Have any of you had trouble with your dogs trying to kill the chickens. I'm trying to figure everything out about chickens. Would they be able to defend themselves against a dog? My dog is fairly mellow but i'm not to sure how she'd act around them. How have you handle your dogs?

A chicken basically only has flight as a defense, I dont mean fly, more like flee. My terriers kill anything and must be kept kenneled, or chooks must be kept penned. My English Shepherd(border collie) doesnt bother them. Dogs like to kill chooks! I have beat the dog with a dead bird and tied one to thei neck and even put one dog in with a nasty game cock. I just never completely trust dogs with chickens.

All depends on the dog. My dog, an Airedale Terrier, walks, sleeps, sits between the hens. Sometimes a hen will pick some particles off his coat. When he has a bone and the hens try to get at it he will just softly growl, sometimes he will just let them have it. When I give treats hens and dog share. Once the dog and a hen got hold of the same crust of bread and they both pulled untill the crust gave way. He just considers the hens as his fellow pets (I think the hens consider him as some kind of cock). He will chase any stray pigeon or crow or jay, avoiding chickens on his way.
But like Rob says, some dogs you can never trust.
Oh, and a dog will not TRY to kill chickens, a dog will kill them all in no time.

Hi Anonymous, I have 4 dogs and a doggy door available to them 24/7. I also have 30 some birds outside, all in pens. I've only let my toy Manchester Terrier out with them, and only if I'm out there too.

I had a sheltie that I could completely trust with the birds. Herding dogs are usually pretty good with flocks of any kind, it's their nature.

My other dogs are 20lbs+, and I just won't take the chance to let them out with the birds. Alot of dogs on their own are fine with chickens, but add one or more and sometimes that pack mentality kicks in. Your chickens really don't stand a chance with any dog. You just have to trust your own judgement. Only you know how your dog acts around your birds. Some dogs seem to understand the birds are your pets, and will even protect them.

I think my dogs understand my birds are pets, and they don't seem to even notice them. Of course when I first got the chickens they were real interested, but I acted like it was no big deal and just kept telling them "no" when they acted to interested. I keep my birds in pens that the dogs cannot get into.

I did once forget and opened the doggy door when the birds were loose in the yard. The two biggest dogs chased most of the birds back into their pen and proceeded to bark loudly at them. The birds were all in the corner with their backs to the dogs, being very still. The Manchester had the RIR trapped in some junk behind the garage, and the rooster had flown over the fence and was fine! Some protector he was!

LOL. I've never heard about chickens defending themselves against hungry dogs, although cats are quite another matter. My hens are huge barred plymouth rocks with a nasty attitude. Once a wild red jungle fowl rooster approached them and they attacked him, heedless of his spurrs. Another time they also scared away a small dog and several cats....

When I was a kid I used to take my quail out of the brooder and play with them. I'd set them on the floor and watch them do whatever they did. Once I had to chase some down and left a group of around 6 near the brooder. Our silkie terrier took advantage of the moment to retrieve one of these chicks and follow me across the floor after the ones that I was chasing. I turned around and she plopped the chick down at my feet. It was uninjured. She ran back to the group and grabbed another one and came back and gave it to me the same way. The chicks weren't hurt, but I picked the dog up while I gathered the quail and put them back in their brooder. Our silkie terrier would also hold point on my birds, so she must have had some hunting blood in her background.

I've posted on this board before about my dogs and chickens. Do a search (I think under poultry management) and you'll find lots of stories about this from other posters as well.
In a nutshell, my 2 dogs were BIG prey animals. We lost 2 hens from them. But through supervision, training, and catching them in the act once, they were forever fine after that. I could leave them and the chickens alone all day together and no problems.
My one dog died and I now have a new puppy. She's 4 months old and big (black lab mix) and she, too, has the hunting instinct. Twice, I caught her with a chicken in her mouth, running around the yard! But, the funny thing is, the chickens were unhurt. The puppy just likes to carry them around! lol! But no, I don't allow her to do that. I supervise her and train her each day and she's been fine.

I have dogs and I had chickens. Some dogs are good with chickens and do not bother them and others will get them in a second.

When I was a teenager we had chickens and we also had a great dane and a pug and neither of them gave a second look to those chickens and they could have cared less that they were there.

Now that I am an adult and had my chickens, I also have four pit bulls (they are not as bad as everyone thinks by the way), anyways, my male pitbull only attacked the ones that went into his kennel, ones that he had seen us chase, and he killed one that tried to attack my daughter two times (no loss there, I was going to have to kill it anyways). As for the female pitbull, she will get them if she is not being watched and she will intaginize the others to do so as well. We kept two of our pitbull puppies and they do not bother them at all. I guess because they are use to them. We were keeping a yellow lab here for a family member and he killed them everytime he got lose, and he was an excellent escape artist. Needless to say he killed off my last five chickens, and he no longer lives here, he is lucky he is still alive. He also got my last three ducks from last year.

Now, I also have a mini pincher and she is a bad bird chaser. She would chase my chickens, but she never attacked, but I think that was because they were about her same size if not a little bigger. But she got a hold of three ducklings and killed them. But after I punished her by smacking her with them and pointing to each one she killed and telling her how bad she was, and locking her in a 4x6 dog house for 36 hours, she has not touched one since, and she is out there with them all the time. She now chases birds that are on the ground. Like she has a real chance of catching them.

So basically it depends on the dog. Watch them closly when they are around them and nevr chase them infront of your dogs, because they will think that it is okay to do so.

Also, watch for dogs that are running lose. I lost about twenty chickens because people are not responsible enough to keep their dogs at home.

Best of luck...

Here is another idea, put muzzles on your dogs when they are out and around the chickens until they get use to them and they do not seem to bother or chase them...