Will a bird dog be safe around my chickens???????

[Wolf]

OK... here's Hawk lying in the pasture the birds graze in.

 

[Southern Chickens]

WOLF, She's so pretty! My boy got into a fight tonight with the "other" dogs in the neighborhood! I had to break out the 12lb test and give him two stiches!

I'm sure he'll be fine, he didn't even stop chewing on him ball while I stiched him!

 

[cornishman]

the question is...will a bird dog be safe around your chickens?...my question is just how mean are your chickens? lol! cornishman.

 

[Wolf]

I've sutured cats, and my goats when I had 'em. Bactine antiseptic has Lidocaine in it, if you ever have to stitch one that's hurting badly. Most of my critters always seem to understand that I'm trying to help and lay still for me. Hawk's not gotten into any squabbles with anyone yet. She's run some of the neighbor's dogs away from my poultry-fence, but she always stops at the property-line. Most the dogs around me are smaller than her, anyways. She intimidates them. She's young... only 14 mos.... but she listens to me very well.

 

[Southern Chickens]

Quote:
Corrnishman, that's so funny!

 

[suebee]

I have 2 Golden Retreivers that are wonderful with my chickens. I trained them to ignore the chickens. My oldest dog was 6 when I got my first chicks. I kept the chicks in a rubbermaid container inside the house and my dog was allowed to carefully look at them with supervision. She got used to them quickly, learning she could only watch, but not touch. With her being trained well, I got another Golden Retreiver puppy. Her training was not difficult either because she sensed that the older dog wasn't excited being around the chickens. I admit it was harder to train the puppy though. I got so mad a few times I put an ad in the paper to sell her. She seemed to sense that and straightened right up, so I told everyone that called that I had changed my mind! Anyway, they are the best chickens dogs now. They are 10 and 2 yrs. old. The puppy even runs around the coup and yard when the chickens are sounding the alert. She knows something is scaring them so she helps out by running around to make the hawk, squirrel, (preditor) go away. The chickens go right up to my dogs and the dogs just try to smell their butts.

 

[Gent-Farmer]

I have/had three dogs; "Dr.Jones"Boarder colli/kelpi, "Willie"Scotch colli/Dobi, "Shorty"Great pyr/Maremma.

All Dogs were introduced at 8-10 weeks old. Never any issues with my first 2 dogs, both are very helpfull in herding our flock.
The third "Shorty" was good until 7 months old. She Joined in herding when sepertaing young roosters from main flock area. All went well and we expected her to fall in place with the pack. Next afternoon I found her hiding behind some bushes eating one of the young roosters. I cuaght her in the act and scoulded her, Hard scruffing and kennel time.
No problems for 2 days, day three 2nd rooster dinner. Hard scruff and kennel time.
Day 4 "Shorty goes on 13 chicken killing spree, including breaking into the hen house and killing layers. I catch the end of the massicare through the kitchen window, "Shorty is eating the back out of Blackrock hen while the other two dogs look on in terror from the edge of the barnyard. I caught the MURDERING dog and tied it to at the house.
The jury of 6 judged for several hours before "Shortys" fate was decided.
This was a GREAT dog until this point, excellent with the family (3,4,12,14).
Iwill try this breed again for there fantastic personality and protectivness with our children.

Any breed can be good with chickens with a little training and some luck.

Gent-Farmer

 

[cornishman]

i got one of them great pyrenese dogs that guard my chickens. possums, moose, or squirrels beware! diamond is always patroling the farm! she has killed coyotes and also got her foot almost chewed off by a pack of them howling chicken eaters! also got a border collie that is pretty smart young girl. also got a big giant black puppy that will be a good guard dog real soon. my dogs ain't mean to people but they are good about keeping varmits away...cornishman.

 

[TransplantedTexan]

Like Wolf, I have two Black Labs. I got them as young pups a short time prior to getting my chicks. After the chicks were big enough to come out of the box I kept in the coop for them and free range I was afraid I would have a problem.
For about a week I took the dogs leashed out to the coop and sat them down at my feet. Like mentioned by Wolf, if they looked twice at the chickens roaming around us I sternly told them"Those are my chickens!" The following week I took them out unleashed, laid them at my feet and performed the same ritual. By the end of the week they would lay at my feet and the chickens actually walked over the dogs, and they just laid there. After that I let the dogs out to run around with the chickens free roaming, and watched from inside. If I saw them them even go in a chickens direction, I would holler "Mine! Not yours!" One time since then I saw one of the dogs, which are now 6 mo. old, chasing one of my EE roosters. He pushed it to the ground with his nose and just held it there. I think he was just curious and playing. Regardless, in a matter of seconds I was out the door, and on top of the dog. I grabbed him by the scruff, flopped him to the ground and just railled on him verbally for about a minute. When I let him up he high-tailed it to his kennel in the house and did not come out for half an hour. I had to coax him out. Since then I have had no problems, except trying to keep them out of the coop, cause they like to sample the chicken feed.
As I stated, I think he was just playing, cause he had ample time to kill it even though I was there pretty fast.
This being said I think one should realize that no matter how good you train a dog, there is a chance of it killing a chicken.
I have decided that I want open spaces for my dogs and my chickens. Hopefully I will not have to pick at some point which I will restrict to what I feel is an unnatural enviroment, i.e being pinned up 24/7.

 

[Cheeks]

i have a boxer and a lab/boxer mix.
they both do wonderfully with the chickens because they know the girls are part of the family.

edited to add another picture.