# Training Your Dog to Behave & Protect Their Chickens!



## Slippy (May 14, 2020)

As some of you may know, I'm new to the Chicken Wrangling World but I'm "old" and somewhat experienced in the Dog Training World! I'm also a fan of Herding/Working Dog Breeds and have owned German Shepherds, Border Collies and Australian Cattle Dogs (ACD's)

ACD's are my favorite and our current dog, is a wonderful and sweet member of our pack. We call her "The Beaz".

Since we got our chickens, I've been training The Beaz to guard/protect and behave around the chickens. I used about 95% Positive Reinforcement Training and only about 5% Negative as is the nature of The Beaz. She wants to please and reacts to positive training techniques very very well.

I'll be glad to go into the training regiment if anyone wants to know. Here is The Beaz and 3 of our Gals this morning. The 4th was in the nesting box spitting out an egg!


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Some dogs are very trainable, others are simply pigheaded. I had a pigheaded one. It took me going all banshee on him because nothing else worked. His human yelling and screaming at him in the Guinea coop was more than he could take. 

He was so sneaky he'd check the windows when he was outside to make sure the human wasn't watching. 

The episode of his human going banshee on him was the moment of awakening. Things went swimmingly from there.


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## Poultry Judge (Jul 15, 2020)

Slippy said:


> As some of you may know, I'm new to the Chicken Wrangling World but I'm "old" and somewhat experienced in the Dog Training World! I'm also a fan of Herding/Working Dog Breeds and have owned German Shepherds, Border Collies and Australian Cattle Dogs (ACD's)
> 
> ACD's are my favorite and our current dog, is a wonderful and sweet member of our pack. We call her "The Beaz".
> 
> ...


Nice dog! Yes, I think chicken folks would be interested in any dog training that makes a good farm dog!


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## Slippy (May 14, 2020)

Poultry Judge said:


> Nice dog! Yes, I think chicken folks would be interested in any dog training that makes a good farm dog!


You got it!

When our chicks were inside in the brooder every day I'd take each chick in my hand and allow my dog to sniff and get acquainted with them. Dog was always on a metal training collar.

Each time, each chick I would give positive reinforcement praise and eventually a piece of a dog treat. Only a couple of times did the dog attempt to bite a chick and then I gave correction with the training collar usually a swift jerk to tighten the collar and a loud NO.

Every day I would try and hype up the dog for the daily visit with the chicks, calling them "Your Chickies"..."Wanna go see your chickies?" and she'd get excited.

When the chicks moved to the Coop/Run area, I worked with dog from the outside of the Coop and Run using her own instincts to "herd" the chickens in the run from one end to another. Again, tons of praise. No collar during this part of the training. Only used the collar when in close contact with chicks.

I also created a soft "pallet" of hay and straw on one end of the outside of the coop and the dog would lay there when I was sitting around watching chicken tv. The chicks loved to go to that part of the coop and see their "big sister"...or whatever the hell they thought she was.

Eventually, I removed the correction collar and allowed the dog free roam with the chickens when they got bigger, at about 15-16 weeks or so. Consistency is the key and being out of town on business posed a gap in our training but so far its worked well.

The dog loves to check out "her chickens" and is often outside roaming around thier coop and run when they are enclosed.


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## Overmountain1 (Jun 5, 2020)

I can't think of any better way of training one, I think that is almost identical to what I would've done too! Smart animals (almost) always do better with the positive reinforcement.

It would be good to note that the best, or rather easiest dogs will likely be companion dogs to train for something like this. Not in breed but temperament. Jmo. Not that others couldn't be taught too, no, don't mean it that way! Easier and safer for the chickens when they see on the first try that biting a chicken butt does not make us happy!  We have had 3 fully trained etc service dogs while I was growing up, and we used to take them to nursing homes etc.

Slippy- I love the Beaz!! She's adorable, you can see how much she adores you, too. She seems like one of the special ones. And- thanks for sharing, cause I'm about to be doing this in the next year or so. It's weird not having a dog here right now.


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## An T (Dec 6, 2020)

I love this! We have an Australian Shephard that has a strong herding instinct and loves the chickens. I would love to do more training with her for herding and protection purposes.


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