Can a dog and chickens safely coexist in a small backyard?

[pyaresquared]

So my dilemma is this. I really want to adopt a dog, but I own three pet chickens I am very attached to. I worry that no matter how careful I am, any dog I adopt is going to eventually get loose and eat my chickens. Do you think dog and chicken can coexist in a small backyard? I'd love to hear about other peoples experiences and opinions.

Here's some background on our situation. Our yard is a small, fenced lot (less than .25 acres). My chickens have a good size run, but frequently free-range the backyard when I am around to watch them. The dog I am looking to adopt is a 2 year old beagle. My husband (also very attached to the chickens) tells me to adopt a cat instead, just to be safe. I like cats but I LOVE dogs. Can a dog be trained to tolerate chickens?

We have two dogs and four chickens. They share our backyard quite peacefully. One of the dogs (a mutt) chases the pigeons and doves that come to eat chicken feed, but he leaves the chickens alone. The other, a beagle, is very lazy and has no interest in either the birds or the chickens. We “adopted” the dogs, both spayed males, when they were about 5 yrs old and have had them for about a year. We already had the chickens when the dogs arrived.

 

[Alanzs]

So my dilemma is this. I really want to adopt a dog, but I own three pet chickens I am very attached to. I worry that no matter how careful I am, any dog I adopt is going to eventually get loose and eat my chickens. Do you think dog and chicken can coexist in a small backyard? I'd love to hear about other peoples experiences and opinions.

Here's some background on our situation. Our yard is a small, fenced lot (less than .25 acres). My chickens have a good size run, but frequently free-range the backyard when I am around to watch them. The dog I am looking to adopt is a 2 year old beagle. My husband (also very attached to the chickens) tells me to adopt a cat instead, just to be safe. I like cats but I LOVE dogs. Can a dog be trained to tolerate chickens?

Yes, a dog can live with chickens. I have a border collie/springer spaniel dog that has been trained to find, round up all of our chickens. She has been raised around literally 1000s of chickens, from day old to older hens. All day, she could care less about the chickens, they sleep near each other, etc. But, come close to dusk, when we tell her to round up the chooks, she's off. It's her job and she loves doing it.

She'll go to wherever the chickens are (we have 22 acres) and find the farthest chicken away from the coop, soft mouths it, then herds the flock (100+ chickens) back to their coop area.
That being said, when she was a younger puppy and still being trained, she got a little too excited and a smaller 4 week old chick died. There's never been a problem since.

I'd say it all depends on the breed of the dog. I sell pullets and it's not uncommon to have a customer buying replacement chickens due to dog attacks. Good luck.
Have fun.

 

[Batwell]

So my dilemma is this. I really want to adopt a dog, but I own three pet chickens I am very attached to. I worry that no matter how careful I am, any dog I adopt is going to eventually get loose and eat my chickens. Do you think dog and chicken can coexist in a small backyard? I'd love to hear about other peoples experiences and opinions.

Here's some background on our situation. Our yard is a small, fenced lot (less than .25 acres). My chickens have a good size run, but frequently free-range the backyard when I am around to watch them. The dog I am looking to adopt is a 2 year old beagle. My husband (also very attached to the chickens) tells me to adopt a cat instead, just to be safe. I like cats but I LOVE dogs. Can a dog be trained to tolerate chickens?

 

[Batwell]

So my dilemma is this. I really want to adopt a dog, but I own three pet chickens I am very attached to. I worry that no matter how careful I am, any dog I adopt is going to eventually get loose and eat my chickens. Do you think dog and chicken can coexist in a small backyard? I'd love to hear about other peoples experiences and opinions.

Here's some background on our situation. Our yard is a small, fenced lot (less than .25 acres). My chickens have a good size run, but frequently free-range the backyard when I am around to watch them. The dog I am looking to adopt is a 2 year old beagle. My husband (also very attached to the chickens) tells me to adopt a cat instead, just to be safe. I like cats but I LOVE dogs. Can a dog be trained to tolerate chickens?

 

[BlueEarChicken]

So my dilemma is this. I really want to adopt a dog, but I own three pet chickens I am very attached to. I worry that no matter how careful I am, any dog I adopt is going to eventually get loose and eat my chickens. Do you think dog and chicken can coexist in a small backyard? I'd love to hear about other peoples experiences and opinions.

Here's some background on our situation. Our yard is a small, fenced lot (less than .25 acres). My chickens have a good size run, but frequently free-range the backyard when I am around to watch them. The dog I am looking to adopt is a 2 year old beagle. My husband (also very attached to the chickens) tells me to adopt a cat instead, just to be safe. I like cats but I LOVE dogs. Can a dog be trained to tolerate chickens?

