Any hope for reform? Poultry killer.

[Incantation]

First off, this is NOT my dog, and NOT my poultry, I am just trying to help a friend, and am looking on suggestions on how to do so.

The dog is a ~3yo lab. She has on multiple occasions, not just killed, but eaten the family’s chickens. She leaves almost nothing - just a few feathers. I have been told that the dog is now on an invisible fence, and chickens are no longer getting out of their coop. However the family wants to sell their house, buy a farm and raise poultry and beef cows. Young adult daughter, who owns the dog, would like to make the dog safer around the poultry if possible.

Is it a lost cause to try to reform for a dog that has a history of both killing and eating chickens on many occasions???

I have done a lot of obedience training with my dogs, worked with a cat killer, and reformed my dog, (she killed 1 cockeral before I had finished her “leave the chicken” training), but I am thinking this will be a lot more difficult, if not impossible. I am open to suggestions from clicker training to e-collar ( I have one that the lowest setting is vibrate).

[Marshfield]

Since she’s been eating them, I’m thinking this may be tough. The reward for the behavior has been very, very high. I free range my chickens and do allow the GSP’s loose in the same area. They all had pretty solid leave it commands and their MO was to grab and carry the chicken, often to me. So, for the most part ended up with slobber coated chickens as opposed to injured chickens and seeing me angry was enough to convince them that this was not the right choice. They’ve learned to distinguish between resident chicken and wild bird

[Simkie]

Are they SURE she has killed and eaten the chickens? Or have they just seen a pile of feathers and the dog?

Asking because I believe you often only see a pile of feathers when a hawk has taken a bird, too…

[JanM]

If the dog is eating the chickens (I’m betting there is evidence a few days later that the dog ate the chickens, or the dog pukes it back up), then I see zero hope that anything will stop the dog from continuing to do this. Invisible fence won’t stop the dog, and it certainly won’t keep the chickens away from the dog’s reach either.

[moving_to_dc]

We have an Anatolian Shepherd livestock guard dog. We got her when she was just shy of a year old, and she killed and ate 3 hens over about 5 days when we brought her home. Those hens were free ranging and had gotten into the pasture, so we didn’t get too upset, as they were in her territory.

But the day she scaled the chicken run fence, and we found her eating a hen she had just killed, in the run, was the day she learned we were not pleased with that behavior. We yelled and screamed and “flogged” her with the dead chicken. She and I were both covered in blood from the chicken, but I never hit her hard enough to hurt her. She never killed another chicken, and I can look out my windows now and find chickens perched on her, or laying in the cool dirt under the horse trailer, right next to her.

I think we were successful in our method only because we caught her in the act. She couldn’t get away from us in the chicken run, so we were able to catch her immediately and show her our displeasure… Not sure I would have had the same results if we had to chase her down for 30 minutes and/or flog her with a carcass from hours/days ago.

[Dressage_Fancy]

[QUOTE=moving to dc;7680812]
We have an Anatolian Shepherd livestock guard dog. We got her when she was just shy of a year old, and she killed and ate 3 hens over about 5 days when we brought her home. Those hens were free ranging and had gotten into the pasture, so we didn’t get too upset, as they were in her territory.

But the day she scaled the chicken run fence, and we found her eating a hen she had just killed, in the run, was the day she learned we were not pleased with that behavior. We yelled and screamed and “flogged” her with the dead chicken. She and I were both covered in blood from the chicken, but I never hit her hard enough to hurt her. She never killed another chicken, and I can look out my windows now and find chickens perched on her, or laying in the cool dirt under the horse trailer, right next to her.

I think we were successful in our method only because we caught her in the act. She couldn’t get away from us in the chicken run, so we were able to catch her immediately and show her our displeasure… Not sure I would have had the same results if we had to chase her down for 30 minutes and/or flog her with a carcass from hours/days ago.[/QUOTE]

A friend of mine did this also. Except with a chicken left dead and forgotten. Dog got a big reminder when he was flogged with the chicken. Then he had to wear it tied to his collar for the rest of the day. He never again looked at a chicken.

[Incantation]

[QUOTE=JanM;7680786]
If the dog is eating the chickens (I’m betting there is evidence a few days later that the dog ate the chickens, or the dog pukes it back up)[/QUOTE]
This.

