ChickenCrossing.Org

Henny Penny · 04-22-2008 04:53:51

From the dog whisperer out in LA...how to keep your chickens safe from your dog
http://www.self-sufficient-life.com/Kee … gVideo.htm

Seldoon · 04-23-2008 05:08:40

well with mine i made her apart of the chicks lives as soon as we brought them home.. and now she wants to sleep with them and she always eats with them.... why do dogs want to eat the scratch??

Moonpenny · 05-30-2008 08:16:13

My old springer spaniel "over-exercised" (as my husband put it) two of the first chicks I had when they were about 6-8 weeks old. Immediately afterwards Rex and I had a little chat when he showed an interest in chasing them. Since then I taught the old guy several hand signals so if he was approaching me from a distance he would stay away either with a stay command or a down signal. However, this year his age has caught up with him and he can't hear well and is almost blind. He isn't going to be able to hear or see me (or the chickens) outside anymore. Rex probably has a good year left in his lifetime so I am going to have to come up with another solution. But all in all, he gets along well with the older chickens and crummy with babies.

PurpleChicken · 05-30-2008 10:12:26

I saw that episode and am a big fan of Cesar.

That is a technique I've always used to train my dogs. I was always afraid
my conure would get harrased or killed so I would hold the dog down, let
the conure give it a good bight on the nose, and then made the bird sit
on the dog for a while.

We did a similiar thing with our chickens. We would let the younger chicks
walk on and around our dogs.

We have 3 dogs that I totally trust with chickens now. Our coon hound mutt
will chase them on command but won't hurt them. Our other two dogs just
have no interest in them but 1 does like to eat poop.

There is no right or wrong answer about dogs and chickens. Breeds, owners,
training & commitment are just some of the variables involved.

Queen of the Lilliputians · 05-30-2008 10:29:43

I have two dogs. My choc lab girl, Annie, is terrific. She has such great manners. I completely trust her. She's a bit of a chaser, but not the sort to kill. She DOESN'T chase my birds though.

My mutt (choc lab/husky) had a very high prey drive when he was younger. He LOOKS at the chickens. He occasionally FOLLOWS the chickens. But he never gets that 'focused' look that says he can't hear me. He will walk away if I call them. Our only incident was when he was on a leash.. I forgot to factor in my randy young roo, who came at poor Charlie. Charlie pinned him to the ground, let go when I yelled. Stupid roo went at him again (now this is a BANTAM cochin roo.. Charlie weighs 100lbs). Ds (6yo) walked Charlie away. Roo went back to doing whatever. I don't completely trust the dog, although he's old, has athritis, and I'm not sure he could even catch a bird if he wanted. We keep an eye on him, though. (The roo wasn't hurt btw. Didn't even lose a feather)

There is so much one can train a dog not to do. But I think it's important to remember that for some dogs, the instinct is still there. Better safe than sorry. Respect the fact that they are not people in furry coats smile

Meghan

PurpleChicken · 05-30-2008 10:59:28

Queen of the Lilliputians wrote:
Respect the fact that they are not people in furry coats
Meghan

Now that is so true!!!

My hound shakes SO BAD when she is close to our chickens. She wants to be a dog
so bad but has been trained not to. She could lose control at any time. Luckily she prefers to
chase a chicken, not eat it. She also likes her chicken cooked, not raw.

Last edited by PurpleChicken (05-30-2008 11:00:55)

meggieO · 04-06-2009 05:44:15

I adopted a blue-tick coonhound about 5 months ago and had him placed with a new family... It was hard to do but if you want to talk about being prey-driven... He got a hold of 2 of my chickens and luckily I was able to save them both. One did lose some tail but thankfully that was all. I tried to keep him around the chickens from the day I got him and had hopes he would warm up to them but there was NO WAY! He was a birddog like I have never seen. I don't think I will get another dog...

chickman · 04-17-2009 03:08:11

I have 2 beagels who used to help herd the chickens to their coop if there was a chicken hawk flying over head, but now they wanna feather rape the chickens since our neighbors dog showed them how.The best soluation we came up with is penning the pups up while the chickens are out. Hate to get rid of the pups but i have alot more money invested in chickens than dogs,if they don't calm down I am gonna have to find the pups a new home.

ashtray · 06-22-2009 12:53:52

my rottweiler killed one of my chickens last week .. i tried to get her familiar with the chicks when we first got the birds ..all the rott wanted to do was eat them lol .. oh well rott 1 chickens 0 .. the birds would go before dog does ,even if the dog kills all the birds .. hopefully that will not happen

paganfish · 06-22-2009 06:04:00

Our dogs won't bother the birds AT all. We've worked WITH them. TO keep them from doing this we have intergrated them and this has worked great.

However, there are times Makuli (pitbull mix) will eye one but we call her away and soon enough she forgets.

roll She's willful!

IF any of our dogs would though...I would keep them separate from the chickens as best as I could.

You gotta remember: They are BOTH animals and animals tend to be dominated by instinct regardless of how domesticated they are. Also, they are both my responsibility.

I would be devastated if one of my dogs killed one of my chickens, guineas or peacocks. BIG time!

I love my dogs but if this happened with frequency (dogs killing chickens) and I didn't try to make some kind of effort to stop it. I'd only have ME to blame.

I'd either have to rehome my dogs or my chickens...if it was something that could not be worked out.

The idea that one creature's life has more merit over the next. (Or one creature's inability to defend itself from the other as their ill fate.) is just plain ludicrous to me and...lazy.

As I said, I'm the human in the situation. They're MY responsibility. I'm of the mind that I have to be smarter than they are. After all, I am *suppose to be*. I keep chickens, I keep dogs. I keep cats. I keep peacocks. I keep guineas.

I keep *them* - not the other way around.

I know their weaknesses and their strengths. I act on this information to keep them safe from one another.

Even if it means doing without one or the other. I would not be able to sleep if I knew one of my creatures was hurting another...without doing something about it.

BUT. No one gets left behind...not around here.

To keep chickens while they could be harmed and not do anything about it would be CRUEL in my opinion.

After all, I would not keep two dogs, a weaker getting attacked by a stronger, if I knew one (the weaker or the stronger...does not matter.) would eventually get killed, without doing something about it.

Same scenario...different circumstances.

Pedro

PS I know, I digressed a bit but it really bothers me how some folks are flip about this sort of thing.

Last edited by paganfish (06-22-2009 06:27:50)

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#1 04-22-2008 04:53:51

Chickens and dogs

#2 04-23-2008 05:08:40

Re: Chickens and dogs

#3 05-30-2008 08:16:13

Re: Chickens and dogs

#4 05-30-2008 10:12:26

Re: Chickens and dogs

#5 05-30-2008 10:29:43

Re: Chickens and dogs

#6 05-30-2008 10:59:28

Re: Chickens and dogs

Queen of the Lilliputians wrote:

#7 04-06-2009 05:44:15

Re: Chickens and dogs

#8 04-17-2009 03:08:11

Re: Chickens and dogs

#9 06-22-2009 12:53:52

Re: Chickens and dogs

#10 06-22-2009 06:04:00

Re: Chickens and dogs

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