# Training pup to not chase chickens



## Naomers (9 mo ago)

I feel like there must be some threads on this already (if you know them, feel free to send me in that direction), but when I search all I come up with is chicken for treats/food 😅
We have some free range chickens & ducks and I’m just wondering the best methods/practices/tips/etc for training our 15 week old to not chase them. He was raised around them before us so they’re not new and generally if he’s tired enough he doesn’t pay any attention to them, but in the mornings he loves to chase. 









photo of him after rolling around in the duck pool


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## dogma13 (Mar 8, 2014)

There were some discussions about that, but probably buried in threads with different titles.The way chickens run and flap are very hard to resist chasing and biting for a dog:-( Our neighbor's chickens are in our yard off and on all day. I manage to keep my dogs away from them but they would kill them without supervision. Others that have had success will hopefully chime in.


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## Mannix (12 mo ago)

He looks like quiet the rascal, lol.
I'm curious about the chicken training too. I'm considering possibly getting some chickens due to the crazy price increases at the grocery store and supply chain issues.
My Mannix has a very strong prey drive so I'll be watching this thread for any advice.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

I cannot imagine anything more fun than chasing chickens if you are a puppy. Sorry, not much of help here, only understanding the dog.


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

the way that i’d approach this with a young puppy that’s had exposure to chickens before is pretty different than a prey driven adult without said exposures, sorry mannix.

naomers, since the puppies behavior is predictable (in the mornings) i’d simply go outside with the pup on leash to break the pattern and prevent him from practicing the behavior. work on other types of play, engagement, training, food rewards, etc so that he looks forward to those things instead of the chickens. later, when he’s a bit older, more mature and you have a stronger relationship and established routine - work with him around the chickens during the time of day when he’s least likely to be interested in them. the goal is for them to merely be a part of the background. if these things don’t help…..come back to this thread in several months and we can walk you through corrections.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

Fodder said:


> the way that i’d approach this with a young puppy that’s had exposure to chickens before is pretty different than a prey driven adult without said exposures, sorry mannix.
> 
> naomers, since the puppies behavior is predictable (in the mornings) i’d simply go outside with the pup on leash to break the pattern and prevent him from practicing the behavior. work on other types of play, engagement, training, food rewards, etc so that he looks forward to those things instead of the chickens. later, when he’s a bit older, more mature and you have a stronger relationship and established routine - work with him around the chickens during the time of day when he’s least likely to be interested in them. the goal is for them to merely be a part of the background. if these things don’t help…..come back to this thread in several months and we can walk you through corrections.


On top of this, I would wear the dog out first thing in the morning, away from the chickens, so you have a reasonable hope for successful obedience around the chickens.

Good reps make good dogs.


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

👆🏽
totally!
i guess since they’re free range, the way imagined it was the puppy trying to chase them first thing in the morning when being let out to relieve.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

I just wanted to say I’m laughing and enjoying this thread.


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## Al Pozzolini (Aug 13, 2013)

Naomers said:


> I feel like there must be some threads on this already (if you know them, feel free to send me in that direction), but when I search all I come up with is chicken for treats/food 😅
> We have some free range chickens & ducks and I’m just wondering the best methods/practices/tips/etc for training our 15 week old to not chase them. He was raised around them before us so they’re not new and generally if he’s tired enough he doesn’t pay any attention to them, but in the mornings he loves to chase.
> View attachment 586439
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> ...


You could always buy a rooster that would protect the chickens from the puppy. I know there's some pretty tough roosters out there.


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## Naomers (9 mo ago)

Thank you! We do still open the coop in the mornings so those tips are certainly manageable in the morning!




Al Pozzolini said:


> You could always buy a rooster that would protect the chickens from the puppy. I know there's some pretty tough roosters out there.


We had a meeaannn rooster, but he was attacking and terrorizing the whole family so he had to go- I guess it’s a bit of a balancing act!

I totally sympathize with our pup. Even our livestock guardian dog likes to chase the chickens from time to time. 

Does anyone know if we encourage things like chasing balls, which is a part of that prey drive, that it’ll be counterproductive to limiting chicken chasing or can dogs distinguish one from the other?


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## tim_s_adams (Aug 9, 2017)

Naomers said:


> Thank you! We do still open the coop in the mornings so those tips are certainly manageable in the morning!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Dogs can easily distinguish one from the other. In fact, teaching him not to chase your chickens won't keep him necessarily from chasing other chickens!


