2 layers of defense as well.
My yard has 6 foot chain link on 3 sides and one side is privacy fence. I have built the chicken run out of chain link as well.
I built a new coop last fall and had 3 chickens that refused to go in on their own at night. I just kept putting them in each night while I worked on getting the old coop removed. No longer an issue here.

 

[Starfire669]

I live in town, so there's no way a gun could be fired at the dog.  I couldn't shoot and kill a dog anyway, unless it was attacking my human children.  I am first and foremost an animal lover of most all species.  Dogs and cats being #1 and #2, just not real sure of what order, guess it depends on what day it is, and who has behaved best on such day.  Chickens are new to me, and I am quite surprised that they have their own personalities...just like dogs and cats..who would've thunk it? Anyhow, my chicken kids are becoming quite important to me, and I just want to do my best to keep them safe and happy.  We have built a new fence with a sturdy gate.  The chickens have a brand new predator proof coop..which they don't like.  They prefer their little rickety tractor coop that they grew up in and was given to me when I adopted them.  I let them stay in their little coop, and have made sure they have access to the big sturdy coop too.  There's no way a dog could get into it.   We plan on building the girls another tractor very similar to the rickety one..except much sturdier.  My husband wants to purchase a big heavy duty dog pen to put inside the fence, so the chickens would have 2 layers of defense.  

I am in a similar situation to you, I live outside the city limits, but only by a mile and a half. My neighbors are close enough that if I fired a gun I could hit them from ricochet. There is a man up the street who feeds every loose dog and just recently stole a purebred Siberian husky, luckily for the Siberian people called me (as I breed and raise show Siberians and agility Siberians).The original owners had put up flyers and we were able to get him back home. The owners told us how the dog got loose, with owners in pursuit, and then a black SUV pulled up and grab the dog. They lost the SUV in traffic but got close enough to flyer our neighborhood. The thief doesn't take care of the dogs he has, yet steals more? It's mind blowing! This mans loose dogs (at last count 10-12, and running in 2 packs) have menaced my animals many times, last year they even cornered my outside cat (who is a great mouser) and tried to kill her. I beat the dang dogs with a baseball bat (it was the only thing I could get to once I realized what the racket was all about) to save Ms. Patches, she was surrounded by 4 dogs on my property. I have heard the dogs did bite a15 year old boy walking home from school, so I consider them dangerous dogs. I have reinforced my fencing, am training my rescued Belgian Malinois as a chicken, duck, goose protector, and I brought rat shot for my 9mm handgun (it doesn't pack as much punch, so less danger of hitting neighbors property, and still deadly at the right distance). No animal control will come here, and the sheriff says to shoot any threatening dog on my property and report it. I prefer not to kill dogs as I love them, but I will to protect my children, flock, dogs, and myself. So far, the loose dogs have not dared to come back after the beating I gave them last year for attacking Patches, but it's only a matter of time.

As I previously said I raise Siberian huskies, they are escape artists and have a very high prey drive. None of my dogs has ever gotten loose, and they live side by side with my flock, the dogs can see and smell the chickens every day. Containing a dog isn't hard, or even expensive, but it is a dog owners responsibility. I have multiple layers of protection around my flock, because most people don't care about their dogs, and care even less about damages their dogs cause others.

Good luck, I hope your chicken is ok.

 

[Cluckies]

Our neighbors pit bull attacked my dog, in my yard, twice, yes, he was injured the first time. After the first time we went and talked to them, let them know they needed to always keep their dog on a leash when she was outside. obviously did not work. other dogs also roamed through the yard but did not attack our dog, so...We ended up fencing in (with chain link) 3.5 of our 4.5 acres, our dog is an Australian shepherd and needs the room to run. Have not seen any more dogs in our yard. Sad but that pitbull did attack our neighbors dog last year (attacked ours 2 years ago) They got a ticket/fine as it was on record as having attacked before. I still see her out there without supervision. Some people just don't care.

That being said, it is one thing to kill a dog when it has attacked your animals more than once and you've talked to the owner, but to kill a non-aggressive dog that accidentally wanders into your yard/home with no ill intentions, probably just curious as you said it was young, is just wrong. that is someones family member. you could have tied it up and called animal control to come and get her. That is very sad. She walked right up to you with trust. I don't believe that any animal should be treated this way. We spent last winter, from November to April looking for a dog that had accidentally ran as it was scared when a garage door went up while he was in it, within a couple hours a neighbor killed him with a screwdriver, stabbing him over and over about the head and chest. He said it was killing his chickens. He wasn't. the autopsy performed showed no chicken blood, no feathers, no evidence that the dog attacked the chickens. This dog was tame and trusting and a little girls dog at the time of a divorce. I helped look for this dog that I didn't even know their owners, he was a beautiful show dog. senseless. I still have nightmares about this and have to drive by this "Man's" house (I use the word very, very loosely) I think he is a monster. He finally called the cops and admitted what he did when he saw that months later we were still looking for the dog. We spent hundreds of dollars, on gas, posters, ads. time. craigslist, paper. Terrible.

Do what you need to do to keep your animals safe, but don't be that person. Some people love their animals very much and sometimes they just run away because they got scared. They come to you looking for help. Help them, don't kill them.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Cases like this is where the rule of the three S's come into play. Shoot, shovel, and shut up. You have the right to defend your livestock. Period. Once a dog gets the taste for chicken, he'll always have it. He will continue to come around until one day a weakness in your coop can be found or you forget to lock it up properly. Owner has been warned. Nothing else is required.

 

[crgalletta]

I haven't commented on this in awhile. A few days ago I lost 5 of my flock. My cream legbar trio, and two buffs. It was a dog or dogs. I have run them off in the past, but they got by me this time. I now have shotgun at the ready for any animal or animals in my yard not supposed to be there. SHOOT FIRST SORT OUT LATER !!!

 

[sbhkma]

I keep a loaded shotgun right by one of my doors, in a nice hand crafted gun stand. I have used it when needed, and will again. Dogs that run loose and go after my horses or chickens don't get a courtesy reprieve, nor do coyotes.

 

[Howlet]

My neighbor has a new 2 year old giant husky he cant control... already went after-
Both my cats
my female dog through the fence
and has DEFINATLEY taken interest in my birds...

I keep my horses crop on my nightstand... beat something if it goes bad. Like a burgler or a stray dog.