what kind of dog is good with chickens?

[chikkaboomboom]

Dont give up on your puppy!!! Contact a few decent trainers ones that dont just want a bunch of $$$$.. My idea with a baby dog which a 6 month old is! Would be to tether train, TIE the pup to your belt loop, teach the LEAVE IT command..then every time you feed water or hang out with your chickens take puppy along tied TO YOU.
If your not willing to train a puppy I really dont believe any NEW DOG will end up any better ...

 

[shchinchillas]

The worst thing you can do is expect any dog to be good with small animals with no training. If you aren't going to take the time to train the dog and supervise, please do not get another puppy.

I'd highly suggest training the dog you have now. With enough time (and effort) the dog could turn around. There isn't going to be one set breed that is 100% good with small animals/chickens. Its going to depend on the invidiual dog, the amount of training the dog has, and the effort put in by the owners.


IMO you should also never trust a dog 100% with a prey animal. It's just natural instinct for them to go after/kill a prey animal. They shouldn't be blamed for doing what comes natural.

 

[noodleroo]

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I agree with this completely. Patsy (collie a few posts ago) is a house dog and goes everywhere in the house and yard with me. Very well trained, understands words and understands what is 'mine'. I realize how lucky I am that she gets along so well with other animals.

 

[un-named]

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[dolly85]

You wont find a breed that is automatically good with chickens. I have three cockers, and it took an entire summer of supervised interaction before I felt safe leaving them alone. I started out leashing the dogs for a few weeks because they tried their best to eat my hens. Can I blame them? No, cockers are bird dogs and their job is to go after birds!!! Its their instinct and I knew they would take time. What finally cured my dogs of their affinity for chicken was going to my parents house and being attacked by a very large rooster. Now, they don't go near chickens, lol.

 

[dianaross77]

I agree with the previous posts. While different breeds have different tendencies, all dogs are different. Your dog is still young, there is a very good chance you can break the habit. There is a lot of really good information online about training livestock guard dogs. The key is to desensitize the dog. If you keep them separate, it will only make the dog more interested. The more time the dog spends with you and the birds, the better. Our boxer/bullmastiff mix was way too interested in the ducks we have in our basement. So, instead of keeping her away, I take her with me to take care of them. I take her into the pen and make her sit calmly (I would recommend a leash for a pup). When she got to excited, I made her lay down on her side and placed a duck on top of her. After that, she saw them as something completely different. Now she looks to me to protect her from them.

 

[noitulover]

We have a beagle, who killed our first chicken. DH caught her in the act, yelled at her, showed her what she did, and gave her a firm smack on the fanny.

She hasn't touched a chicken since. Then again, she worships the ground DH walks on, so anything that displeases him, she certainly doesn't do.

Any dog is going to be bad with chickens until they are trained to do better. You must catch them in the act and show them that it is wrong.... Finding dead chickens and later on punishing them, does no good. The dog has no idea why it is being punished.

 

[AinaWGSD]

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Thank you, but it require big efforts.

The thing is, ANY dog, regardless of breed is going to require a big effort on your part in order to be good around chickens. Yes, it does occasionally happen that a dog is just automatically "good" with prey animals. But it is extremely rare for it to happen and you should count on it not happening for you. Also, any puppy, even those who grow up to be great with chickens and other prey animals, should never ever be trusted with chickens. Ever. They're still babies, and just like very young children do not understand the consequences of their actions puppies do not realize that what they are doing is hurting or killing the other animal. To them it's all just a fun game until their "toy" stops moving. Then they just have to go get another "toy."

Herding breeds have a herding drive...which is really just a modified prey drive. The behaviors they use to herd livestock are the same behaviors that wild canids use to hunt (and kill) prey, just modified so that they generally don't follow through on the killing part. Even then, a herding dog with fantastic instincts still needs a lot of hard work and training to be a good working dog. And the kind of behaviors that work to herd large livestock without killing them (nipping in particular) will often kill small livestock such as chickens. Corgis (both cardigan and pembroke) were bred to herd cattle. Obviously cattle are going to stand up to a lot more abuse than a chicken.

As humans, we expect far too much from our dogs with no effort on our part. But they are dogs. And unless you painstakingly teach them otherwise, they will do what dogs do. And killing chickens is what dogs do (unless you put in a huge effort to train them not to...and even then I wouldn't trust any dog 100% with chickens).

 

[sheilawagner]

I agree with many posters here. Do NOT get another puppy if you aren't willing to put in the intensive effort to train it. I hope you won't give up on your 6 month old pup and send it away, without working hard with it. It is totally unfair for you to expect it to know how to behave with chickens if you don't put any work into training her. There is no true breed of dog out there that will automatically know how to behave with chickens. It is all going to depend on you working on it.

It is possible to train a dog to accept your chickens, I did it with 3 Airedale Terriers (who are known hunters of mice, rabbit, snake, squirrels and beavers) but it took a lot of discipline and time from us humans.

I started with the dogs being on leash, and on a DOWN command, allowing them to be close to the chickens, without moving. Train with Down or Sit command with Leave it. These are very important.

Don't attempt to train your dog without a leash in the beginning, using just your voice. You must use the leash first, in case they lunge, you can control them and correct them.

After many hours of training and conditioning, we got to the point where I can leave the dogs outside to guard over the flock while they forage. Altho the property is totally fenced in, we still have hawks once in a while, but if a dog is outside, the hawks won't swoop down.

 

[Hollywood Chickens]

IMHO none, I have many friends with chickens and everyone that has a dog and chickens loses at least 1 prize chicken to the dog.

I know one person had a lovely gentle dog that sat on the chickens and they died(she expected me to replace them for free

), another one accidentally left the outer of 2 fences open and the "trained" dog ate her prize Cuckoo Marans before she could run across the yard. and it goes on and on to the point that I will not sell chickens to someone that owns a dog, especially when they go and name the chickens for me and then call me and say "Oh, Sara got eaten by my dog, do you have another one?"

Sorry it is a bit of a rant.