Training your dog to be around chickens

[DebbieMarler]

Working with our dog to be around baby chickens. He’s good around grown chickens.

 

[Duckduckchicken32]

Such a sweet dog! Good luck with the training! I should have trained my dog, she stalks them if they come too close.

 

[Joey and dolly]

if you need to train your dog I am going to point you toward oak abode they have a youtube channel and check out oakabode.com

 

[DebbieMarler]

if you need to train your dog I am going to point you toward oak abode they have a youtube channel and check out oakabode.com

I have watched that video, she has some great ones! Thank you

 

[DebbieMarler]

 

[Ozarkoak]

I have a Belgian Malinois and 2 pyrenees and have no issues. The Mal needed a job with the chickens. When in the brooder I put no top on it I let the birds fly up and land on the sides. I would poke the birds back in to the brooder and let him watch the first few times. Then I had him do it. I would say "poke em in" and he would poke them back in it taught him to be gentle. I would never trust him to be left alone with my flock because anything could happen but when Im outside I have not had a problem at all with him and he is high drive and intense and a little bit insane. With our pyrenees I chained them up next to the meat bird chicken tractor for a few days and they took almost immediately to protecting the birds. I trust them 100% with my birds and the birds trust them.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Best of luck to you! I also used some advice from that Oak Abode video someone else posted above me, when training my dog around my full-grown chickens. She emphasized desensitizing the dog to being around the chickens. Make the chickens "no big deal" for the dog by walking them on a leash far from the chickens at first and just ignoring them, then getting closer and closer while doing the same thing. I even played with a toy in the yard with the dog while the chickens were out, so he doesn't see the chickens as the main focal point in the yard.

There comes a time when the dog will have to be near the chickens though, so once he's good at ignoring them I walk him very close to the chickens and use the "leave it" command any time he would go near them, and just keep walking by them. (Btw, the "leave it" command is the single most important command to teach a dog. It can be used in so many situations to keep you, your dog, other people, and other animals safe.) Once I felt he was doing well with this, I let him off the leash but kept his e-collar on in case he tries to go for them. With a lot of practice, he is now safe around the chickens.

I would imagine you could use these same procedures with training a dog around baby chicks. I plan to when I get my first batch of baby chicks in September.

 

[DebbieMarler]

Best of luck to you! I also used some advice from that Oak Abode video someone else posted above me, when training my dog around my full-grown chickens. She emphasized desensitizing the dog to being around the chickens. Make the chickens "no big deal" for the dog by walking them on a leash far from the chickens at first and just ignoring them, then getting closer and closer while doing the same thing. I even played with a toy in the yard with a toy with the dog while the chickens were out, so he doesn't see the chickens as the main focal point in the yard.

There comes a time when the dog will have to be near the chickens though, so once he's good at ignoring them I walk him very close to the chickens and use the "leave it" command any time he would go near them, and just keep walking by them. (Btw, the "leave it" command is the single most important command to teach a dog. It can be used in so many situations to keep you, your dog, other people, and other animals safe.) Once I felt he was doing well with this, I let him off the leash but kept his e-collar on in case he tries to go for them. With a lot of practice, he is now safe around the chickens.

I would imagine you could use these same procedures with training a dog around baby chicks. I plan to when I get my first batch of baby chicks in September.

Over 20 years ago, back when I had more patience and was home full time I trained our Aussie/border collie to herd them back to the barnyard. He was hard to train but once he got his job down pat he was the best!

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Over 20 years ago, back when I had more patience and was home full time I trained our Aussie/border collie to herd them back to the barnyard. He was hard to train but once he got his job down pat he was the best!

That's awesome! I hope to have a farm in the future and train my dogs to have jobs like this on the farm.