Does anyone have any experience with integrating their dogs and their
chickens?

My new flock is behind a chicken wire fence, but the dogs could get in if
they chose, and they have made some moves in that direction. Our older dog I
can trust to obey me around them, but the rescue dog--forget it. She gets
wildly over-excited at the very sight of them. (She's always on a leash
outdoors at this point, since she can't be trusted not to run off into the
woods and fields, and has little or no recall. It's too bad, since it means
she can't play fetch outdoors, which she loves, but I've had to pursue her
through the neighbors' fields too many times.)

In article Vc6Ie.519$ah4.495@lakeread05, Suja wrote:
Pan would probably be perfectly okay with them, but Khan would be having
Chicken for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

That's the kind of integration I was thinking about. Back
when I was following SIBERNET-L a dog came up for adoption
after it ate over 70 of a neighbor's chickens.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Let's start racial profiling tax cheaters.

Janet Puistonen wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with integrating their dogs and their
chickens?

No experience, but good luck. Maybe they can be taught to leave them
alone the same way you'd teach them to leave cats alone?

Pan would probably be perfectly okay with them, but Khan would be having
Chicken for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Suja

Melinda Shore wrote:
In article Vc6Ie.519$ah4.495@lakeread05, Suja
wrote:
Pan would probably be perfectly okay with them, but Khan would be
having Chicken for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

That's the kind of integration I was thinking about. Back
when I was following SIBERNET-L a dog came up for adoption
after it ate over 70 of a neighbor's chickens.

Heh.

There was a dog in our vicinity known as "the husky on Main Street" who
apparently ate about 50% of the local chicken population in a matter of
months. (Since most people can't tell the Northern breeds apart, it may well
be a Sibe, or even a Malamute, but in any case...) His owners were evidently
going off to work every day leaving him behind an electric fence. After a
while, he would go through the fence and go hunting. He always returned home
in time to meet the family and appear completely innocent. Eventually
someone who caught him with a hen in his mouth told them what he was up to.
I gather that he now spends his days indoors.

Since I have goldens, I have some faint hope that I can get them to interact
with the chickens and not eat them. Very faint, in Sally's case. I was
hoping she would be afraid of them, but no. A cardboard box fills her with
terror, but not a hen.

"Janet Puistonen" wrote in message
news:F36Ie.2565$va1.2008@trndny09...
Does anyone have any experience with integrating their dogs and their
chickens?

My new flock is behind a chicken wire fence, but the dogs could get in if
they chose, and they have made some moves in that direction. Our older dog
I can trust to obey me around them, but the rescue dog--forget it. She
gets wildly over-excited at the very sight of them. (She's always on a
leash outdoors at this point, since she can't be trusted not to run off
into the woods and fields, and has little or no recall. It's too bad,
since it means she can't play fetch outdoors, which she loves, but I've
had to pursue her through the neighbors' fields too many times.)

I have dogs and chickens. Dogs are fenced. Chickens are also fenced, where
the dogs cannot see them. I used to let my birds free-range, but some of
them would fly over the dogs' fence, where they'd meet a quick end.

I didn't try to "integrate" them because I've heard from my farmer neighbors
that you can get dogs used to being around chickens so they don't kill 'em,
sometimes forever but sometimes not. I've heard a heck of a lot of stories
about ol' Rover who never killed a chicken until he was five or six years
old. Also, any dog that's loose might not harm its own chickens, but can go
down the road and kill the neighbors' birds.

I thought it best not to take the chance, as I'm very fond of my hens (to be
honest, I occasionally fantasize a violent end to the rooster, who's a
s.o.b.). YMMV.

In any event, I'd seriously consider augmenting your chickens' pen with one
or more hotwires on the outside, to discourage predators and/or other dogs.

flick 100785

On Wed, 03 Aug 2005 16:14:29 GMT, "Janet Puistonen"
wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with integrating their dogs and their
chickens?

My new flock is behind a chicken wire fence, but the dogs could get in if
they chose, and they have made some moves in that direction. Our older dog I
can trust to obey me around them, but the rescue dog--forget it. She gets
wildly over-excited at the very sight of them. (She's always on a leash
outdoors at this point, since she can't be trusted not to run off into the
woods and fields, and has little or no recall. It's too bad, since it means
she can't play fetch outdoors, which she loves, but I've had to pursue her
through the neighbors' fields too many times.)

I think it depends on the dog. With a GR, I'd think the tendency to
mouth objects would be a negative while the fact that people train
them all the time to retrieve a bird without mauling it being a
positive. It would be much easier and safer to fence them away from
each other, however, and that is what I would do.

--
Paula
"Anyway, other people are weird, but sometimes they have candy, so it's best to try to get along with them." Joe Bay

Paula wrote:
On Wed, 03 Aug 2005 16:14:29 GMT, "Janet Puistonen"
wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with integrating their dogs and their
chickens?

My new flock is behind a chicken wire fence, but the dogs could get
in if they chose, and they have made some moves in that direction.
Our older dog I can trust to obey me around them, but the rescue
dog--forget it. She gets wildly over-excited at the very sight of
them. (She's always on a leash outdoors at this point, since she
can't be trusted not to run off into the woods and fields, and has
little or no recall. It's too bad, since it means she can't play
fetch outdoors, which she loves, but I've had to pursue her through
the neighbors' fields too many times.)

I think it depends on the dog. With a GR, I'd think the tendency to
mouth objects would be a negative while the fact that people train
them all the time to retrieve a bird without mauling it being a
positive. It would be much easier and safer to fence them away from
each other, however, and that is what I would do.

That was my conclusion also, although some interaction is eventually
unavoidable.