Classic roosting bars

[Chickendoodle]

We have a rescue Labradoodle, Daisy and she is an absolute sweetie except that she is obsessed by birds of all sorts (she regularly clears the beach of seagulls for instance). She has been with us since February

 

We used to let the chickens free range in the garden and our other Labradoodle took no notice at all of them. As the garden got trashed they now have a huge fenced off area at the bottom of the garden to roam about in. It was like this whan Daisy arrived.

 

Daisy was not too bad with the original chickens - she would occasionally rush at the fence if they made a noise and she was very jealous if one of us was in there so we shut her in the house when we are feeding or cleaning them.

 

We have 3 new, very friendly, very bold chickens and on Saturday we let them mingle with the old chooks for the first time. There is the odd squawk where thay are sorting out the pecking order and this seems to set Daisy in a frenzy (as well as the new ones just staring at her and not backing off away from the fence). She goes into a sort of trance, pants madly, races up and down the fence, crashing against it and totally blocks us out - I would imagine that this is what happens if a dog gets in amongst sheep. It is like a mist coming down and we have to drag her away into the house. As it is hot we usually have the doors open and we don't want to feel like prisoners in our own house. Left on her own she would do this behaviour until she dropped from exhaustion.

 

We have put some extra netting up across the garden which blocks off the place where she used to stand and crash constantly against the fence and the rest of the chicken area is barricaded with plant pots against the fence.

 

When she was at her worst yesterday we brought her in and put her lead on. She sat very still and we realised that she was wetting herself. When we first had her she would wet herself when she got nervous and it took a couple of months for it to stop. We think she was chained up in a kennel in her previous life and securing her with a lead obviously brought it back to her. I was really upset and there is no way we would do that to her again.

 

We don't have a huge garden and really don't want to have to have anther fence across, fencing off the fenced off area although it would seem that blocking her sight of the chickens is the only option. To stop her seeing them we would need to erect a wooden fence of about 5 ft which would be pretty unsightly.

 

Does anyone have any ideas of what we can do? I would rather cure her behaviour than put up a physical barrier. We dont want to end up having to get rid of the chickens.

[patsylabrador]

Hi, the only thing I could think of was to slightly adapt training we gave the puppy mentioned in my post. As your dog is a Labradoodle she should pick it up quite quickly.

Because our puppy was to be a guide dog she wasn't allowed to hurtle through doors, so the first step was to control her with her lead or collar at the shut door until she was sitting nicely. I would give her a little treat at this point, then when you open the door and she lurches forward you hold her back until she sits or stands quietly then reward her again. We often had to shut the door and start all over again but eventually she realised that she would get out quicker if she was calm and good.

Could you gradually extend this down your garden so that she gets rewarded at stages if she approaches the chickens calmly, but goes back inside if she gets silly? It would take a while but could work, I really hope this helps a little bit anyway.

[jess1merlin]

Does she have any toy that she is mad about? If she does can you use this to keep her attention and reward her for leaving the chickens alone. Have you ever tried clicker training her they do seem to catch on really quickly with clicker training ( I was the worlds biggest sceptic) She must have had a very stressful time so I think it will need quite a lot of time and patience to win her round.

 

If you have any APDT trainers in your area that use clicker training it might be worth seeking their advice as they use reward based training. Have a look on the web site www.apdt.co.uk or try ringing their office on 01285 810811 and speaking to Stella, I'm sure she will point you in the right direction and she is very helpful.

[Chickendoodle]

Thanks for the advice - we decided yesterday to block her sight of the chickens - I think it is happening because the new chickens are very bold and will just stand at the fence and look at her whereas the older ones would move awayy. She must feel as though she is losing her power and is bashing at the fence to get some reaction from them. If there is a pigeon in the garden she will chase it off and up to now every bird has done what she expects.

 

The fencing around the chickens is a combination of wooden trellis and netting which is completely see through. We have now put bamboo screening inside the fence all the way round (double layered where she likes to stand and look through). It is around 4 foot high so we can still see over but she can't. Pouring with rain today so she will not be outside anyway which at least will give her a complete chicken break. Think we will have to rename the chicken area as Colditz!

 

Fingers crossed that this will work She is such a good dog in every other way

[Snowy]

I sympathise. Our rescue springer Candy is exactly the same. Our chicken area is also like colditz - double layers of netting round. She can still see them but cannot get to them. I think Candy had a similar history to your Daisy as well - and that may be why they are harder to train out of this behaviour. We have had her 1 year and she is beginning to show signs of ignoring them for periods now, although if they are out in the garden she sits and drools at the patio doors and will not be distracted from them. I've even tried tying her in the garden and letting them free range around her, but it doesn't seem to desensitise her to them (not an option with your girl though).

[beach chick]

the training ideas are excellent, and I know Stella at the APDT too - they are fantastic. (Stella and Val, if you know her too, are just lovely!)

 

however, and this is not the kindest solution I know, but the only thing that stopped our rescue Lab from wanting to 'retrieve' (!!!) chickens was an electric fence. prior to that, despite having him on the lead, treats, etc etc etc, when he behaved perfectly, if he was left alone he would simply hurdle the netting. like you, we are an open doors house and can't always be out there with him. once in with them, he would run riot - I dont think he would actually have hurt them, just wants to chase and bring them home to mum. But after a few episodes of him getting in, having to rescue chooks from the neighbours etc after they had flown the coop as it were, we had a visiting Lab who actually killed one of our original girls - my boy was sitting there looking as if "I said NOT to do it"... that coupled with a fox attack 6 days later made us get the electric fence.

 

3 times he touched it, and it was awful each time - but now he will not go anywhere near the chooks or their run. we have enough space for him not to have to, but he knows when I'm going out to the girls and just sits and waits.