Chickens?

[Brinks]

So we decided to get 7 chickens (egg layers). We've tried to "introduce" Brinks (6 y.o. EM) to them slowly and so far it's been...just ok.
He doesn't care if they're in the run (located next to his fenced in area) in fact he ignores them or just sits near the pen, but as soon as I pick one up and try to have him smell it, he barks and jumps around like he wants to play with it (play or eat I'm not sure haha). When the chickens are full grown they will free range, potentially inside his fenced area. He doesn't seem to have a high prey drive- by that I mean he doesn't chase rabbits, squirrels or cats in his fenced area but I wonder what he'll do with the chickens.

Has anyone had experience introducing chickens? Any tips? Thoughts to share?

 

[DennasMom]

I haven't had chickens in our yard, but we have neighbors with some - and they like to move their pen around, included spots near the sidewalk. I try to let Denna approach softly, and as soon as she gets too excited (and the chickens start clucking too much about her being there), we move on. I don't want to stress out the chickens, either.

I would tie up Brinks to a tree or post, so you can bring a chicken close without risk of him jumping up on you or the chicken. Get him to sit calmly for a sniff as you hold the chicken... take as much time as you need to make sure the dog AND the chicken are both mostly relaxed as you get them closer to each other. Go SLOW, and hopefully they'll both get the point that they can co-habitate without excitement.

That's basically how we introduced our new dogs to the resident cat... made sure the dog was contained and only went as far as the cat was comfortable before backing off to respective safe spaces.

Hopefully you'll get more info from someone who actually has chickens...
I would say the idea is to get Brinks to accept the chickens as "his" to protect, not toys or prey - which it sounds like prey is not a biggie, so that's a GOOD thing!

You can also refresh Brinks' commands for sit, down, off, wait, relax, go-to-place, etc, so he gets some good listening habits again (if he's like Denna, he's probably relaxed some response times)... that should help you in guiding his reactions for the chicken encounters, too (i.e. better communication on what you want him to do instead of what he's doing now).

Another idea... teach "find it" as a game... toss a treat on the floor, point to it and say "find it!". It's a quick & easy "trick" to teach. Then, when you go to get the chicken and Brinks comes running, toss a treat away from you and say "find it"... so he redirects to the treat... the association would be that you having a chicken means treats are coming and the treats will NOT be where the chicken is... and also, if he runs to you with a chicken, he will soon want to run the other direction (to go find a tossed treat).

 

[marke]

i would say put the chickens behind a fence , get yourself a chair and sit next to the fence with your dog loose , let him get desensitized to the chickens , could take awhile like a week to weeks , but he will , correct him and distract him when he gets too interested or excited ........ eventually let one loose under close supervision , then two ......... supervise him , and i'd never trust him alone with something little and living that i wasn't willing to lose , dogs are animals , you never know what will trigger a reflex .........

 

[Brinks]

Thanks! So far it's going well. He lays down close to their pen now with his back to them. We haven't had them loose around him yet (waiting for them to get a little bigger and handling them more so they aren't so loud/reactive to human touch). We'll keep working at it- Summer project! [emoji1]