A chicken tragedy :(

15 years ago

I knew that a part of having chickens would include some loss over the years. I woke up Wed to find eight of my hens torn to bits and layed out proudly by my back door. I have two dogs, one old black lab who stays inside and one young one who is out. The young one was pretty proud of his actions. He has had some pretty severe behavioral problems but never showed interest in the chickens. I paid a nice amount to build him a kennel (the only way I thought we could keep him) and he punched a hole in it within 10 minutes. His naughty behavior was one thing, this killing of my chickens is quite another. I have calls in to several "no kill" shelters and a few friends who do dog rescues. If I told you what all he's done leading up to this, it would be a novel. Marlee has nothing on my dog, let me tell ya. Had my son not been there the morning I found eight of my girls slaughtered at my back door, I would have shot him myself. My son is 18 but we are having a bit of stress with both my DH and older son heading to Iraq. I had to look at some other ways to deal with the dog so we all could feel OK with it. Just a rant, I guess. Lori

Comments (8)

brendasue
15 years ago
I'm sorry to hear about your chickens. It's never a pretty sight, regardless of the culprit.

For the most part all of our dogs have been farm friendly. We have had a few non-traditional dogs, like dobermans & sheperds. The doberman was excellent around animals, but wouldn't protect them, shepard did okay nothing to brag about though. A great deal is the training as a pup, though some like the husky we had never did catch on & losses were kinda high. I've heard of labs on farms who worked out fine, others, well not so good.

Sometimes the instincts are just too deep. Rather than deal with it we've changed our policy that any farm dog from now on will be of deep farm-animal background, even then some won't cut it. We didn't like getting rid of the non compliant dogs, either. However if it's mine, they'd better not hurt it or they're gone.

It's a hard lesson to learn. We've been there, we know it's hard. Moving forward hopefully you can look forward to a dog or 2 that will live in harmony, or perhaps even become an valuable assistent.

Good luck finding them a home. I'm sure they are good dogs, just not with chickens.
Brendasue
nelda1234
15 years ago
Lori, sorry to hear about your loss - I know how hard it is for you. As Brendasue said we have all been there - no matter the loss still hurts. I hope you find a new home for him. There is a lab rescue that will travel all over to p/u - If I can find their website I will post it.

My thoughts will be with you as your DH and Son go to Irag - when will they be going. Keep your chin up Lori,we are here for you.

Nelda
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gardengalrn
Original Author
15 years ago
Nelda, thank-you so much for your words of support. My son goes to Iraq at the end of this month. DH goes the day after Easter. We KNEW this could happen, obviously, but it doesn't make it easier for the rest of us. Lori
runningtrails
15 years ago
Oh Lori, I'm so sorry for the loss of your chickens! That's really hard to take at any time, but especially under the added stress your family is going through. I hope you find a good home for the pup.
johanna_h
15 years ago
I feel for you. I have two dogs, uncle and niece. He believes that the chickens are candy dispensers and would follow them around just to clean up after them (gross, but mostly harmless!).

She, on the other hand, has strong prey drive and chases anything that will run until she can catch it and bring it down. If the chickens are out in their run, my girl dog has to be on a tie-out in a place where she cannot see them or she goes crazy.

It makes things more difficult, but I've made the choice to manage the set-up this way.

--Johanna

Here is a link that might be useful: My place: Busy Solitude Farm
cetawin
15 years ago
wow I am so sorry you lost your birds. It is hard to take a genetically imprinted thing like retrieving birds out of a labrador retriever. It has to be done over time, with supervision and never leave them to their own with the birds. Sadly, he was proud of what he had done because he did what he was supposed to...he brought you birds. Most often they kill them playing with them not intentionally killing them. :(

Good choice to re-home him because now it would take drastic measures to correct the behavior.
sullicorbitt
15 years ago
Lori,
I'm so sorry to hear about your loss and dog situation. My heart goes out to you and your family in dealing w/your son and husbands leave.

I think the site you came out to would push me to do the same, the dog is just being a dog, it's just not acceptable behavior for your livestock. We recently adopted a german shepherd pup last fall. She is not showing great promise with the chickens. I think for her she looks at them as toys.

I hope all works out for you, and I'm sorry for the loss of your girls :(

Sheila
gardengalrn
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks again for the supportive words. I enjoy reading them as I tend to Blue (culprit dog) each day and try to find him a home. Not many takers. I won't give him to anyone who doesn't know his behavioral problems. Not just the chickens but he has high anxiety and all that. All the shelters are full, mostly due to economic reasons, I guess. I'll keep working on it:)

My remaining girls are doing quite well. All are laying despite starting to molt. I have a lot of chicks in the garage who make me smile. Several banties, several polish crested. I got them just for the cuteness factor ;) Lori