Your pet can be your worst predator (a rant post)

[Anime2lover]

OK so, yesterday the someone had, unknown to me, left the chick coop door open. I hadn't known about this, so I let my bird killing dog into the yard to do his business before the hens were let out to free range. I was making my coffee and went to check on him since I didn't hear him and he came up to me with two of our chicks dead in his mouth. I scolded him and took the birds from him, tied his leash to the deck and looked around the yard to see what amounts to a massacre of most of the other chicks with several missing. I found a few unharmed. But in all I found 6 dead polish, two living, one dead jersey giant, one living, one dead Dorking, two living, our one silky chick living, one silver laced wyandotte dead the other still missing, one goldenlaced wyandotte dead, and the other still missing. I can only guess that those two were probably eaten by my dog.... I'm still totally pissed off at whom ever it was that went into that small coop and didn't make sure to close it again!!!

 

[SeaSea47]

I'm so sorry for your loss. How old were your chicks? That's a lot of damage in such a short time. Thankfully, my dog just ignores the birds. Some of them even follow her around if they are scared, like she'll protect them, but I'm thinking of getting a puppy, and that is one of my fears...that I won't be so lucky with the next dog.

 

[Anime2lover]

I'm so sorry for your loss. How old were your chicks? That's a lot of damage in such a short time. Thankfully, my dog just ignores the birds. Some of them even follow her around if they are scared, like she'll protect them, but I'm thinking of getting a puppy, and that is one of my fears...that I won't be so lucky with the next dog.

They had mostly just finished getting their adult colors and losing their baby fluff.

When it comes to getting a dog, getting a puppy is probably the best thing you can do. Start them off young since it makes training them to be good to small critters somewhat easier. My dog was already approaching elder age when we got our first chickens. But he showed early in our chicken keeping adventure that he wasn't good with them. So we never let him with them, and never really lost such a large amount of birds because of it.

 

[Folly's place]

I'm so sorry for your losses!
It happened here too, awful. Trying to make everything as fool proof as possible, including dogs who love chicken, is really hard.
Then things fail, for so many reasons, and it only takes a few minutes for disaster to occur.
Mary

 

[Anime2lover]

I'm so sorry for your losses!
It happened here too, awful. Trying to make everything as fool proof as possible, including dogs who love chicken, is really hard.
Then things fail, for so many reasons, and it only takes a few minutes for disaster to occur.
Mary

I second that

 

[alwaystj9]

My dogs love chickens in a bad way, too.
They aren't hunting or eating them, they just want to play.
My daughter's cat has evil intentions, too.

 

[Quatie]

So sorry about your loss. Hopefully the two missing ones are just in hiding. A couple of my neighbors chickens were killed by a dog earlier this year. One of hers was in hiding and they found it the next day.

 

[Anime2lover]

My dogs love chickens in a bad way, too.
They aren't hunting or eating them, they just want to play.
My daughter's cat has evil intentions, too.

Mine eats with them and "plays" with them. Much to their displeasure.