Thanks for the responses!
Well, I guess if the owner wants to give it a try, we can make an attempt to at least get the message across that it is unwanted behavior. I am thinking on leash with a gentle leader, and live bird being controlled by us is where we will start. I am doubting if it will have much effect once the dog is unsupervised, however I haven’t met the dog. Maybe she is a total people please and will be horrified once she understands it is wrong.

If we attempt this, it will likely be next month. I will post to let you know how successful we were.

[dressagetraks]

I have read in a book where a confirmed poultry killer was completely reformed by tying his latest victim to his collar and making him wear it until it was starting to get unpleasant. (It was summer.) An extreme method, granted, but that dog was so disgusted by chicken after that that for the rest of his life, he gave a wide berth to any chicken he met.

[Foxtrot_s]

They would have more luck if the behaviour had just started and if it was a young dog, before it became entrenched.

We had a JR that did that, years and years ago BTW, and we put the chicken around its neck with a lot of firm ‘no’s’ - she learned but we kept an eye on her for a while.

[RacetrackReject]

We reformed a chicken killer/eater (Siberian Husky) with the dead chicken flogging method. After that he wouldn’t even eat uncooked chicken scraps if offered, but he would still eat cooked chicken.

We set his kill and partially eaten leftovers in a pile and every time he reached for it, he was met with a sharp no and a swipe of dead chicken. As someone else said, this is not a hard hit, nothing that would cause damage to anyone, but more of a scare tactic.

[Foxtrot_s]

So other people use the dead chicken around the neck method. I thought it was pretty red-neck at the time, but, hey, if it works…everyone is hapy, including the dog when he is back in everybody’s good books.

[tweeter]

My neighbor tried the dead chicken around the neck (my chicken). Dog could have cared less. He’d come over and try to get at my birds every chance he got.

Our Anatolian was pretty easy to train. I put him on a short line, and took him in with me to the chicken/turkey pens. Every time he moved towards the birds, I yelled “no” and gave a sharp yank on the line. Gradually I gave him more line to move on. Eventually I turned the line loose, and let him drag it around in the pen (I was very close by) so I could grab and line and scream if he made a move towards the birds. After about 2 weeks, I felt comfortable turning him loose. He never, ever hurt a bird!

Anatolians are amazing dogs.

[NoDQhere]

I have sort of reformed my two big dogs. They got started killing chickens when a strange dog, outside of their fenced yard, chased a chicken and it flew into my dogs yard. They were so incensed by the dog in “their” territory that they just attacked the chicken. I walloped them both with the dead chicken and yelled at them. They are both good outside of their pen, (I supervise them), and will totally ignore the chickens. The one dog won’t even walk past a chicken or look at one. But I’m pretty sure if they were alone with chickens at least the one dog would kill in an instant. The other dog is a GSD and he lives to get praise and make his people happy. He is also very smart and I think I could trust him. But I still won’t present them with the opportunity.

[Incantation]

Thank you all for the replies. I will say I am surprised that so many people responded with the hang the dead chicken from the collar method. I am glad it worked for you. I suspect it was more the scolding that went along with it that did the trick, but I am happy the dogs were reformed.

As I am hoping the the dog isn’t given an opportunity to kill again, I won’t have a dead chicken to work with, so that is pretty much off the table anyways. I think if the owner is willing, we will start with the dog under control and presented with a live bird. Discipline if she acts inappropriately, praise if she ignores bird. Rinse/repeat and see how it goes.

[clint]

I was raised on a working ranch, and at one point one of the families on the ranch acquired a young dog, who became a chicken killer. They tried tying the dead chicken around his neck, and it had no effect on chicken killing behavior whatsoever.

Marshfield, I have to smile at your comments about your GSP’s chicken behavior. We got a GSP a year ago, and early this spring she appeared in our yard carrying a chicken. After my experience with the chicken killing dog I was horrified, especially because this was a neighbor’s chicken. She laid it down, and it was fine, albeit a little shocked about being carried a mile in a dog’s mouth.

[Foxtrot_s]

It probably has more to do with catching the dog in the act and being onto it immediately. A more confirmed killer probably will keep on doing it…or some dogs just have it in them. Don’t know, not a doggy psychologist and certainly not back in the day. Of all our JR’s, we never had another problem.

[Foxtrot_s]

Clint - have to smile too - because our lab came home from the neighbours one day with a chicken in its mouth. Labs are soft mouthed and the chicken was fine, but we had to catch it to return it. Fun memories - like Greenacres,
the tv show.