*my* dog killed a neighbor's chicken!!!!

[Toshiko24]

This is all fantastic advice! Few years ago I had a neighbor dog get in my yard and killed my rabbit. All I wanted was for them to say sorry and that they would try to keep it in their yard from now on, but all she would say to me was, "My dog would never do that. There is no blood on his mouth." I ended up calling animal control on them to make sure they did keep it locked up. I know first hand it is very upsetting to loose one of your small helpless pets to a dog but once the person can calm down a bit most people can be very reasonable when both parties are willing to compromise.
If he can not be reasoned with don't get too discouraged though. Some people just cant be. They live for the drama and want to drag it on for as long as they can. Your willing to do what you can to make sure your dog will be where he is suppose to be and weather or not you decide to go with the gift card or replacing the chicken, or both, or w/e. I think your being a good neighbor reaching out to him trying to make things better. Accidents happen weather your yard is enclosed or not and all you can do is make the best out of the hand you were dealt.
Good Luck too you and let us know how it all works out!!

Also!

 

[bobbi-j]

I haven't even introduced myself here yet but I have a big problem! I've been reading here a while in anticipation of getting some chickens, but yesterday something terrible happened.

Yesterday afternoon our behind neighbor came stomping up to my back door, very angry. It happened that at just that moment my husband got home and met him in the yard. I could see that the man was holding my Pyrenees' collar in his hand and was shaking it at my husband. Then he stomped back off.

Hubby came in and said that the man told him that Apollo (our dog) had gotten out and was on the neighbor's property and had killed one of his chickens!!!!! Apparently my husband had not completely latched one of the gates, and the afternoon wind blew it open. Apollo had been outside enjoying the weather and I suppose he saw a chance to take a little walk. I had no idea he was gone!

Husband got the leash, went over to the neighbor's house and retrieved Apollo. Hubby apologized and asked the man how much money to replace the chicken but the man was too angry to talk about it.

I am beyond mortified, for so many reasons!

1. We only just moved here about 6 months ago and are still meeting the neighbors. This neighbor lives on a large property adjacent to ours. We've met him a couple of times.

2. When we moved in we spent $10,000 (!!) on building a fence to make sure our dogs and children had a safe space and also to be sure that our animals wouldn't be a nuisance. We are not people who let their dogs roam, ever! We moved to a "country" area and I have noticed that out here lots of people don't seem to think they need to keep their dogs fenced, but we do.

3. The dog in question is a Great Pyrenees, a dog bred to protect livestock. Ours is around 11 years old now and wasn't trained to do that work, but he's not and never has been an aggressive dog. He chases squirrels and birds out of our yard, but I never got the impression that he really wanted to catch them (and he never has).

4. I do not doubt what the neighbor says, but I didn't see anything on Apollo except muddy feet. Not a feather, not a speck of blood, nothing. Is it possible he literally scared it to death?

5. How do I make this right with the neighbor? We have always had good relations with our neighbors and we want to continue that. We are perfectly willing to pay to replace his chicken, if he will just tell us what it costs. I do understand that money doesn't replace a relationship (I have no idea what his feelings toward his chickens are... I had NO idea they even had chickens!). I really do want to make this right.

6. And finally, I am now very worried about whether it would be safe for us to have chickens! Our dogs (the other is a Pekingese) have free run of the fenced in back yard.

Ugh. My stomach is just in knots!
Jenny

I think you've gotten some very good advice here. Gift card, ask neighbor for advice in starting a flock, etc. Even though your dog had no blood on him, he could well have killed that chicken. I had a pup several years ago that killed about a dozen of my chickens (my fault entirely, but that's another story) and didn't have a drop of blood on him. When I came home that day, they were all piled up on the doorstep without a mark on them. I think he caught them one at a time, carried them around until they weren't fun anymore and then catch another.

