# Chicken chasing/killing GSD



## CircleStarRanch (Dec 24, 2010)

I have a 4yo German Shepard I got when he was about 2 yo. He is a city dog, but has adapted to the "farm life" fairly well. He still barks at the horse when he acts up, barks at the goats when they get too close to their fence - especially the gate. The worst behavior is when he chases our loose chickens. He usually leaves them alone but every now-and-then chases them, and on 4 occasions (in 2 years) has caught them - ugly scene. We started putting a mesh muzzle on him when the chickens are loose. 

We just recently got 25 Red Ranger chicks and have moved them to their outside pen to feather out. A few get loose but don't stray far. We are planning to let them run loose this coming weekend. We have always let all the chickens & guineas wander loose during the day and lock them up at night. Monday Buddy (the GSD) got ahold of one of the little Rangers and killed it while wearing his "mask". I ordered a more severe cage muzzle, which should take care of the problem. But I hate to make him wear the muzzle all day but cannot think of an alternative. Anyone have any other ideas to break him of chasing chickens? 

-Dutch


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## mekasmom (Jan 19, 2010)

GSDs aren't LGDs. It's tough to overcome a dog's natural instinct. I know that doesn't help much, but it's true. The dog is just doing what he does naturally.


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## sandj81 (Apr 10, 2014)

I'd have to agree with mekasmom. I have two gsds and while most of the time they could care less about our chickens they care sometimes. Our chickens are in a pen due to where we live but they share a yard with the dogs and the dogs will run over and bark at them. There is no doubt if they could get to the chickens they would injure/kill them. Gsds just have a high prey drive.


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## WolfeMomma (Oct 29, 2015)

Following this, We have a lab that i have a feeling will be a chicken chaser. Hopefully someone can help you out! Maybe some training techniques?


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## JasoninMN (Feb 24, 2006)

It takes time and dedication and breed is not an excuse. I have a 6 month old german wire hair pointer/dratthar pup. She hunts and I have shot game birds all fall over her and she leaves my chickens, ducks and pigeons alone. Dogs are not stupid. First step is having verbal control over your dog. Control means if you tell it "come" it comes and tell it "leave it" it stops what its doing, no pleading or begging for it to listen. If the dog doesn't listen then it hasn't earned the right to have some freedom. Step 2 would be supervision, your dog needs to earn its freedom around the birds. If you don't have the time to supervise then don't let them out together. Step 3, direct your dogs energy and desire to hunt onto something else, either find a game, sport or animal it can hunt and redirect it's behavior and energy on. Step four, Stop with the "quick fixes" and start training. I am sure someone is going to recommend a shock collar. Just like the muzzle, the shock collar does not teach the dog anything when not used properly. Most dogs soon become collar smart and know when its off or one.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

JasoninMN hit the issue right on the head! It is not the "breed" that is problematic. It is the training that breed gets...or doesn't get!

I've worked with GSD (short and long-haired) and know they do have a prey drive. Still with a firm/confident/calm owner that type of dog can be just as loving around fowl as it can be around children.

Take a look at this GSD. She was purchased just after being weaned and was supervised closely. Yes, she initially chased the fowl, even the goats; however, firm corrections and some redirection taught her what was ok and what was not ok. (When I could not be outdoors with her, I attached her leash to my shepherd/mix and that curtailed the prey drive.) She turned into a very good "farm" guard dog. The only problem I had ...actually two problems...were: (1) She was an alpha female and would never accept a male for breeding. (2) She started guarding the animals so well that she would break up even breeding rituals...all without harming the goats/fowl.

I would suggest some BASIC commands for a start and then, with a long leash, walk her around your chickens correcting her when you "sense" her prey drive starting to kick in....You must be sensitive to these dogs and understand their instincts to be successful with them. This is not hard; just time consuming. (I actually trained my lab the same way and he has a very strong prey drive.)


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## Otter (Jan 15, 2008)

I have a GSD who just turned two.
When she first came here, she chased birds _because of course she chased birds _- she is a dog and dogs chase thing, it is what dogs do.

Breed has nothing to do with it. At all.

When she chased birds, I stepped on her long line and said "NO. Leave it."
These are two separate commands. NO is used very rarely, because it means "You must never under any circumstances do that ever again" and chasing is the forerunner of many things that we WANT dogs to do, like herd and hunt and protect and we don't want them to think that these are also bad things to never, ever be done. So think before you use it, and if you can use another command, do so. We will never hunt or herd birds with her, so in this instance, it could be a NO.

Leave It means "Turn your attention away from that and give your attention to me."
So when I gave those commands, stepping on the longline and the shock to her of hitting the end of it taught/reinforced the NO command and then I picked it up and walked backwards away, giving her no choice but to follow me. When her head turned to look at me, being hard to follow with her head turned away, she had then performed Leave It, and so to teach her that _this_ action was what I wanted, I praised her.

We worked on Leave It the same way we worked on Sit and Down, by practicing and praise when she got it right, and we had, I think, all of 3 more (quickly interrupted) episodes of chasing before she understood that whether I was there to give the commands or not, chickens are not to be chased. This was helped in that while we were outside, if she even looked at chickens, I would tell her Leave It and then praise her for doing so, teaching her that chickens are not worthy of her attention but it is always good to pay attention to me.

So, the shorter version of this answer is to teach him. You can use other commands besides Leave it. It is impossible for a dog to chase anything when it is Down, for instance, so nearly any command will work.

GSDs live for an average of 12 years. You can work with him every day for the next 6 months teaching him several rock-solid commands, or, you can spend the next 8 years muzzling, unmuzzling, locking the chickens away, locking the dog away, always on your guard and losing birds anyway. The 6 month option always seems like the better one to me.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

It's too bad you have waited so long to start training him. As others have written, he needs a solid "leave it". Teach him the command on something easy, then when you think he understands, put on a long line and work him with the chickens. Use praise and treats. He's smart, but don't assume since he seems to be leaving the chickens alone that he is. Keep an eye on him, remind him, reward him.


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## karenp (Jun 7, 2013)

Our GSD knows the difference between our animals and others he will not chase our animals. There was a post on the KFC forum about a LSG dog that would not eat chicken raised on the farm. Store bought or chicken from other farms was OK, but it would not eat his chickens even after they were butchered and cleaned. My point is that most dogs can learn what animals it is not permissible to chase.


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## CountryMom22 (Nov 27, 2014)

This is definitely a training issue as a dog wearing a muzzle can still kill birds.


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## Woolieface (Feb 17, 2015)

Just muzzling really doesn't let the dog know why he's muzzled. There needs to be an immediate negative consequence to the act of chasing a chicken. The only way a dog correlates an act with being bad is to receive a negative consequence from that action the moment it takes place. That might require long training sessions on a leash around the chickens and no unsupervised chicken visits for the dog until he knows that action is bad.

All that said...it's not easy to train out that behavior from a grown dog who was not raised to know chickens are off limits.


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