Birds of a Feather: Making Introductions
So you’ve determined your dog’s breed, know his personality, and think he’s ready to coexist with chickens. Where do you start?
First, timing matters. If you’ve recently added a puppy to your household and already own chickens, introduce them right away (as in, while your dog is still a puppy). If you already have a dog and are considering getting chickens, you may want to test your dog’s prey drive and general reactions by introducing him to other birds before getting chickens, with the supervision of a professional, of course. The following method is roughly the same for both scenarios.
The safest option is to start with the least amount of exposure and work up to direct contact. Keeping a distance, walk your dog or puppy on a leash around a chicken yard, coop, run, or enclosure. Watch to see how your dog reacts when he spots the birds. Do his ears perk up? Do his eyes lock onto the birds and become fixated? Or, does he glance their way, sniff the air, and then move on to other smells? Read your dog’s body language as you walk around.
If the dog shows signs of wanting to chase the birds (barking, growling, tugging at the leash, all while keeping eyes on the birds), you may want to call it quits for the day and try again another time. A dog that is aggressively interested in chickens may warrant some professional training to become acquainted with and trustworthy around a flock. If the dog is interested but not aggressively so (watching, sniffing the air, but generally moving about) or completely ignores the birds, you can move closer to where the flock is. Let your dog or puppy sniff the chickens and the ground around the enclosure. The nose is the information gatherer of the dog’s senses so let your pup sniff for as long as he wants.
Continue to introduce the dogs and chickens in this manner—with your supervision at all times—as you gradually eliminate barriers between the two species. This process may take days or weeks (or more). Be patient and take your time; continue to read your dog’s body language and follow his cues.
Can’t We All Just Get Along?
There may be some dogs that you feel will never be trustworthy around chickens. This can be an unfortunate reality that you will have to reconcile as a dog owner and/or chicken owner. If you have a dog that continually shows aggression, extreme herding behavior, or relentless chasing, it is likely that this dog’s prey drive is very high and may not be trusted loose around a flock of chickens. While not ideal for you, do remember that this is not the dog’s fault—it is his instinct and simply in his nature. In a case such as this, it is your responsibility to keep both species safe. First and foremost, train your dog to listen to your basic commands; keep him on leash at all times around the flock. House your flock in a predator-safe coop and lock them up each night. Watch diligently if your dog and chickens are ever in the same area together; and if you can’t be there to monitor interactions, keep them separate. If you are unable to take these steps, it would be wise not to keep dogs and chickens together at all.
Teach an Old Dog New Tricks
There are some that believe with enough time, effort, and diligent training, any dog of any breed can learn to live peacefully with chickens. Whether your dog requires daily obedience training or naturally has a nonchalant attitude around fowl, take the time to learn some basic commands and practice these with your dog regularly. Though it may be entertaining to watch, don’t encourage play between your dogs and birds; play may be a precursor to more aggressive behavior. Look on the Internet or contact your dog’s breed club for qualified trainers in your area that specialize in that breed.
Above all, use good judgment. Read your dog’s body language and know the animal well enough to determine which precautionary steps you need to take to keep both dog and chickens safe.
The Guardians
Dogs have guarded livestock for centuries. In my flock, we’ve tried a variety of roosters to protect our hens from foxes and raptors, but none has been as successful as the simple presence of our large retriever mix. She’s not a traditional guard dog: She’s a big, playful and goofy mutt more interested in chicken poop than anything else in the yard. But she has a very low prey drive and was raised around our flock from puppyhood, so everyone has had years to become acquainted. She doesn’t know she’s guarding the flock, but the results speak for themselves. We wouldn’t trade her for the world.
If you’re looking for a canine protector, here are some great livestock guardian breeds:
•Akbash
•Anatolian shepherd
•Great Pyrenees
•Komondor
•Kuvasz
•MaremmaHome on the Range: Preparing Your Backyard
Komondors, with their unique moplike coats, are best known for being extremely protective guardians.
A Great Pyrenees dog makes an excellent livestock guardian.
For just a minute, put this book down, head over to the window, and take a look at your backyard. What do you see? Do you have an expansive green lawn? Flower gardens? Large established trees? How about a deck or patio? Once chickens are introduced into your outdoor space, they will quickly make themselves at home in every nook and cranny within their reach: Flower pots, water fountains, veggie beds—it’s all fair game. Through the investigative powers of their beaks, talons, and sheer curiosity, no stone will be left unturned (so to speak).
To immaculately manicured flower beds and perfectly mulched gardens, a flock of chickens can be a frustrating nuisance at best and a devastating force at worst. Chickens scratch at soil, dig craters in the dirt for dust bathing, and eat the foliage and fruit from favorite flora. If they find something particularly tasty in your garden, they’ll eat it down to the roots. They’ll also overturn compost piles searching for bugs and grubs (it is up to you whether that’s a boon or a nuisance), without concern for making a mess. In the process, they’ll deposit droppings in their wake. With free-range chickens, these scenarios are not a matter of if but rather when.
Like any other preparation, chicken proofing a garden is a project best started before any peeps come home. The easiest and only foolproof way to keep chickens out of areas where they’re not welcome is to put a barrier between them.
Tales from the Coop
It’s probably becoming clear that I’m quite an animal person. When my husband and I started our first flock, we had three dogs: two Chihuahuas and a shepherd-retriever mix, all rescue animals. Our most timid Chihuahua, Lucy, steered clear of the chickens completely; our boisterous and outgoing Chihuahua, Ruby, happily followed our hens (to eat their droppings, of course) and taunted our rooster by zipping and jumping around him. Whether she was genuinely trying to play with him or gleaning joy simply from irritating him was anyone’s guess.
We got incredibly lucky when we adopted Winnie, the shepherd-retriever mix. She was just a few months old when she met the chickens and, since they were pullets themselves, both species grew up together. Once fully grown, Winnie ended up reaching a whopping 90 lb. (40 kg). Lucky for us, she was respectful and gentle around the chickens. She acted as a wonderful guardian when the chickens were free ranging, and, aside from her penchant for chicken droppings, she completely left them alone.
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