 

[Bethel3330]

I think you've gotten some very good advice here. Gift card, ask neighbor for advice in starting a flock, etc. Even though your dog had no blood on him, he could well have killed that chicken. I had a pup several years ago that killed about a dozen of my chickens (my fault entirely, but that's another story) and didn't have a drop of blood on him. When I came home that day, they were all piled up on the doorstep without a mark on them. I think he caught them one at a time, carried them around until they weren't fun anymore and then catch another.

that is definitely true. Internal injuries cause death and dogs and cats both will bat a smaller animal around enough to kill it, whether they plan to eat it or not. I had a dog do that to a litter of kittens when I was a kid

 

[centrarchid]

Keep your dog confined. Look into training adult dogs how to leave poultry alone (your dog's breed is not important). Get in place a well constructed coop/run setup. Get some adult birds of species you are interested in long-term. Begin training process which with adult dog should not take more than a couple months. When your dog gets out later he will likely not pose a threat to neighbors chickens and might even provide protection.

I had similar problem with my younger female harming neighbors ducks. I had to acquire my own ducks and break her of molesting them. I do not particularly like ducks but made for setup with least risk and ultimately most benefit for all.

 

[Starfire669]

Keep your dog confined. Look into training adult dogs how to leave poultry alone (your dog's breed is not important). Get in place a well constructed coop/run setup. Get some adult birds of species you are interested in long-term. Begin training process which with adult dog should not take more than a couple months. When your dog gets out later he will likely not pose a threat to neighbors chickens and might even provide protection.

I had similar problem with my younger female harming neighbors ducks. I had to acquire my own ducks and break her of molesting them. I do not particularly like ducks but made for setup with least risk and ultimately most benefit for all.

Not all dogs can be rehabilitated, my chicken killer can't so I opted for containment. But my dog is a 2 1/2 years old Siberian Husky, she was a stray, has very high energy levels and very high prey drive. I was able to rehabilitate her to where she now lives peacefully with 4 indoor cats, but if has feathers she becomes a demon.

However training might be a good method for the OP's dog as he is older, with less energy and had probably not seen one of those noisy flapping toys before. I am working with 1 of my dogs, a 4 year old Belgian Malinois mix to accustom him to chickens and geese, and hopefully be their guardian. So far all I have done is let him see the birds through fencing, I walk him, on leash, to the coop and let him sniff and look, as soon as he does something I don't like I reprimand him. Also he can see the birds when they are ranging from his pen. He is at the point where he will look for a few minutes then wander off. My next step is to leash walk him while the birds are ranging. My hope is that this will desensitize him to the birds, and this may be a good place for the OP to start with her dog as well. I am taking my time doing this as I have never had to do it before, but I train all my dogs and have decent results. If I succeed with my Belgian mix, I then would like to train my 2 year old Rottweiler, but she is less eager to please, kind of dumb (I feel bad saying that but it's true), and she is a bulldozer who crushes what doesn't get out of her way. On the other hand she is very protective of her yard and pack and she mothers anything that is smaller than her.

If you have tips or suggestions for the OP and myself on training methods I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Sonya9]

For the op I have a 5 year old Anatolian and 5 other mixed breeds. I bought 3 chicks and kept them in the house in a safe wire dog kennel, I made sure to cover the sides and front with cardboard or plastic so chicks couldn't stick their heads out and possibly get them bitten off, I also placed it on a table so it was off the ground. They were kept in the main part of the house where the dogs hang out.

I wanted my LGD to realize these were "our chicks" and not wild birds/toys that wandered into his yard, it also desensitized the chicks to barking dogs. He took quickly to the chicks and became protective of them which included jumping one of my females that showed an "unhealthy" interest in them. Now the female dogs (with high prey drives) don't dare even bark at the chicks when he is around. Now if he is put up they would carry on like banshees, I relied mostly on a super soaker to curb the barking. I also have a remote shock collar but haven't felt the need to go that extreme.

So often we think our dogs "just don't understand" but I know better than that, I have spent weeks yelling and squirting the dogs with a super soaker to teach them NOT to bark at the chickens however my LGD trained them in less than 30 seconds, he told the female one time "Don't mess with those chickens" and she never did it again in his presence.

I don't have any illusions regarding who the true alpha is in this house! I have to train my other male dogs myself though as the LGD can't be around them at all due to male dog aggression issues.

 

[chiknhurder]

All have given you great advice. One thing to note is that a dog doesn't kill a chicken to eat it. It's more of a game to them and it doesn't take much to crush bones, especially in the neck area and can be done without leaving a noticeable trace. One other point is merely replacing the chicken falls short because it's not the matter of losing a $4 bird. It was possibly a pet plus the fact that it takes about 6 months to replace those eggs the chicken was laying. I think the gift card is an excellent idea and will go a long way in smoothing things over with your neighbor.

