I agree with what fowltemptress said. Dogs all have varying degrees of prey drive (hard-wired drive to kill chickens) but hunting dogs and many herding dogs have higher prey drives on average. Herding dogs have it because herding is a modification of pack-hunting behavior (I'll bring them to the pack leader to kill). If you're the pack leader AND the dog respects that, they may not kill the chickens in front of you.
You're basically playing Russian roulette if you get a dog that you don't KNOW is trained to not harm the chickens. Unfortunately, chickens are probably THE bird most likely to snap the control of even well-trained sheep dogs. Besides being a bird, their movements are often jerky and that seems to kick in a dog's prey drive big time.
You're probably better off with a Great Pyr or other LGD if you want to leave a dog running loose with your poultry. If you've got kids, I'd go for the Great Pyr. Even with an LGD, the LGD does need to be trained so that it thinks of the flock as it's family. That is why LGDs will protect livestock. That means you'll need to get an LGD that has been raised with fowl if you want to be sure that they'll guard the chickens, not eat them. Also, most LGDs bark at night to warn off predators and chase them off if they still come too close. You're more likely to tick off a neighbor than keep yourselves awake.
Given the time and expense of getting and keeping a properly trained LGD, I personally would stick with training your GSD to protect the chickens. You might even check around to see if there are any people nearby who specialize in training sheep dogs. They'll be able to teach you quickly how to teach and manage your GSD so that it will protect the chickens and property (as it naturally would) but so that it will also obey you when you tell it to not chase or hurt the chickens. After all, they were originally bred to be shepherds and can be trained to be manageable around livestock. It helps at that point to be able to tell the GSD to do something else that will distract it a little bit, even if it is to tell him to lie down.
It also does sometimes help to have a second dog if you've got a predator problem, but again, you'd need to be sure it would be one that won't be part of the problem. If you find some people who train herding dogs, you might even be able to get their help locating a dog that's ready for "retirement" to a job like the one you have. You'd be getting a dog that has a history of how it behaves around livestock along with the training to instantly obey their pack leader (you) when it comes to interacting with prey species.
That being said, I've got a Border Collie who's been trained on sheep and will obey many commands when around sheep and other livestock (even when she can't see me), but I still won't trust her unsupervised with my new chickens; to me it's just an accident waiting to happen. There is just something about those chickens that kicks in the ol' predation reflex, so whatever you do, please be careful to make sure the cure isn't worse than the disease!
Best of luck and may all your chickens always come home to roost, on time and healthy!!
You're basically playing Russian roulette if you get a dog that you don't KNOW is trained to not harm the chickens. Unfortunately, chickens are probably THE bird most likely to snap the control of even well-trained sheep dogs. Besides being a bird, their movements are often jerky and that seems to kick in a dog's prey drive big time.
You're probably better off with a Great Pyr or other LGD if you want to leave a dog running loose with your poultry. If you've got kids, I'd go for the Great Pyr. Even with an LGD, the LGD does need to be trained so that it thinks of the flock as it's family. That is why LGDs will protect livestock. That means you'll need to get an LGD that has been raised with fowl if you want to be sure that they'll guard the chickens, not eat them. Also, most LGDs bark at night to warn off predators and chase them off if they still come too close. You're more likely to tick off a neighbor than keep yourselves awake.
Given the time and expense of getting and keeping a properly trained LGD, I personally would stick with training your GSD to protect the chickens. You might even check around to see if there are any people nearby who specialize in training sheep dogs. They'll be able to teach you quickly how to teach and manage your GSD so that it will protect the chickens and property (as it naturally would) but so that it will also obey you when you tell it to not chase or hurt the chickens. After all, they were originally bred to be shepherds and can be trained to be manageable around livestock. It helps at that point to be able to tell the GSD to do something else that will distract it a little bit, even if it is to tell him to lie down.
It also does sometimes help to have a second dog if you've got a predator problem, but again, you'd need to be sure it would be one that won't be part of the problem. If you find some people who train herding dogs, you might even be able to get their help locating a dog that's ready for "retirement" to a job like the one you have. You'd be getting a dog that has a history of how it behaves around livestock along with the training to instantly obey their pack leader (you) when it comes to interacting with prey species.
That being said, I've got a Border Collie who's been trained on sheep and will obey many commands when around sheep and other livestock (even when she can't see me), but I still won't trust her unsupervised with my new chickens; to me it's just an accident waiting to happen. There is just something about those chickens that kicks in the ol' predation reflex, so whatever you do, please be careful to make sure the cure isn't worse than the disease!
Best of luck and may all your chickens always come home to roost, on time and healthy!!
