Bird dogs and chickens

[summerb67]

Does anyone have chickens and young dogs? If you do how do you deal with them?

[wrongway]

My lab always rounds up the neighbors chickens and makes sure they all get back into the coop. Very funny to watch. All we had to say was no if he was to rough with the birds.

[Houndhunter]

shock collar, used correctly

[lokidog]

Put them on a lead and sit them down in the middle of the coop, go from there.  We've never had a problem, our pups have always grown up knowing the chickens (free ranging) are off limits.  Your dog should be smart enough to learn the difference.  Amber gets a bit excited if the chickens freak out squawking and running around, but she will not grab them. 

[jrebel]

My dog (pictured in my avatar) loves to chase chickens.  Especially when the neighbors chickens fly over our 6" fence and land in my garden.....the dirty vermin.

[runamuk]

My dog (pictured in my avatar) loves to chase chickens.  Especially when the neighbors chickens fly over our 6" fence and land in my garden.....the dirty vermin.

ummm your dog looks a lot like a giraffe

I have had it work and had them pick the chickens up and carry them around which can be detrimental to the chickens

[splitshot]

duh,  are chickens related to pheasants, quail ,huns, etc, and do they smell the same.  I know it is tough to teach a bird dog not to chase anything .  it is a challenging deal and good luck.    mike w

[deltaops]

I have not introduced our Springer to the chickens yet. I did let him out last night thinking they would be in the coup, he just locked up and stared, I put him back in the house.

[Houndhunter]

My dog (pictured in my avatar) loves to chase chickens.  Especially when the neighbors chickens fly over our 6" fence and land in my garden.....the dirty vermin.

ummm your dog looks a lot like a giraffe

I have had it work and had them pick the chickens up and carry them around which can be detrimental to the chickens

Wait a minute, you can run giraffe's in WA

[jrebel]

My dog (pictured in my avatar) loves to chase chickens.  Especially when the neighbors chickens fly over our 6" fence and land in my garden.....the dirty vermin.

ummm your dog looks a lot like a giraffe

I have had it work and had them pick the chickens up and carry them around which can be detrimental to the chickens

Yeah, apparently I didn't have the correct answer to the riddle.....but my WHP loves catching chickens and plucking them. 

[lokidog]

duh,  are chickens related to pheasants, quail ,huns, etc, and do they smell the same.  I know it is tough to teach a bird dog not to chase anything .  it is a challenging deal and good luck.    mike w

They do NOT smell the same.  I don't have as good of nose as a dog, but I can sure tell that they smell different.  No, give me a  domestic and a wild turkey and I might not be able to tell.

It's not hard if you start when they are young, you just do the same thing you would do to have them not chase your cat, or your car, or your baby.   

[Happy Gilmore]

duh,  are chickens related to pheasants, quail ,huns, etc, and do they smell the same.  I know it is tough to teach a bird dog not to chase anything .  it is a challenging deal and good luck.    mike w

They do NOT smell the same.  I don't have as good of nose as a dog, but I can sure tell that they smell different.  No, give me a  domestic and a wild turkey and I might not be able to tell.

It's not hard if you start when they are young, you just do the same thing you would do to have them not chase your cat, or your car, or your baby.   

The highest field trial pointed labs will disagree with you. Augie and Creek Robber trained by frank and oly both used chickens regularly. I just gave Ole a couple chickens last month for his up and comer.

[AspenBud]

My dog (pictured in my avatar) loves to chase chickens.  Especially when the neighbors chickens fly over our 6" fence and land in my garden.....the dirty vermin.

ummm your dog looks a lot like a giraffe

I have had it work and had them pick the chickens up and carry them around which can be detrimental to the chickens

Yeah, apparently I didn't have the correct answer to the riddle.....but my WHP loves catching chickens and plucking them.

I have a friend whose neighbor refused to fix his chicken coop even after being told he had dogs and the chickens wouldn't fair well if they kept roaming in his yard.

One day the neighbor stopped his truck in front of their yard and started yelling at my friend's Spinone Italiano as it killed one of his chickens in front of him and the dog started throwing the bird in the air for fun.   