 

[centrarchid]

The trainability has a lot more to do with trainer and trainee. My dogs did consume what they killed but that did seem to impact training pace.

 

[Starfire669]

For the op I have a 5 year old Anatolian and 5 other mixed breeds. I bought 3 chicks and kept them in the house in a safe wire dog kennel, I made sure to cover the sides and front with cardboard or plastic so chicks couldn't stick their heads out and possibly get them bitten off, I also placed it on a table so it was off the ground. They were kept in the main part of the house where the dogs hang out.

I wanted my LGD to realize these were "our chicks" and not wild birds/toys that wandered into his yard, it also desensitized the chicks to barking dogs. He took quickly to the chicks and became protective of them which included jumping one of my females that showed an "unhealthy" interest in them.  Now the female dogs (with high prey drives) don't dare even bark at the chicks when  he is around. Now if he is put up they would carry on like banshees, I relied mostly on a super soaker to curb the barking. I also have a remote shock collar but haven't felt the need to go that extreme.

So often we think our dogs "just don't understand" but I know better than that, I have spent weeks yelling and squirting the dogs with a super soaker to teach them NOT to bark at the chickens however my LGD trained them in less than 30 seconds, he told the female one time "Don't mess with those chickens" and she never did it again in his presence. No barking, no play stalking, the most she will do is sit very quietly and watch them. LOL. He tells them ONCE and they immediately "understand" whereas it takes me weeks to get the point across!

He "explained" proper behavior around chickens to the females however unfortunately he cannot be around the male dogs at all, so when that group goes into the yard he is put up and can't influence what they do which is why I have to teach them myself.

I don't have any illusions regarding who the true alpha is in this house!

Yes! Someone with a dog like mine at last. I found My Belgian mix badly beaten, abused, and starving as a pup. He was our only dog for 2 years and he, prevented a break in, But he was lonely, however living in an apartment at that time I couldn't get him a companion. When we purchased our house 2 cats lived here and we accepted them, outside mousers are great! I purchased a AKC Siberian as a gift when my husband came home for X-Mas. Then was given another Siberian who had been a stray, she is my bird killer. My outside cats started poping out kittens! After it was all said and done I had 4 inside cats, 2 outside cats, all femal and all now spayed! As well as another AKC Siberian, a siberian from a backyard breeder who had never known the feel of grass, human touch, or bring dry, and a rescue Rottweiler. In short a dang zoo, all but 2 from tragic pasts. Since my kids adopted some kittens I had to start showing the dogs these were "mine" and not to be harmed. I was making decent progress when 1 day I went to the back doing laundry, and I heard a big commotion. Came running and I see Rascal with a kitten between his front legs snarling at 2 of the husky girls. (this by itself was remarkable because he don't like cats, he tolerates them) I picked up the kitten and 1 of the girls went for it, Rascal and I both hit her at the same time, he grabbed the back of her neck while I smacked her across the muzzle. She has never bothered them again. She refuses to let them near her, and she acts like they are beneath her notice now. Rascal enforces the rules of the house to the other dogs, I give them a boundary and he understands it, he will make the others follow the rules. Normally this is great and I can use him as a translater. But not always, we had a very few instances of someone breaking the rules, like getting up to lick the counter and when Rascal went to move them away a fight broke out. (that happened when the Rott first came to us and she is very food motivated). Anyway, that's why I am training Rascal first, he has a very high intelligence and he wants to please. Makes him easy to train, he knows verbal commands and some hand signals, and he has a high protective instinct. I am very proud of him, he is my baby and often crawls in my lap to prove it.
Smart loyal dogs are the best. Oh and the other husky that was molesting the kittens that day? This is her with her best friend.

 

[marktoo]

The guy has reason to be upset! Hopefully he will calm down, realize that you are truly sorry, trying your best to insure it doesn't happen again & want to make amends. What more can he ask of you? When you deliver your peace offerings, if he is still too angry to speak you better just let it be & make darn sure your animals don't stray. Good luck!