Virginia

[pysankigirl]

need to vent.

sometimes training husbands is worse than training chickens.

We have a dog who is less than a year old. he was supposed to be a Karakachan/Pyr cross but turns out a border collie must have jumped the fence because he's now the spitting image of one and has all the wrong instincts. todays is the 6th chicken he has killed. despite this, I love him. once we brought him inside he became a lovely family dog. smart as a whip, hardly ever peed indoors despite having never been their during his early childhood, very lovable. our other dogs are chicken safe and the husband WANTS this one to be but wont accept that he isn't and keeps letting him out to play with the others and then gets mad at the dog when he kills a chicken (we freerange) I keep telling him that THIS dog cannot be trusted and can never go out without supervision. but he keeps letting him out.

I am tired of losing good chickens.

 

[finnfur]

need to vent.

sometimes training husbands is worse than training chickens.

We have a dog who is less than a year old. he was supposed to be a Karakachan/Pyr cross but turns out a border collie must have jumped the fence because he's now the spitting image of one and has all the wrong instincts. todays is the 6th chicken he has killed. despite this, I love him. once we brought him inside he became a lovely family dog. smart as a whip, hardly ever peed indoors despite having never been their during his early childhood, very lovable. our other dogs are chicken safe and the husband WANTS this one to be but wont accept that he isn't and keeps letting him out to play with the others and then gets mad at the dog when he kills a chicken (we freerange) I keep telling him that THIS dog cannot be trusted and can never go out without supervision. but he keeps letting him out.

I am tired of losing good chickens.

I have heard Shock collar works to correct this problem - but you need to be on scene when ever its out till it gets the association- Just a some research from my sons problem dog.

 

[pysankigirl]

shock collar for the dog or the husband?

 

[DufferChick]

We have a shepherd breed dog that would kill all the chickens, given the chance. He is a very sweet dog, but is ferocious to the chickens or any small rodent. For instance, I saw him run down, kill, and torture a chipmunk. And chipmunks are super fast! A chicken would have no chance!

We keep the dog separated from the chickens in his own backyard fence - a very large fenced area. We take the dog out on the leash and other walks around the property, but not near the flock.
We keep the chickens in their own fenced area. The chickens free range only when supervised. The dog's instinct to attack the flock is so strong that we are not even trying to rehabilitate him. Perhaps over time he will get used to the chickens, but I am keeping them completely separate for now.

 

[ki4got]

shock collar for the dog or the husband?

I vote husband in this case

 

[ki4got]

We have a shepherd breed dog that would kill all the chickens, given the chance. He is a very sweet dog, but is ferocious to the chickens or any small rodent. For instance, I saw him run down, kill, and torture a chipmunk. And chipmunks are super fast! A chicken would have no chance!

We keep the dog separated from the chickens in his own backyard fence - a very large fenced area. We take the dog out on the leash and other walks around the property, but not near the flock.
We keep the chickens in their own fenced area. The chickens free range only when supervised. The dog's instinct to attack the flock is so strong that we are not even trying to rehabilitate him. Perhaps over time he will get used to the chickens, but I am keeping them completely separate for now.

it IS possible to train a high prey drive dog to not attack chickens, I've done it. BUT it takes lots of obedience training, for one, and constant supervision until he can be trusted. Sunny was close to a year old (training since 14 weeks old) before he was trustworthy with chickens. he still will chase down, catch and eat chipmunks, squirrels and anything else that's not a cat or chicken. (cats were on his kill list too for a while, until my older dog laid into him for hurting "HIS" kitty... he still chases them, and plays a bit roughly, but they've learned to be rough back at him and will bite and claw when necessary. the chickens, he will still torment by running in their direction and making them scatter, but won't put his mouth on them. most often he steps on them if they don't move fast enough (hasn't hurt any tho)

 

[DufferChick]

@ ki4got. :Good to know that the dog can be trained. As you say, it takes constant supervision, etc. It also takes consistency by the humans. Both people need to agree on the training protocol. I work away from home all week ( gone about 10 hrs a day), and my husband would be less diligent in training than I would. I am not sure that together, we could provide consistent training AND constant supervision. Even in the house, we don't agree on training.
To be fair to our dog, he was with us for three years before the chickens. But if I get another puppy, I will keep it near the coop as much as possible and raise it to be more chicken-friendly.

 

[Daox13]

Buttons in the oven!

 

[Lindseyblair24]

Hi! Anyone in the northern virginia area sell Silver Lace Seabeight bantams or Old English bantams? I have an indoor Serama that needs a companion and I heard those two bantam breeds are about the same size. Let me know! I would like another pullet.

 

[chickrunner]

Hi to all, I'm in Rockbridge Co. (Lexington)
Anybody close?