My dogs are really good and totally tolerate the birds, even the house chicken.

Unfortunately our neighbors’ dogs have not been as kind though to our flock outside, so I’d agree it depends on the dog. My friend has beagles and chickens and they coexist so it isn’t exactly the breed you need to consider but the individual dog.

Becky

 

[Chickedee]

We have an almost 2 year old Golden Doodle, Maggie and she loves our chickens. We had to train her to not chase them, but she has leaned fabulously and has never hurt a single one. We have 12 that we got this past April when our pup was a year and a half. Our friends brought their golden doodle puppy over that had never seen chickens (and wasn’t trained not to chase them) and he tried chasing them. What was super neat though was that Maggie ran between him and the chickens and corralled him away from the hens, protecting them from him. Today I let the chickens out of their coop when Maggie was standing nearby. They all ran around her, pecking the grass and her tail was wagging like crazy. She thought they wanted to play with her. The most she ever does is sniff their read ends, but is otherwise very gentle. Oh, and my neighbor’s Cavapoo doesn’t chase them either. He is 8 months old.

 

[feelgooddays]

Yes, absolutely they can. We have three dogs and two cats. Two dogs are boxers, one is a bully/lab mix. All three are over 50lbs. Two of the dogs were adopted from the shelter. Never once has one of our dogs or cats went after any chickens and they all share our fenced in backyard and sometimes we let the chickens inside to visit. We made sure to introduce the dogs/cats to the chickens in a controlled environment and supervised their interactions for the first few months. Now we can trust our dogs to protect our chickens, they have run off snakes and possums and coyotes to protect the girls. The cats will go into the chicken run and hang out/lay around with the chickens. We have had zero issues. Just make sure to do slow introductions and supervise visits until you are comfortable.

 

[Batwell]

Hello! I have three dogs that live comfortably on my farm with my many free range chickens and a few guineas. The Bulgarian Shepherd, a livestock guardian breed, was purchased as a pup. The GSD and Irish Wolfhound as adults. I didn’t just chuck them out with the chickens unsupervised in the beginning, but put in the time training them. At first I kept them on a long line, then off leash supervised. I made sure they understood my expectations. Also spent some time hanging out with all of them. If you aren’t confident training dogs, hire a good professional to get you started. Actually, a dog or two, in my opinion, help keep the chickens safe from predators.

 

[Mazimm1]

So my dilemma is this. I really want to adopt a dog, but I own three pet chickens I am very attached to. I worry that no matter how careful I am, any dog I adopt is going to eventually get loose and eat my chickens. Do you think dog and chicken can coexist in a small backyard? I'd love to hear about other peoples experiences and opinions.

Here's some background on our situation. Our yard is a small, fenced lot (less than .25 acres). My chickens have a good size run, but frequently free-range the backyard when I am around to watch them. The dog I am looking to adopt is a 2 year old beagle. My husband (also very attached to the chickens) tells me to adopt a cat instead, just to be safe. I like cats but I LOVE dogs. Can a dog be trained to tolerate chickens?

Absolutely YES. Not only does my small dog coexist with my chickens, but within 20 minutes I had my brother's enormous golden doodle good with the birds too. Have to do a little training so the dog doesn't get excited and chase them when the chickens decide to run. Very easy to teach a dog not to harm the chickens when they're not running.

 

[nancylee679]

So my dilemma is this. I really want to adopt a dog, but I own three pet chickens I am very attached to. I worry that no matter how careful I am, any dog I adopt is going to eventually get loose and eat my chickens. Do you think dog and chicken can coexist in a small backyard? I'd love to hear about other peoples experiences and opinions.

Here's some background on our situation. Our yard is a small, fenced lot (less than .25 acres). My chickens have a good size run, but frequently free-range the backyard when I am around to watch them. The dog I am looking to adopt is a 2 year old beagle. My husband (also very attached to the chickens) tells me to adopt a cat instead, just to be safe. I like cats but I LOVE dogs. Can a dog be trained to tolerate chickens?

I have 2 adult dogs that I had before I started raising chickens in my small backyard. There was a learning curve and they killed 3 chickens in one fell swoop when I was still getting them used to each other. I pulled back and was rotating them —chickens out dogs in— then dogs out and chickens in— for a about a month. That got old fast and I started again. I kept the dogs leashed while they were out together. I gradually let the dogs off the leash but was watching carefully. I don’t remember how long it took but the first time I went inside while both were out was a little nerve wracking. They coexist quite well now. I just got a puppy who is a little too interested in the chickens but they are bigger than her right now. I will have to train her as she gets older and bigger. Short answer-most dogs can become chicken friendly with patience.