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## Chloé&Buck (Jul 1, 2020)

Mannix said:


> He looks like quiet the rascal, lol.
> I'm curious about the chicken training too. I'm considering possibly getting some chickens due to the crazy price increases at the grocery store and supply chain issues.
> My Mannix has a very strong prey drive so I'll be watching this thread for any advice.


I think you can still do it. I did it with an ex chicken killer. And had to do a similar training with Buck who was cat agressive (mix of prey drive + the general reactivity he had at the time).

But you'll probably have to enforce very hard, black and white rules initially, at least that's what I had to do.

My dogs weren't allowed to take any initiative around the target animals initially, they weren't even allowed to look at them as long as they felt that urge to go after them.
I taught them avoidance (where they'd look away), then they gradually learnt to keep cool even when looking, then keep cool even when moving, etc.

Took a few months to have reliability. On the longer term, what I got is a complete "chicken ban" with my girl, whereas Buck ended up deciding the cats were family. He has now bonded with one of them in particular.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Al Pozzolini said:


> You could always buy a rooster that would protect the chickens from the puppy. I know there's some pretty tough roosters out there.


I remember that a feisty rooster took care of one of my dogs. A good attack and the dog didn't know what happened to him. He even took a long way around baby chicks after that. Roosters are so valuable when the hens are free ranging. I lost a few roosters when they protected them from predators. They also made sure the group stayed together and were inside at night. One actually pointed to the spot for the hens to lay their eggs. He was not very emancipated.


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## Maggie Skye (Nov 18, 2020)

Naomers said:


> I feel like there must be some threads on this already (if you know them, feel free to send me in that direction), but when I search all I come up with is chicken for treats/food 😅
> We have some free range chickens & ducks and I’m just wondering the best methods/practices/tips/etc for training our 15 week old to not chase them. He was raised around them before us so they’re not new and generally if he’s tired enough he doesn’t pay any attention to them, but in the mornings he loves to chase.
> View attachment 586439
> 
> ...





wolfy dog said:


> I remember that a feisty rooster took care of one of my dogs. A good attack and the dog didn't know what happened to him. He even took a long way around baby chicks after that. Roosters are so valuable when the hens are free ranging. I lost a few roosters when they protected them from predators. They also made sure the group stayed together and were inside at night. One actually pointed to the spot for the hens to lay their eggs. He was not very emancipated.





Naomers said:


> I feel like there must be some threads on this already (if you know them, feel free to send me in that direction), but when I search all I come up with is chicken for treats/food 😅
> We have some free range chickens & ducks and I’m just wondering the best methods/practices/tips/etc for training our 15 week old to not chase them. He was raised around them before us so they’re not new and generally if he’s tired enough he doesn’t pay any attention to them, but in the mornings he loves to chase.
> View attachment 586439
> 
> ...





Chloé&Buck said:


> I think you can still do it. I did it with an ex chicken killer. And had to do a similar training with Buck who was cat agressive (mix of prey drive + the general reactivity he had at the time).
> 
> But you'll probably have to enforce very hard, black and white rules initially, at least that's what I had to do.
> 
> ...


It’s took me to trust about 2 years. Lots of controlled meetings or walking on the leash around the birds and simple corrections when the dog shows unwanted behavior, you can not do this unless you trust the dog will listed to your commands. Good luck


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## banzai555 (Sep 2, 2019)

I don't have much advice other than to say...I think it's possible! Chickens are legal in city limits here and there's this one flock we encounter almost every morning on our walk. Sometimes one or two of the chickens are out of the pen and wandering around on the sidewalk. The first few times Willow would lock on and I could tell she wanted to chase them, but I gave her a quick "uh-uh" or "leave it" and she would. Now she doesn't even bother--she knows they're off limits. 

So I guess I would work on getting solid obedience to "leave it". And just carefully supervise until you know he can be trusted around them.


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## CeraDean (Jul 9, 2019)

My boy was introduced to geese before he came to me and then we got our own chickens when he was a year and a half. 
I did high engagement activities with him while they were in the coop until he ignored them. Then let them free range at a distance, still high engagement, short sessions. Gradually increasing the duration and decreasing the engagement.


