This is from the perspective of a hobby keeper who lives in the suburbs with small dogs. It likely doesn’t help on a property with other dogs that can punt mine away.
My dogs are a pure mini poodle (9 y/o) and a Maltese poodle mix (4 y/o).
- How do you/did you train your dog(s) not to kill or mess with your chickens?
In my case it depended on the obedience and natural instinct of either dog. The Maltepoo is very obedient and developed a bit of relational stress toward the chicken after I told him to stay away.
My poodle is the problem since it’s in his breed to kill small animals. Someone here spent hundreds on rare baby tortoises and this dog crushed them up like chips.
He would get a panicked and deeply interested face around my bird. So I had to try associating that interest in a negative way by yelling and averting his attention. Eventually he became nervous around my young bird and didn’t stare, but was frustrated and blew it off.
When he attempted to smell her later on though, it was at a slightly older age where she bit his nose. Even though he could kill her easily, that kept him from her ever since.
- What is the best/most effective way to deal with/retrain a dog that killed birds already? (No cruel or inappropriate suggestions, please… Let's keep this thread friendly and informative)
No idea, but maybe this helps? At one point the poodle started taking my hen’s fertilized eggs. I was distraught by this, not angry, because my rooster was gone and this was his batch. Maybe it’s his breed, but this poodle is good at reading whatever I put out. Probably smells it on me or something. He then brought me the egg and put it down unharmed. It could be that more intelligent dogs like most shepherds can be a bit easily dissuaded.
- Tell me about livestock guardian dogs (LGD's)
N/A. Although my Maltipoo had a phase of protecting my birds from the poodle. He puts one arm up and keeps it there, pushing the other dog’s chest away like a bouncer.
Another time he did not understand what chicken breeding was. He assumed it was an attack and this black dog chugged over like a hero— right under a swarm of foraging bees. Needless to say it was a rough day.
- Are some dog breeds more or less prone to be a problem around the flock?
It would be a far reach to say the Maltese is alright to have with a coop at home. I don’t have others to compare, etc. . Poodles though are genetically wired to hunt for small animals.
