Washingtonians

[DIYSeattle]

I hear that bird dogs are some of the hardest if not impossible to get to not go after chickens. GSP may be at the top of the list. W hat kind of dog do you have?

 

[PitterPatterPalace]

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English Springer Spaniel x German Shorthair Pointer 'sprointer'

 

[RedReiner]

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every dog is an individual. breeds that are bred for high prey drive or certain tasks can be harder to work with. depends a lot on the breeding. if the bloodline has been bred to be "birdy" then the prey drive to get birds will be there. bloodlines that have been bred without regards to original purpose may have had the prey drive bred right out of them. I have a lab, bloodlines bred for look and pet appeal ... he could care less about the chickens. I have miniature pinschers, bred for type, ratters, they will kill anything that looks like prey to them. no minpins loose with chickens..ever...
regardless of breed, purebred or not, every dog is going to be an individual and will need proper training in order to be around chickens. most can be trained to leave them alone, some will leave them in your presence but kill them when you are not there, some will always want to kill them regardless of training. then there are those that do not care about the chickens at all...I like those kind lol.
The puppy did not know any better, she just needs to be shown they are part of her pack and harming them is against the rules. it can be a difficult task but its possible. Hope the Hen is ok and the puppy learns to leave them alone.

 

[T Hi]

Not much going on here today...

Can you say BORING!!!!!

It's windy, gray & cold.

I am soooo over it.

If a watched pot never boils...... Do watched eggs never hatch?

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

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You know, every time I hear these horror stories about horrible postal employees TRYING to break eggs, etc, it makes me SO very thankful for MY PO!!!

One of the gals that used to deliver to me regularly went so far as to deliver a box of hatching eggs in her OWN car on her way home because she had seen that it had been misdirected and didn't want the box sitting at the PO for another day. The folks inside my PO are always asking me how the hatching is going, want me to open boxes of birds right there so they can see them too, and the one time I received an unmarked box that was smashed on the side, they were downright frantic asking "why wouldn't they label them?!?" And the next time I went it they were all asking if my eggs were ok...
They are the BEST!!!!!

 

[hallerlake]

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every dog is an individual. breeds that are bred for high prey drive or certain tasks can be harder to work with. depends a lot on the breeding. if the bloodline has been bred to be "birdy" then the prey drive to get birds will be there. bloodlines that have been bred without regards to original purpose may have had the prey drive bred right out of them. I have a lab, bloodlines bred for look and pet appeal ... he could care less about the chickens. I have miniature pinschers, bred for type, ratters, they will kill anything that looks like prey to them. no minpins loose with chickens..ever...
regardless of breed, purebred or not, every dog is going to be an individual and will need proper training in order to be around chickens. most can be trained to leave them alone, some will leave them in your presence but kill them when you are not there, some will always want to kill them regardless of training. then there are those that do not care about the chickens at all...I like those kind lol.
The puppy did not know any better, she just needs to be shown they are part of her pack and harming them is against the rules. it can be a difficult task but its possible. Hope the Hen is ok and the puppy learns to leave them alone.

One good thing; retrievers are bred to not bite the bird, and yours didn't. No one wants to eat a bird a dog has chewed up, so they are bred to have "soft mouths".

 

[DIYSeattle]

From my experience they had to br trained to have softmouth lol. I had a buddy that had a dog that would just about pluck them for you.

I had an english springer spaniel, pretty smart dog. If your dogs a puppy you shoudl probably work on it to teach it that the birds arent toys etc. You are lucky that you have a puppy to work with. It wtill doesnt mean they one day it wouldnt do something but it would be less likely to.

 

[pips&peeps]

My lab doesn't bother my birds; he is one that points too.

Never has offered to bother them, but he knows I would slap him silly....... It's all about control.

He did get a bit excited when I was raising pheasants last year. I think there is a different smell to them and they can recognize the difference between chickens and "wild game".

We did have some viszlas and one of the pups killed one of my favorite easter eggers years ago. He got chastized something fearce and never did it again. We also did not have good fencing then and it was more our fault that he could have access to the birds.

 

[hallerlake]

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PP3's dog already does that.

 

[RedReiner]

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we tried to do our best to breed a soft mouth, usually training creates it. some though, will always be a hard mouthed dog. have had a trial dog or two that would crush the bird just before he gave it back to you lol...