The Old Folks Home

[tjo804]

Thanks Al.

I had a Chow that killed my SIL's cats. One day my SIL called me and told me she was going to shoot my dog in the behind with her bb gun for killing her cats. I told her to go ahead, we had already tried everything else and she would not stop killing her cats. So when my dog went back over to her house she shot my dog in her behind. That stopped her from ever touching a cat or even looking at a cat again.

We did buy a bb gun for the rats that keep entering the pens and coop. I did try to use it to detour the dogs from messing with the chickens however it does not have enough power to go even 4'.

My dog that got into the chicken run and dispatched so many of my chickens went out to the road to greet my DH she thought and got hit and she is gone.
This is difficult as we adopted her as a 6 week old pup that was thrown out of a car while the driver was going down the highway.

Sorry to hear about your dog. We had one same situation thrown from car as a puppy. loved him to death for 15 years he died Mothers day this year.
The dogs we have now do not harm the chickens but I cannot seem to get them to stop chasing them. I guess since they run and scatter it is good training for the new neighbors murder dogs, but my dog only chases to scattter and the neighbors chases to kill.

 

[NotAFarm]

I'd say there is no right answer to how to train your dogs to be around chickens. With our labs, all we've had to do is say "no" twice to them. That's it. They know to leave them alone. Sure, they follow them around, but just to eat their poop. I trust each of our lab alone out with the chickens. The dachshund has been more of a project though. She has such a strong hunting instinct, that we haven't been able to get her to stop hounding them. Now, after a year and a half of chickens it seems that she might have mellowed out to them though. Karin had her loose in the yard with the chickens out, and she didn't care about them. I wouldn't trust her alone with them though, the wrong kind of sprint from the chickens might trigger her instincts at any moment. And she kills in an instant, only needs a second or two to dispatch a chicken.

Dachshunds and killing.... This was in San Antonio, Texas, early '60s

, we went to the mall in the Spring, near Easter, and there was a vendor selling chicks and ducklings. One of the ducklings was very pitiful looking and my sister, about 7 or 8, asked about it. The vendor said it was free if we bought another one. My parents, both raised on farms, knew the weakling wasn't going to make it but agreed to buy one so my sister could "save" the weakling. The weakling did die but the other duck was a male Pekin, Charlie, that we spoiled and loved. He got along with our Beagle and my dad built him a "duck house". We spent hours collecting "June bugs" to bring back and feed him. He loved watermelon and would walk up and take a bite out of your slice if you weren't careful with it. We had next-door neighbors that had a long-haired Dachshund, Buckwheat. He would run along the chainlink fence barking at Charlie and we were always careful to never leave the gates to the backyard open....until one day when my neighbors, they had a girl my age and we were fast friends, came back from vacation. We ran out of the yard, leaving the gate open, and they had opened their garage which had a "doggie door" for Buckwheat. He never looked at his family, he ran straight toward our open gate. We were right behind him...I mean right behind him...he killed Charlie in the instant he reached him. We were all stunned at how quick it was. My Dad buried him in the backyard. It was the first time I saw my Dad cry, I was 5 or 6. You gotta love a man with a heart for animals.

 

[Bunnylady]

Oh, yeah - you gotta watch those "high prey drive" dogs. Critter and I had some little mutts that he had rescued when we got married. "Phipps" weighed about 18 lbs and had a sort of terrier look about her; "Simba" was in the 25 lb range and had the short legs and long back of a Dachsie. Phipps was so prey driven, she was absolutely obsessive. One day, we saw her sitting near the pump house, nose to the crack under the door and literally trembling with excitement. We opened the door and the dogs rushed in - even we could smell the rats in there. As Critter started pulling the insulation off the walls, rats started running. Phipps got most of them; terrier-like, she shook a rat after she caught it, put it down, and if it moved, she grabbed it and shook it again. Sim only got one, but her technique left us wide-eyed. One swift, efficient CHOMP - and the rat didn't even have time to squeal.

