Dog attacking our chickens - what to do?

Custard Cream

Custard Cream

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Our hens are free roaming around the barn and stable yard out into the paddock, they've been there for about 5 years now. We've only lost 2 or 3 to foxes, so we've been very lucky.

New people moved into a property on the yard and their dog attacked and killed a hen about a year ago. I've caught him chasing them again this week and today he's attacked another one, which now looks very bald and like it's going to drop down dead.

What would you do?
 
Tell them if you see it on your land again you will shoot it. Even if you have no intention of doing so. Walk around with a broken shotgun over your arm for effect :p

In all seriousness, sorry for your loss but I wouldn't tolerate a third time.
 
I agree with CC, contact the owners and also say you want compensating, Ive no idea what point of lay pullets are, a fiver each ? more if they are a specific breed. Also after a shock like that it will put them off lay, not that they will be laying much in this weather but then they wont know that.
 
Dog owners share the outside space and I don't own the land, I livery there along with the yard owner (who is the landlord of the people with the dog). I don't want to cause a fuss or a problem for the yard owner, but it's getting annoying now. It's a Buff Orpington that we've had for a long time now and she looks like she'll cark it overnight. They've been spoken to before when it happened and the dog wasn't to be out without supervision, but that still happens, obviously.

Rock and hard place!
 
Talk to the YO. Did the dog kill or chase on a shared area? or was it effectively trespassing? if it was the former then I would ask for recompense and would consider a pen for the chickens. If it was trespassing then I would ask the YO to make the dog owners fence off their part and keep their dog from trespassing.
 
It is rather difficult as it sounds as if the dog isn't outside the area they are entitled to be in, albeit not under control.

I would require them to pay compensation for the losses and either keep the dog muzzled or on the lead or them pay for a large hen house and walk in run for the chickens.

Do they rent or own the place? If the former, if they don't do the right thing, the landlord should be giving them notice.

Contrary to the previous post, you cannot threaten to shoot the dog, not even farmers are allowed to do that to a sheep worrying dog owner, as it is deemed to be threatening behaviour - if a dog has to be shot for worrying livestock then the decision to do it has to be a spur of the moment thing where there is no other way of removing the currently happening attack and the dog cannot be caught.
 
Regardless-if it's a shared area a solution needs to happen. Were you're chickens there first? Other option is to enclose the hens but have you spoken to the dog owner?
 
Dogs should be taught not to chase chickens!
I like the electric fence idea.
Trouble is hen chasing is such fun for a dog, loads of flapping and squarking. I think you will need to pen your hens if they won't pen their dog. I would be spitting bricks (and have been in the past when a neighbours dog attacked my hens).
 
lachlanandmarcus said:
Contrary to the previous post, you cannot threaten to shoot the dog, not even farmers are allowed to do that to a sheep worrying dog owner, as it is deemed to be threatening behaviour - if a dog has to be shot for worrying livestock then the decision to do it has to be a spur of the moment thing where there is no other way of removing the currently happening attack and the dog cannot be caught.
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Not where I live, must be different legislation :)
 
The legal situation is quite clear in this case - if the land is privately owned, and the dog is not trespassing, then his owners are not liable for what their dog does on that land, unless it is a danger to humans. However, whilst that may be the legal situation, morally of course it is unacceptable to allow your dog that you know will chase and kill chickens, and probably eat them too, to run amok amongst them. I am assuming the chickens have their wings pinned so they cannot fly out of reach of the dog - in any case, even unpinned chickens are very poor flyers, and a quick athletic dog will be able to pull them down out of the air before they have gained the safety of a high roost.

Muzzling will not help - 1) the dog will still be able to terrify the chickens, causing them to most likely die of fright and 2) assuming the muzzle would be a baskerville-type, they could still kill a chicken.

The most obvious solution is to have the dog tied up or chained up whilst the owners are on the yard, or leave the dog in the car where possible.

Best of all would be to train him not to chase chickens. Depending on the breed of the dog, this should not be difficult. However, a quick, simple and fairly cheap solution would be to use an e collar. We trained our malamute cross, (Utonagan), not to chase chickens using just a couple of zaps from Ben's e collar. 2 zaps and we can now walk past the chickens with Tai giving them a very wide berth! The owners would need to have the controller in their pockets and the dog wearing the collar for some time to be on the safe side, but this would be the quickest and most effective solution of all.

Whereas I will defend the right of owners to allow their dogs to be off-lead, it must be on the assumption that the dog is well-behaved, obedient and 100% safe with humans, other dogs and livestock. If they are not, then the dog must be kept restrained in some way, or taught better manners.

If the dog has killed chickens, then it is only morally fair that financial compensation is offered.
 
Clodagh said:
Dogs should be taught not to chase chickens!
I like the electric fence idea.
Trouble is hen chasing is such fun for a dog, loads of flapping and squarking. I think you will need to pen your hens if they won't pen their dog. I would be spitting bricks (and have been in the past when a neighbours dog attacked my hens).
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Of course they shouldn't but dog training in the UK is a lost art. My dog is trained to chase the hens out of the barn because they ***** in the hay. Once they are outside, she leaves them alone. She will also ignore a hen with chicks in the barn. Why? Because she's trained.

As George Meldrum, HM The Queen's dog trainer, explained to his boss, "It's all done with cruelty, ma'am".
 
Dry Rot said:
Of course they shouldn't but dog training in the UK is a lost art. My dog is trained to chase the hens out of the barn because they ***** in the hay. Once they are outside, she leaves them alone. She will also ignore a hen with chicks in the barn. Why? Because she's trained.

