Most chicken owners have a dog or two in addition to their flock. Some keep and train their dogs as livestock guardians or flock watchers, while others find they can't trust their dogs with their birds. Keeping these two species together can be done very successfully though. I would like to hear from all you dog and chicken owners what advice you have and what your experiences were when it comes to keeping dogs and chickens together, or at least in harmony. Specifically:
- How do you/did you train your dog(s) not to kill or mess with your chickens?
- 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)
- Tell me about livestock guardian dogs (LGD's)
- Are some dog breeds more or less prone to be a problem around the flock?
Will have to respond to this statement first, as I just can't STAND LGD snobbery towards regular farm dogs~
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Despite what all those "experienced" dog people have told you, dogs kept in different environments react in different ways. A house dog that sleeps in the house all night but gets to roam in the yard in the day might want to play or investigate when they chase something.
Labs raised outdoors that have a job on the land most decidedly don't chase things to "play or investigate". The many dead animals my Labs have successfully killed on our land tells me a vastly different story....unless they just played with those predators so much that the predator just died of exhaustion.
My current Lab mix dog killed his first full grown coon at the age of 5 mo. and a full grown groundhog the following week. He's killed countless possum and coon since then in his life...I doubt he was playing with them. All were killed quickly and quietly, no visible injury on the body at all.
I've had Labs and Lab mix dogs guarding my animals and chickens since the late 90s and early 2000s now and I find them to be very serious about the job, they kill coon, possum, groundhog, rabbits and anything else that comes in their territory. The rest they keep at bay...we are surrounded by thousands of acres of woodland here, with all the major suspects all around us, with the only chickens in miles...and one old Lab/BC cross has protected my flocks from all of them for four years here. Including the black bears, the local coyote pack, the bobcats and the foxes. And that's in an open air coop with no considerations for predator proofing and pop doors left open at all times, in all seasons, with free range flocks.
I've had a Lab, GP/Lab mix, a GP and currently have an Anatolian/Maremma/GP mix pup working with my Lab/BC mix dog. Three of those dogs were obtained for free as adult dogs...free to good home situations. Those adult dogs didn't require any training at all. Two were obtained as pups at 2 mo. of age.
I've trained the two 2 mo. old pups(10 yrs apart) on chickens in that time and both of those dogs are currently working on guard for my flock, the LGD mix pup and the 10 yr old Lab/BC mix. Both were living side by side free ranging with free range chickens from the very first day they had contact with them. They both responded to the same kind of training in the same amount of time....approx. 20 min. total of training on chickens and they've both been completely reliable since then.
The training consisted of placing them in the situation where they are exposed to a very excited chicken and then I corrected them when they paid any attention to the bird. After I was getting the desired response, no looking at or paying any attention to the chicken, I left them alone together and monitored from the house. Watched what they did when around the excited chicken when they thought they were alone....then corrected any overt attention by the pup to the chicken, from the house.
No further problems.
I must add, though, that during and prior to the training on poultry, I established authority over both pups....that's the most important training tool you'll have. If you can't get them to come or stop something they are doing, you won't be able to train them on chickens. They MUST learn to obey you in all other areas if you will want them to obey you in the face of this prey animal and what challenges that presents to a pup. They must listen and respond to corrections consistently or you will get nowhere.