Needless to say, even though I had fence wire around the rabbitry, all of my cages were a good 4 feet off the ground.

Chicka, I'm sorry about the dog. As hateful as it is to lose animals to your own pets (and yes, it has happened here several times) I know you never, not even for a moment, would have wanted her to die like that.

 

[vehve]

Yeah, Älize uses the same terrier technique, it's amazing to watch her go after rodents. The bunnies she doesn't seem all that interested in though. They tend to just say hi to each other through the net. The bunnies seem to like our dogs, when the labs were out and we were cleaning the pen, Hilma once again escaped, and started playing tag with the big dogs. They just treated her like any small dog, played a long but were careful not to harm her. And she seemed to like it too.

 

[vehve]

NAF, yeah, men tend to take animal attachment a bit hard. Karin says men are the worst when you have to put down their beloved dog. Women and children, no problem, but a grown man breaking into tears is the worst according to her.

I bet your dad loved that little ducky very much.

 

[chickadoodles]

Thank you tjo804. It's nice that your dog had a wonderful home for 15 blessed years.
When dogs hunt they scare the birds up and that triggers the instinct in them to get the birds. The hunting instinct runs deep.

 

[chickadoodles]

Oh, yeah - you gotta watch those "high prey drive" dogs. Critter and I had some little mutts that he had rescued when we got married. "Phipps" weighed about 18 lbs and had a sort of terrier look about her; "Simba" was in the 25 lb range and had the short legs and long back of a Dachsie. Phipps was so prey driven, she was absolutely obsessive. One day, we saw her sitting near the pump house, nose to the crack under the door and literally trembling with excitement. We opened the door and the dogs rushed in - even we could smell the rats in there. As Critter started pulling the insulation off the walls, rats started running. Phipps got most of them; terrier-like, she shook a rat after she caught it, put it down, and if it moved, she grabbed it and shook it again. Sim only got one, but her technique left us wide-eyed. One swift, efficient CHOMP - and the rat didn't even have time to squeal.

Needless to say, even though I had fence wire around the rabbitry, all of my cages were a good 4 feet off the ground.

Chicka, I'm sorry about the dog. As hateful as it is to lose animals to your own pets (and yes, it has happened here several times) I know you never, not even for a moment, would have wanted her to die like that.

Thanks Bunnylady.

 

[NotAFarm]

NAF, yeah, men tend to take animal attachment a bit hard. Karin says men are the worst when you have to put down their beloved dog. Women and children, no problem, but a grown man breaking into tears is the worst according to her.

I bet your dad loved that little ducky very much.

I think it reminded him of growing up on the farm. As a military man, moving every so many years, pets were discouraged. Our Beagle spent four years with my aunt while we were in Italy. When we returned. she immediately ran up to my Dad and was crazy with excitement. She didn't really act like she knew the four of us kids but my Dad she definitely knew my Dad. She was 12 when she died.

I never saw my husband cry when his mother passed, and they were very close, but the tears flowed for days after we had to put our Golden Retriever to sleep.

 

[Alaskan]

Well.. I guess because the word "gun" is included in the training scenario it has to be bad. But you can put an electroshock collar on a dog and that is perfectly acceptable...   The only thing is, Al never finished the final sentence...

"We did #1, and after a week of setting up the dog, (i had kids hiding in trees and upper story house windows, then I would let out the dog all by himself)" 

And after a week... what were the results? I would hazard a guess they were superb.

Yes... Superb. It has been 4 or 5 years and the dog still hasn't killed another chicken.

He is starting to chase a little, but when he gets one cornered, or gets into the coop, he hasn't killed or mouthed any. I keep wondering if he needs a refresher, but so far everything is good.

 

[Peep_Show]

Thought y'all might enjoy a nice holiday scene.
The coop is all decked out in wreathes and solar lights.
Even on a snow day the girls can play outside.