Will my dogs be a problem for a chicken?

[morsekathan]

My dog is fine with chickens. He's a small schnoodle - schnauzer poodle mix. We didn't have to train him, he just accepted them although he's not ok with my feeding them food that he thinks should be coming to him. I have to lock him up when they get kitchen scraps for dinner otherwise they wouldn't get anything. He would also like to play a chase game with them, but the chickens have trained him not to. They just ignore him or stare him down so it's no fun and he doesn't try anymore. The poodle who lives in the house behind me is not ok with chickens. He chases and catches them if he can and won't stop even with a chair thrown at him. Very scary. Needless to say, he is banned from our yard and everyone goes to great lengths to make sure he can't break in. We take care of a miniature

dachshund​

and a long haired

chihuahua from time to time. The dachshund could care less about the chickens but the chihauhua goes nuts around them. He won't stop barking at them even if they are in their pen and not free ranging. I thought he would stop barking at them, but I think he could bark for hours if we let him. The chickens are very frightened of him. He's also banned from the yard.​

But I feel for your question. We want to get another dog, but it has to get along with the chickens and I don't know how you can predict that. I would think that it would vary from dog to dog, as well as from breed to breed.​

​

 

[enola]

Wow I would like to read about your training procedure myself. May I suggest you post it so we can all read it.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Here is the method I use to train my dogs:

I have a pit-bull mix and three pugs. The pit and two of the pugs are rescues from urban shelters with mixed histories of abuse. All four dogs are out in the yard with my 5 chickens everyday without any problems. In fact I once had a chicken attack a dog but never the opposite. Everyone guaranteed me that the pit would kill my chickens but she has never been a problem.

Here is what I personally recommend: The most important thing to focus on overall is improving your dogs impulse control. No matter what your dog has a natural prey drive but more than that they are pack animals that want to please their master. Good basic training makes teaching them anything else so much easier. Make sure that you can snap your dogs attention back to you even when they see something they want. (I can't snap so I use an "aht." noise - this means sit and pay attention to me) One of the best ways to work on this without a live animal present is during feeding. Do you free feed your dogs or do they eat at regular times? I would recommend taking them off of free feeding if you are doing that. Focus on training your dogs so they they will not eat anything unless you give a specific command. I set down all four bowls of food and make the dogs wait. They do not eat until they hear their own name and see a hand gesture. Also work on them stopping eating at a command and willing stepping away from their food. I say "Name, wait." and they stop and sit until told to continue. These skills help with impulse control in many areas of training. It may seem unrelated but to a dog, the one who controls the food is the ruler of them all.

I would introduce the dog to the chickens on a leash and just sit and be calm. (One dog at a time if you have more than one) As soon as she starts to fixate on the chickens in any way other than simple curiosity or barks or is excited (even happy excited) I would scold her with the same word every time (you only need to say it once, firmly) and immediately take her inside. It is important to take her in even with happy excitement. You are training her to ignore the chickens not to like the chickens and there is a big difference. With my dogs I brought them back when they were calm and started all over again. and again and again. lol. I allowed them to glance at them or sniff them but anything else was a no. It took a bit of patience but within a few days all of the dogs ignored the chickens and now find very little interest in them at all other than a sniff here or there. I never yelled or hit them or used a choke or a shock. I just said no and took them away immediately at any sign of fixation or barking. You will need to do this everyday until they get it. Patience is the key and consistency. It sucks because sometimes you are busy and don't want to deal with it but starting and stopping will just make it worse. I leave them all together unsupervised regularly.

 

[Help_battery_hens]

My hens attack my dog when he gets excitable I'm lucky as he has only nipped one once and she really pecked him into submission. he has now learned to walk among them very calmly or he will be chased and pecked. Needless to say though if my dogs personality were different I'm sure some of my hens would have been his dinner by now. Also i find when i have a sick hen my dog senses it and shows too much interest in them

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I also have one chicken that will attack the dogs if they go inside her fence. The dogs act like they don't notice. It's pretty funny looking.