Funny thing is, the dog never did that with pheasant when we hunted with it.

[lokidog]

duh,  are chickens related to pheasants, quail ,huns, etc, and do they smell the same.  I know it is tough to teach a bird dog not to chase anything .  it is a challenging deal and good luck.    mike w

They do NOT smell the same.  I don't have as good of nose as a dog, but I can sure tell that they smell different.  No, give me a  domestic and a wild turkey and I might not be able to tell.

It's not hard if you start when they are young, you just do the same thing you would do to have them not chase your cat, or your car, or your baby.   

The highest field trial pointed labs will disagree with you. Augie and Creek Robber trained by frank and oly both used chickens regularly. I just gave Ole a couple chickens last month for his up and comer.

I am sure you can train a dog on chickens, didn't say you couldn't.  You can train using pheasants and I'm sure the dog would work on quail or chukars as well.     However, stick your nose into a chicken and then as pheasant and a duck and tell me they smell the same.  If they smell different to me, I'm sure a dog can pick up even more differences in scent.

So, are you saying you can't train a bird dog to leave chickens alone?  My chickens would happily disagree with you.     The only argument I can see is that if my dog came across a chicken in a field, she just might go after it, just like if she came across a pheasant in the driveway, she might just ignore it.  So, context is proba bly as important as scent.   

[Stilly bay]

if it takes a boat load of chicken stink and a big slow bird to get a PL to sight point then I guess thats what it takes.

I always thought it was asking a helluva lot for a bird dog to coexist with chickens, sure it happens all the time, but just don't get mad or surprised when your dog kills one. and don't get surprised when you punish your dog for killing one and he stops working game birds properly.

[deltaops]

if it takes a boat load of chicken stink and a big slow bird to get a PL to sight point then I guess thats what it takes.

I always thought it was asking a helluva lot for a bird dog to coexist with chickens, sure it happens all the time, but just don't get mad or surprised when your dog kills one. and don't get surprised when you punish your dog for killing one and he stops working game birds properly.

That is one reason why I will not introduce my Springer to our chickens. I need to build a wire cage for them so I can let my dog out back and not worry about the dang chickens. 

If my Springer ever did get a hold of one, well it would be my fault. I am sure he can be trained to not harm them, but I would rather he just treat all birds the same! 

[Special T]

I thought Bantam chickens had a smell like wild birds.... I think Happy  posted a thread about that a while back.

[AspenBud]

I'll stick with homers, quail, and chukar for training.

Or better still, grouse in the woods!   

[deltaops]

I wonder.......... Not using the ones  I have now, but buying a Bantam and letting it lose in the tall stuff, then getting my dog on it. Wonder if that would be good training? 

[Don Fischer]

A dog hasn't got any idea what any bird smells like until it smell's the first one.

You guy's keeping your dog away might and might not be doing the right thing. Squirt and Bodie started going out to the chickns the day they came home. They don't bother the chickens at all. Matter of fact they go into the hen house to evict the dicky birds that go in, never touch a chicken!

Early Dec my Red setter pup come's home and right to the chickens he goes with Squirt and Bodie. My chickens are always loose unless someone brings another bird dog over.

[lokidog]

A dog hasn't got any idea what any bird smells like until it smell's the first one.

You guy's keeping your dog away might and might not be doing the right thing. Squirt and Bodie started going out to the chickns the day they came home. They don't bother the chickens at all. Matter of fact they go into the hen house to evict the dicky birds that go in, never touch a chicken!

Early Dec my Red setter pup come's home and right to the chickens he goes with Squirt and Bodie. My chickens are always loose unless someone brings another bird dog over.

   Our Loki acted like they didn't even exist.  She'd lay out in the yard and they'd practically roost on top of her.

[Happy Gilmore]

I'll stick with homers, quail, and chukar for training.

Or better still, grouse in the woods!   

Non of which will run like a bantam or a rooster leaving a critical element out of training .

[buckfvr]

Before cancer took my shorthair, if she was awake, she was on point or workin our free range chickens......our lab totally ignores them,  to the point youd think they are invisible and scent free.