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## ChickiefromTN (Jun 16, 2020)

I've had different experiences with my different dogs. My first dog was a tiny puppy when we had a batch of new chicks in the house. He always loved his birds and watched over them. If the roosters sounded the alarm he went running to check on them. One of our roosters used to do sneak attacks on him and my husband. Ghillie knew he could chase him when he did that. He would always slow down to let the rooster stay 4 feet in front of him. 

My girl thats almost 3 will only chase the chickens if you ignore her for too long. She will have a ball in her mouth and take off after them knowing she will get your attention. 

Now my youngest 3 ignore the birds 90% of the time, except for potty break first thing in the morning or right before dusk. The chickens have a lot of cover and are experts at getting away from the dogs. I've had the same flock for 3 years now. So I just try to check that they are all out of the way before I take these three out at those times. We are planning on building a new coop area later this year that will be farther from the house which will hopefully eliminate the early morning and late evening issue.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk


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## SMcN (Feb 12, 2021)

Definitely some good suggestions here re training in vicinity of the chickens. Another thing to do is to take the novelty away. Let them be close together without being able to get to each other until the chickens just become part of the landscape.


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## Naomers (9 mo ago)

Hi all, it hasn’t been very long obviously but I thought I’d give an update to anyone interested as I’ve started to see an improvement.

In the morning, when Figgy most wants to chase chickens, I put him on a leash and bring him with me to let them out of the coop and feed them. He’s usually pretty interested when they all come running out together but I work on “leave it” (which we’ve been practicing separately) and keeping his attention on me and of course the leash to keep him from chasing. Then we walk back towards the house and by the time we get around 30’ away he has usually lost interest. He has also now been most often ignoring the stray chicken that comes over to where we play and hang out in the yard. When he even starts to look at the chicken, it’s “nuh uh” and then something more exciting with me and lots of praise for ignoring them. 
I’m fairly certain he doesn’t want to eat the chickens (which one of our dogs definitely does want to do), he just wants to chase- particularly when the whole flock is together to run through! I think we’re making progress although it’s still always supervised. Even LGDs are said not to be fully trusted until they turn 2! He does, however, love stealing chicken eggs out of the barn to eat and I have no solution for that 😂


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

if he can ignore them at 30’ then at this age and stage in training, i’d be working him at 30’… walking him to the coup to release them and allowing him to reach that level of excitement, even briefly, is unnecessarily putting him over threshold - they won’t become a “part of the background” that way.


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## Naomers (9 mo ago)

Fodder said:


> if he can ignore them at 30’ then at this age and stage in training, i’d be working him at 30’… walking him to the coup to release them and allowing him to reach that level of excitement, even briefly, is unnecessarily putting him over threshold - they won’t become a “part of the background” that way.


That makes sense, thank you! My thought process was if I incorporated him into the daily chore of taking care of them, he’d realize they are part of the family. But maybe I’m drawing too much from when we were training our LGD which doesn’t apply well here


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## Fodder (Oct 21, 2007)

Naomers said:


> That makes sense, thank you! My thought process was if I incorporated him into the daily chore of taking care of them, he’d realize they are part of the family. But maybe I’m drawing too much from when we were training our LGD which doesn’t apply well here


it’s not a bad thought process… you’re just dealing with opposite degrees of prey drive and the GSD will need more impulse control and foundational obedience in place first.


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## Naomers (9 mo ago)

Fodder said:


> it’s not a bad thought process… you’re just dealing with opposite degrees of prey drive and the GSD will need more impulse control and foundational obedience in place first.


Thank you!!


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## RosiesPaw (8 mo ago)

I'm really new to raising a puppy, she's 5 months today and we've had her with us since 10 weeks (according to embark DNA test the paternal grandparent dogs were pure bred German shepherds, maternal grandparents were Siberian Husky X Japanese Akita), but I want to chime in because our neighbors have goats and chickens. Since the first week, I've been, having her sit, I sit kind of crouched with her, rub her chest and head, giving the "easy" (our be polite/calm) cue, feeding pieces of kibble as she sits calmly. Do the same with cats and people on the other side of our fence. So far, it seems to be working as she hasn't show interest in any of them other than saying hi to people from time to time. Not sure if this is the "right" thing to do or if it will crash in the future, but it's been good so far.


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