Dog barking causing anxiety

[rabsabq]

Hi all,
Our recent (February) rescue dog loves to bark at the girls in their run. Consequently, they are losing feathers (talk about naked butts) and generally getting jumpy. WE're working on the barking, but is there a temporary fix we can give the girls to calm them? Too hot to keep them in the coop all day and the pooch is an outside dog about 8 yrs old.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and would go a long way to my anxiety too!

 

[Thyme4Chickens]

That does sound stressful for everyone.

Can you post pictures of your set up?

Is your dog free in the yard?

The first thought off the top of my head was to make a "privacy fence" around the chicken run (far enough from it not to impede airflow) - you may be able to find free pallets on Craigslist to rig something up. Might not work if your dog is a jumper, though.

 

[staceyj]

If the dog has been barking since February that’s five months uncorrected.
The easiest and most sensible solution is to bring the dog indoors and only allow him outside with supervision.

It will take a lot of patience and work to try to correct a behavior like that and may not even be possible in a dog that classifies medically as “a senior”.

A really good dog trainer might be able to help you learn some strategies to decondition him from this response, but my opinion is that it’s not likely.

Another possibility is a citronella spray collar.
These are not shock collars.

When the dog barks, a refillable unit on the front of the collar sprays a mist (burst) of citronella up and forward. This doesn’t hurt the dog, but it’s surprising to them and interrupts their concentration momentarily.
It doesn’t take long for them to figure out that it only happens when they bark.
Bark = Pssst!
Quiet = No unpleasant spraying
I’ve known two people who’ve had great results with these collars and one who saw no improvement.

They are available at big chain pet stores ~$50-60 but are much cheaper from amazon.

 

[BirdGal]

Might have to try a shock collar or no bark collar if some sort of "privacy fence" doesn't help. In my experience dogs and chickens both are more likely to jump if they can't see thru a fence.