Socialising With Chooks Etc.

[Steph M]

Odd question, I know.

How would you suggest going about introducing a pup to chooks and ducks and farm critters if you don't have much day to day contact with them?

We live in the 'burbs, not too many cows and the like around us, but we spent a weekend on the loveliest hobby farm a while back and I was chatting to the owner about another weekend stay and she mentioned dogs are welcome, but for obvious reasons have to be chook safe.

Now we'll be puppy parents before too long and the idea of taking poochy along to nap in front of the fire was just too much for my hallmark-card-picture heart.

Eventually mum would like to move out of town too, her dream is to have chooks, we're big dreamers in our family.

So my question is, short of hanging around the fences of petting zoos at the farmers market, how does one do this?

I know a good recall and focus training will be important, but I'd love to be able to get the initial excitement out of the way.

Am I even on the right track? Is this even a useful idea?

I am mincing my words today, sorry if I'm baffling. It's a Friday and my bed calls so loudly.

Heading home to cheap pizza and cheaper wine.

Edited May 3, 2013 by Steph M

[BCNut]

I guess you'll have to meet someone thats willing to lend you use of their farm critters :)

I'm not sure if you meant how do you actually do the socialising or how does one find farm critters or both lol...

I have 3 chooks and 3 ducks. Have always just kept the pup on lead around them so they can't practice any chasing behaviour and rewarded for calmness around them. When they're bit older/worked on this to the point where you trust them enough and have solid recall and/or leave it installed work up to long lead and finally off lead. Personally I wouldn't ever leave my dogs and poultry in the yard unattended regardless of level of training. This is just for while i'm here and can keep an eye on them.

But i'd be keen to hear of others experience with this too...

[Daisy.Tea]

My Aussie loves her chickens. In fact they have become her flock and she gets a bit protective of them. We had a few problems when we first moved house and had to build a new chicken run with either chickens escaping or Daisy digging holes to free her friends. Luckily no chickens were hurt, just very wet as Daisy sat there happily licking them clean. We have a rule, no unsupervised chicken dog time because of the excitable licking now.

In terms of training we introduced her as a pup, first through the fence and then on lead. Making sure to nip any herding/ chasing behaviour before it got out of control and rewarding for calm quiet behaviour. At the time the chickens were about the same size slightly bigger which I think helped her establish her place among them. She also learnt quickly that chickens produce poo and eggs and if she's lucky and quick she can eat them....

Hopefully you might be able to use someone's chooks, maybe a neighbour? Or perhaps the home stay will let you visit for the day and do some socialisation?

Edited May 3, 2013 by Daisy.Tea

[Mudlark]

We have chickens and ducks. With our first Lab, it took a year of training/desensitisation before we trusted him off lead with the birds. He was already well trained too (had an obedience title and many flyball titles). Our current Lab is 4 months into his training with the birds and has not been off lead with them yet. He has daily on-lead exposure. My guess is that he'd be ok, but I'm not game to trust him.

So, it can take a long time :) The easiest thing is just to keep your dog on lead around other species. I'm sure you can still enjoy the farm visit that way :)

[kelpiecuddles]

Maybe plan your first farm stay when your pup is still quite young in order to do that initial training. It helps if you have chooks, could you maybe hire some for a few months through one of those hen hire mobs that supplies the hen house, etc. I had both ours around chooks and rabbits from the day they came home, zero tolerance from the moment they walked in the door for any antisocial behaviour around the small animals. The pups would follow me as I went to feed the chooks, etc and so they never really questioned my expectations, it was a simple case of "the boss says don't touch, so don't touch or there'll be hell to pay!" They'll pretty much tolerate anything now, our free range bunny passed away a couple of years ago from old age but used to eat out of the dogs bowls and they won't even touch day old chicks with the mumma chook. I even had an emu chick for about ten weeks who wandered around the backyard all day LOL

[Steph M]

Hahahaha that sounds great! I know our setter just loves chickens and kittens to bits, but it's not ideal. He'd never deliberately hurt them, but he just licks them if he gets his paws on them, but he never meets chooks these days. He used to carry our kitten around in his mouth and lick it til it would walk out of his bed soaking wet and purring. Very funny, but not ideal.

I might think about hiring a few chooks, inbetween 6 monthly inspections perhaps ;)

Next door have a huge chook pen, alas it's empty. Shame because we have lots of veggie scraps and I feel so wasteful throwing them out!

I might just do that, and start early. Lots of supervision, lots of on leash and find some friends with chooks. Haha.

Glad it wasn't THAT odd of a question, haha.

[BlackJaq]

Not sure how successful you will be if you do not have the birds around daily to practice with. I would keep the dog/puppy on lead at all times as other people have said. Try and keep everyone very calm and relaxed and make sure any children that might be present do not play loudly and excite the dog unnecessarily.

I have a lot of poultry and my Weimaraner has been around them since she was about 8 months old. I do not allow her to try and interact with the birds at all, she is to ignore them and basically I have fared well with this so far. She is fine loose with them but she is 2 and a half now, it took a long time before I was comfortable leaving her loose and more than 1m away from me lol I do not leave her with them unsupervised though as she will try to police them if they start mating/running around/making noise

We had a few accidents when she was still learning, she retrieved my old rooster a handful of times and also plucked him a little once or twice. He survived those incidents without much harm but we recently lost him to an over night fox raid and I think she misses him a little, she seems to be looking for him sometimes, even though she wasn't technically allowed to "play" with him...

Edited May 5, 2013 by BlackJaq

[Steph M]

Aw I am sorry for her and your loss, that's terrible. Foxes are devious little sh*ts.

She is gorgeous btw. Will keep all of this in mind!

And no kids here, touch wood

[espinay2]

Supervision is the key. Habituation though seeing them frequently does help, but the important thing is how you handle it when you DO encounter them.

The way I do it is to make sure that in the beginning the pup is either on a lead or has a fence between it and the birds. I praise for being calm and ignoring the birds. They can look quietly, but the aim is not to have them react.

If they react by staring/stalking/bouncing at the bird (even through the fence) I correct it. I spend time just sitting quietly out among the birds with the dog on lead.

I also hold the birds and let the pup see they are 'mine'.

Once older and doing well on lead, I may drop the lead while I am there. I still need to be on hand to correct. Later they will be offlead with me there.

I do not trust a dog 100% with birds till they are older. Beware the 'terrible teens' when they will often decide to try out a game of 'run through the birds' or 'lets chase' which needs quick and assertive correction and continued supervision for a while.

Note this is with Livestock guardians, whose prey drive is not strong - but they still need to be taught as birds are flappy, squawky, unpredictable things and temptation for a youngster even if it is just play.

So a dog with a stronger prey drive may need even more work.

As I said, supervision is key.

[WeimMe]

I honestly don't know how you would go about this without having poultry of your own as it can take quite a while to get them to understand that the chooks are out of bounds. It took my weimeraner about 3 months before she showed no interest in them but we have had our new dog for nearly 18 months now and he will still chase them if he has the chance. He doesn't hurt them - he just pins them down - but obviously it's not a good thing so Hugo is not allowed in the back yard when the chooks are out and I can't see that changing for quite some time. There is no way that I would trust him at the moment.

[piperspal]

I started mine off with taking them one at a time into the pen, on a lead. Once they were showing little interest in the chooks, they were allowed to come in off lead, but still only one at a time. It helps that the chooks tend to put the dogs back in thier place pretty often. Now all the dogs come in together, no issues. i still have to keep an eye on one young dog with the chooks, as he tends to get a bit in thier face, but they dont care. He had a minor meltdown yesterday when one flew up and used him as a perch.