Need help with dog training around birds

[IsraeliFarmer]

Hi All. Kind of desperate for help here. We have a fenced in olive orchard of about 2.5 acres here in the Lower Galilee in Israel. On one side of the fence on the inside we have a whole row of divided coops for different chicken breeds. There's also one large coop with an automatic door to allow the birds in that cage (either growing out for meat or for eggs to eat) to range free among the olive trees. I brought in two dogs because in the past when I've had turkeys without a coop completely ranging free, they would inevitably get killed by predators digging in or flying down. It's a mother and daughter. The daughter is still a puppy - almost 9 months old now.

The dogs are a mix but the main breed is either an Italian maremmano or a great pyrenees. Here's my problem, when I'm around, they display almost no interest in the birds. They're around the turkeys that are in the free range coop every day - all day. But they only kill a bird about once or twice a week.

We have a bullmastiff that lives at home who is the sweetest laziest dog on Earth but the moment she sees a bird, a switch goes off and she becomes a ruthless chicken murderer. That's a response I could try to train against.

But how do I train a dog that is only an occasional bird killer? I had hoped in the past that it was just the puppy and she'd grow out of it. I suppose it's still a possibility, but the body count still continues.

Thanks so much!
Ira

 

[NatJ]

I'm not an expert, but here are a few thoughts:

--Are you sure the dogs are the ones killing birds? Or could there be a predator getting past them?

--Does the dead bird just lay there, or do the dogs eat it? If they eat it, you might check whether the dogs are getting enough food.

--Is there any chance of using a camera to record behavior, and find out just what is happening? That might help with fixing it (see whether it's a predator, or which dog, and whether it happens in specific circumstances that you can change.)

--If the puppy is the one killing birds, she might still grow out of it. It might help to keep her fenced or chained for a while, so she cannot be with the birds unless you are there, although that might cause other problems (like letting other predators get the birds more easily.)

 

[IsraeliFarmer]

I'm not an expert, but here are a few thoughts:

--Are you sure the dogs are the ones killing birds? Or could there be a predator getting past them?

--Does the dead bird just lay there, or do the dogs eat it? If they eat it, you might check whether the dogs are getting enough food.

--Is there any chance of using a camera to record behavior, and find out just what is happening? That might help with fixing it (see whether it's a predator, or which dog, and whether it happens in specific circumstances that you can change.)

--If the puppy is the one killing birds, she might still grow out of it. It might help to keep her fenced or chained for a while, so she cannot be with the birds unless you are there, although that might cause other problems (like letting other predators get the birds more easily.)

Hey thanks for the response.

I'm not 100% certain it's them, but it's pretty close. I have caught them on camera chasing the birds. In the past before I had the dogs, I had some predator attacks. The main predator here are mongoose and they only take the heads and leave the body. This was different.

If things don't improve, getting more cameras set up could definitely help.

Amazingly today when I went out there, there was a turkey just hanging out next to a dog. The two of them were just relaxing in a shady spot together. I must have closed that one outside the coop yesterday when I closed the door manually to prevent further attacks for the time being. So really who knows. I'm going to leave the door closed for a month or so and then try to introduce them again more slowly by bringing the dogs into the coop with me and reward/punish their reactions.