I know from searching here that this topic has been discussed many times here. While it may be old hat for many of you, there are those of us who are deep into training new dogs to chickens. Perhaps if we agree all dogs are a threat to chickens and that we can't make assumptions about which dog breeds are best, we can talk about how best to train the dogs we own.
My own experience; owner of 5 yr old male pit bull, Bingo, when I brought chickens into the mix, didn't have high hopes for peaceful co-existence. Surprise, he's never chased chickens, in fact defends them against hawk, fox and any threat even at age 11.
Enter new 12 wk old Aussie female puppy, Dolly, now 9 mos.,who grew up in a kennel next to a chicken coop, so had high hopes for her; Dashed when she chased my chickens, a couple times. Took her on lead to morning and evening chicken chores, thereafter, all good. So good, in fact I took to letting her out at night with me off lead while I shut up the coop, no problems.
Then one night I make a bad move. Saw chick's feeder was empty, so decided to fill it, chicks went a bit wild, a few flew hopped out, and Dolly went wild, chasing and ending up with a hen in her mouth dashing around. I yelled louder than my DH has ever heard before, and that's loud. He came running out, captured bad dog, who dropped chicken, ran inside, and hid under a table all night.
Since then, it's all been fine. Plucky Aussie seems to remember her bad girl moment cause she pretty much ignores the chicks, still goes out every morning and evening with me to chicken chores. But I still don't quite trust her..and continue to research training.
http:successwithpoultry.blogspot.cavy...-prey.html
My own experience; owner of 5 yr old male pit bull, Bingo, when I brought chickens into the mix, didn't have high hopes for peaceful co-existence. Surprise, he's never chased chickens, in fact defends them against hawk, fox and any threat even at age 11.
Enter new 12 wk old Aussie female puppy, Dolly, now 9 mos.,who grew up in a kennel next to a chicken coop, so had high hopes for her; Dashed when she chased my chickens, a couple times. Took her on lead to morning and evening chicken chores, thereafter, all good. So good, in fact I took to letting her out at night with me off lead while I shut up the coop, no problems.
Then one night I make a bad move. Saw chick's feeder was empty, so decided to fill it, chicks went a bit wild, a few flew hopped out, and Dolly went wild, chasing and ending up with a hen in her mouth dashing around. I yelled louder than my DH has ever heard before, and that's loud. He came running out, captured bad dog, who dropped chicken, ran inside, and hid under a table all night.
Since then, it's all been fine. Plucky Aussie seems to remember her bad girl moment cause she pretty much ignores the chicks, still goes out every morning and evening with me to chicken chores. But I still don't quite trust her..and continue to research training.
http:successwithpoultry.blogspot.cavy...-prey.html
