AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

i need to know is there any way to keep dogs away from chickens as i lost nine 7 week old chickens on wednesday night. by the way 2 of them were pure bred rir bantams and 3 crossbreds and 4 belgiaan d,uccles.

so is there any way to keep dogs from my pens?

hi, sorry to hear about your chooks.

you don't mention if its your dog or the neighbours? If its yours it might benefit from some obedience training. You might need to dig your wire netting into the ground and extend the height of the pen, I'm not sure of your set up and its strength is all. If its the neighbours or a stray, take your complaint either to the neighbour and ask them to contain their animal or to the council and have the animal removed.
Another alternative is some electric fencing around your pen.

Did the dog get into your pens or were the chickens freeranging?

If its your dog one option is to keep them tied up while the chickens are free ranging. (My old dog stayed on a horse lunge lead while the chooks freeranged). Even with obedience training you may not ever be able to trust them around the chooks though.

i dont know what dog it was and i dont personaly have one at my place.
the pen they were in is a small a frame one for a hen with chickens
the electric fencing sounds good

thanks anyway for your help

We have just gone for the electric fence idea also

Picture this ...... Solid mesh pens fully enclosed with concrete rat walls - surrounded by six foot chainwire 'external' fences . With a Gallagher hotwire top and bottom '

5 strands of electric in some spots with earths .

and the Marremma

Thats what we've done , Probably a bit of an overkill ,but its slowed the kids down from wandering into the bush

that could be good for tresspassers as well

I have hotwired my boundary fence and it stopped the neighbor’s dog in his tracks.

Hi strangers,

I haven't been in here for a while, but thought I'd post. I have been fostering dogs for the past couple of months, and 3 nights ago one of the foster dogs, a foxie X, ripped through the wire netting into my pekin pen and wiped out 3 years' worth of breeding pekins, bar one clever cuckoo hen who was sitting on eggs inside the galvanised feeder! These were all my special chooks - some expensive, some not so expensive but much-loved, show birds to kids' pets. Most of them had names.... We have just had the dog yard fenced, and it adjoins that particular pen. The dogs aren't out there much, and all of the others have ignored the chicken pen altogether. I accidentally left the house yard gate open that night, and didn't shut the little dog inside because he had been curled up in a kennel with the others.

I was planning to move the pekins up to the front yard soon - ironically, I wanted to make sure they were safe first as we have a young Maremma pup who is pretty good with the poultry, but will still occasionally "play" with a chook if we don't watch her.

Thanks to some good pekin friends I have been able to get a new "Shiny" (the little black pekin hen we had reared from a chick, who had fits as a chick and still had a limp) and a new "Serena" (my 6yo daughter's favourite hen). The new Serena is actually a daughter of our Serena who was killed. I sold 2 white hens to a lady who kindly agreed to sell me one back! I didn't want to have to tell the kids that the dog had killed their favourite chickens, as 2 weeks ago the same dog got into our rabbit pen in the front yard and killed their 2 pet bunnies. That's the thanks I get for saving him from the pound.

So, it's time to start over. My best foundation hen is gone, but hopefully I can get some quality birds again in the future. Luckily this season's babies (9 in total) were in the front yard, so I still have them.

We aren't new to dogs - we actually have 13 of them here at the moment (including 5 Aussie shepherd babies!) - but this guy is just a determined hunter/killer. I am looking for a new home for him now, somewhere that doesn't have birds or small animals. Believe it or not, he is a lovely, affectionate little dog.

So my advice, strong netting, high fences, mesh over the top if chooks can fly, and the electric wires around the outside!!!

Hi there,
On reading your post I felt so sad for you and your pekin friends,as that is what they become when you have them as pets.I have 4 dogs,1 of them is my daughter dogs as she was unable to keep her as one of her neighbours is an AR**hole and threatened to kill her.Anyway,I have 2 pet geese and they got into their enclosure and ruffled them up pretty bad but no blood thank god.I would seriously consider putting the culprit down,even though I'm a pet lover,as once they do it once,they will continue to do so.I know this sounds cruel but it could happen again.If you can't bring yourself to do this please make sure he goes to a home with no poultry.Hope you understand.

I have a Chihuahua,A Borzoi X Afghan (sighthound) and a Saluki (sighthound).

Both the Chih and Saluki arrived well over 6 months old,whilst the Borzoi X came at 7 weeks old.

Now the Chih will at times "play" with the bantams and older chicks but fortunately nothing bad has ever happened.....the Borzoi X is the same.

The sad part is the Saluki has decided to use all her hunting skills and therefore teach the other 2 how to use theirs.....to date she has killed a few (but I know the other 2 had nothing to do with it).

They other day the Saluki killed one of my very very promising F2 pullets (best one I had),I was only inside 2 minutes btw.Well the Saluki is now looking for a new home and until she finds it she is in the dog run permanently.

After over 2 decades in the dog industry I know dog breeds very well and have always been cautious with "hunting" breeds around the birds.But these things stilll happen.

We have to be alert at all times with our dogs and poultry (or other small animals) as ALL dogs are potential hunters and killers and remember that they DO pack as they are pack animals.

I like the electric fence options above,but penning your dogs as well will certainly also help (if you own dogs).