As George Meldrum, HM The Queen's dog trainer, explained to his boss, "It's all done with cruelty, ma'am".
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Love it!!! :D :D:D
 
CaveCanem said:
Not where I live, must be different legislation :)
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You can put up signs advising of the presence of livestock or asking for dogs to be kept on leads. But since there is not a positive 'right' to shoot sheep worrying dogs, but rather a defence to the offence of having shot it in the heat of an active worrying attack where there has been no other way of stopping it, to threaten it beforehand is taken to be arguably too premeditated and suggesting that the dog would be shot as a first resort rather than the focus being on catching it and calling the police, with shooting being a last resort. At least that has been what iVe been suggested.

Personally I think it should be fine to put up such a notice!!

In the end, if you have repeated sheep worrying you are going to quite reasonably put up this kind of notice, it's just people need to be aware that from a legal perspective the dog owners legal team may try to use it to suggest that the farmer was trigger happy and had it in for dogs and didn't try to catch the dog (which would remove the defence in the Act).
 
A bit off the wall but...can you rehome/borrow a goose or even better a bonded pair? Obviously not an option if it's a big, properly aggressive dog but it sounds like this dog is 'playing' in an unacceptable way rather than focused on killing the chickens since he's only had a few goes at them in a year even though he lives on the yard - not that even one go at them is acceptable btw. Sell it to your LL as a security system ;)

A goose (especially a gander with his wife) is usually happy to take on a dog and will win the battle against most! They have trained more terriers than I can count that things with feathers are to be avoided and I've seen them chase off many a fox too.
 
Could you catch the dog next time it is out alone, take it on a lead near the hens, and if it goes to chase, smack it and tell it off, several times if poss. Our yellow lab loved to chase when we first got hens, but he soon learned that its not allowed. Even the cat used to stalk them, and learned when he kept getting told off!
 
Probably completely non pc But....... I was told years ago that a dog (our own) could be cured from killing goslings(also our own) by beating it about the head with the carcases..... 'n' it did work, she never did it again.

Blimey I bet that'll set the cat among the pidgeons.
 
Spook said:
Probably completely non pc But....... I was told years ago that a dog (our own) could be cured from killing goslings(also our own) by beating it about the head with the carcases..... 'n' it did work, she never did it again.

Blimey I bet that'll set the cat among the pidgeons.
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The modern way is to distract the dog with treats......then reason with it.;)

(I think we'll both be black listed!:().
 
I love the distract it with treats bit...it would be funny if it wasn't so true. OR as your dog dismembers the ewe (or chicken, or whatever) you click at it and then give it a biscuit when it stops.

It depends on the prey drive, although if you look at foxhounds if they riot they are beaten and it usually works. Of course they tend to have a two strikes and you are out rule as well.
 
We had an 'oh ****' moment yesterday.
I could actually see the dog working it out in his head (what happened the last time I...OH YEAH!!) before he came running over to me :p
(It didn't involve a biscuit and he still has his moments :p)
 
Alec Swan said:
Re: Dog attacking our chickens - what to do?

What to do? Simple. Attack the bloody dog, and mean it! ;)

Alec.
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You cannot be seerious!:eek::eek::eek:

Wouldn't that give the dog serious psychological problems??

Actually, this is rather interesting. A couple of years ago I put a 17th century falconry book into modern English.

The writer was the "hawk whisperer" of his day, so a sort of Parelli of birds:eek:. Apparently, it was a common problem for your hawk to go off and kill some unfortunate peasant's hen, rather than the targetted partridge, which tended to spoilt the day's sport. His solution was to wait until the hawk had plucked the hen and had started to eat. He'd then sneak up and sprinkle pepper on the exposed meat.

I don't have children, but I am reliably informed by a friend that does that it is the duty of every caring parent to sprinkle pepper on a child's first ice cream with a similar objective in view.

BTW, I've tried it and it works...with hawks at least. Still waiting for a parent to volunteer a small child....:) Can't see why it wouldn't work for dogs as well.
 
Alec Swan said:
Re: Dog attacking our chickens - what to do?

What to do? Simple. Attack the bloody dog, and mean it! ;)

Alec.
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Alec, this is a genuine question ... and forgive me if I have muddled you up with someone else, but was it not you who described me as "barbaric" for using an e collar??!

If I remember correctly, could you explain to me why "attacking the bloody dog" - and I presume by that you mean using physical violence on the poor animal - is somehow less barbaric than giving it a nick or zap with an e collar?
 
It's a delicate situation and one you don't want to escalate into a war with your neighbours.

Dogs will kill chickens and ducks and dogs will escape. It's easier to keep you hens fenced off than it is to stop the dog from escaping.

Maybe put the ball in their court and ask your neighbours what they suggest you do to stop your hens from being killed by their dog. Ask them if they want to buy you some fencing and make an enclosure.

I know it's not ideal but probably not worth fighting with your neighbours over.
 
Alec Swan said:
Re: Dog attacking our chickens - what to do?

What to do? Simple. Attack the bloody dog, and mean it! ;)

Alec.
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Indeed.One of my collies thought it fun to get tighter and tighter circles around a bunch of hens ..pulling out tail feathers at the end of the game.I tried being mean,meaner and meanest..which entailed scruffing her and playing a tune on her ribs with my hunting whip...that last one worked.
 
EAST KENT said:
Indeed.One of my collies thought it fun to get tighter and tighter circles around a bunch of hens ..pulling out tail feathers at the end of the game.I tried being mean,meaner and meanest..which entailed scruffing her and playing a tune on her ribs with my hunting whip...that last one worked.
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:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
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