Will Golden Retrievers Get Along With Chickens?

[Pretty Birds]

A week ago my dog was run over by a car. He was part Beagle, so he did kill a few of our chickens. Since then we have made an outdoor run that has done a good job of keeping the chickens in and the predators out.
I will be getting a Golden Retriever puppy in 1-2 weeks, and I was wondering if this breed gets along well with chickens.

 

[rosemarythyme]

IMO it's more about the training and less about the breed of dog (well, to some extent) - I don't think goldens have as much prey drive as some other breeds. With a puppy at least they're very open to learning new things so I'd start working on it right away. Is your plan to eventually let the dog mingle with the chickens in the same area, or are you mostly wanting the dog to just leave them alone (so no charging at the fence, that sort of thing)?

 

[so lucky]

If you are careful with your training, you may teach the puppy to not chase the chickens when you are there, but I don't think there is any way to guarantee that a retriever will not try to retrieve chickens when you are not watching.
Best bet is to never leave the dog unsupervised with the chickens.
I don't trust my beagle/spaniel mix for an instant.

 

[Pretty Birds]

Is your plan to eventually let the dog mingle with the chickens in the same area, or are you mostly wanting the dog to just leave them alone (so no charging at the fence, that sort of thing)?

The chickens will be fenced in their run, but yes, I don't want her to spook them through the fence.

 

[Pretty Birds]

I don't trust my beagle/spaniel mix for an instant.

That was what my past dog was; half Beagle half Cocker Spaniel. Could NOT trust him.

 

[Pretty Birds]

How could I teach her to not chase the chickens?

 

[sylviethecochin]

If you are careful with your training, you may teach the puppy to not chase the chickens when you are there, bur I don't think there is any way to guarantee that a retriever will not try to retrieve chickens when you are not watching.
Best bet is to never leave the dog unsupervised with the chickens.
I don't trust my beagle/spaniel mix for an instant.

My experience is that, with nearly all dogs, dedicated training will teach them to behave. Psychotic dogs exist, of course, but they're a minority.

My brother's Laborador retriever, though he only lived to the age of eighteen months, never killed a chicken. But I've met people on here who swear that you cannot keep Labs with chickens.

My other brother has a straight beagle who has been trained to not attack birds (Okay, "trained" is a strong word. She had an encounter with my flock rooster, then one with me. Never attacked a chicken again.) Again, many people swear you cannot keep beagles and chickens together.

Most of our other dogs were border collie crosses. Very sensitive, easily trained dogs. I recommend them, if anyone has a lot of ground.

 

[sylviethecochin]

How could I teach her to not chase the chickens?

"See, don't touch" introduction on a leash works great. Since you don't have an older dog to teach him the limits, a hard "No!" word is essential. I like "DOG!" It conveys my feelings pretty well, and is easy to yell.

I personally feel that a hard "no" and a soft "no" are great training tools. You don't want to flip out over every little thing. My dog knows that "DOG!" means "Drop what you're doing, sit down, don't ever do it again!" He knows that "No!" means "Shut up and stop barking at the UPS guy, will you?"

 

[FlyAnywayAJ]

A puppy raised along with chickens can be trained to leave chickens alone (most of the time, however there's exceptions to every rule). I doubt one could say for sure that any particular breed would never chase a chicken. We have a boxer who never showed any interest in chasing them, guarded them. After she died we replaced with another boxer and he tormented them until we trained him not to (which took a few months). Basically we kept introducing him to the birds in a controlled setting (where we had total control over him) while they ran in front of him. Each time he attempted to chase, we corrected until the behavior stopped. Now he cuddles the chicks and ducklings like a Mama

 

[rosemarythyme]

How could I teach her to not chase the chickens?

You could work on training them to "leave it." Generally starts with using some sort of treat or practice item, which you want them to leave alone and reward for, then once the dog knows the command you can work up to other things including the chickens.