Staffies and Chickens

Hi all,

About to get a couple of chickens and a little apprehensive about training my Staffie to behave with them and not treat them like her raggy toy! I've been reading a lot about it and seen Cesar Milans approach on YouTube which is pretty much what I intended to do - bring the chicken in to the house for the introductions, to let Clio know that the chickens are part of the family rather than something to protect the family from! If anyone has any tips/advice or success stories that would be so good to hear...

Hi and welcome from us and Suki. Can't really offer advice on this one sorry.

Hi and welcome from me, Millie and Bella.
Sorry I can't offer any advice. I had a friend years ago who had a Rotti and chickens so I know it can be done but I don't know how they done the introductions.

Hi &

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Hi and welcome to the forum from Rocky and me.

Sorry have no experience of chickens other than eating them, sorry

I have just lost 3 hens to my staff, so if you want hens get a good pen is my advice. I know another person on here with an older staff that doesnt bother with them but the younger ones definitely will and trust me it isnt a pretty sight!

Hiya and welcome, I was going to say speak to Equi or MissRouge as both have chickens.

I can't help Moo would eat them!

thank you all! She does love her raggy toy and shaking it vigorously! She is extremely disciplined but there is a niggling fear that when a chicken starts flapping its wings - it will be a red rag to a bull situation!

The house and run we have put in is very secure but it will be sad if they can't free range while the dog is loose. Will let you know how we get on! thanks again for the kind welcomes and advice.

Free range is lovely, our flaw was that the hens could get into the dog pen. They are VERY stupid trust me, they will walk right up to your sleeping dog and try to eat its food. They LOVE meat horrible things. I really wouldn't advise letting them roam together unless supervised 100% vigilantly. Chickens will die if spooked as well, my first one wasn't even touched by the dog but died of a heart attack we assume.... They are so cute though and the eggs are yum

Oh my god - it died of fright/heart attack! that's terrible although slightly better than being shaken to death in the jaws of a dog. Either way, I'd be so upset if anything happened to them because of the dog. Like you say it's going to take a lot of patience and a lot of vigilance.

Luckily a friend has lots of chickens and has offered to rehome my two hens if it looks like things will not work out but fingers crossed! Picking up the hen house tomorrow and the hens in two weeks!

Good luck with it, they are so quirky and can be a real joy.

Both my staffys have been brought up with chickens since puppyhood..my old boy Jethro couldn't care less about them.... he never has...but Winston ( one year old ) every now and then forgets himself and gives chase! The chooks are only let out their yard in the afternoon so we are always around to keep an eye on things. One stupid chicken comes up to the back verandah to look in Winston's bowl for food and he has pounced on her a few times and pulled feathers out....she is a slow learner though because she comes back night after night! Somedays Winston will just ignore her...he is getting better!We have 2 sheep and a goat and the same thing there.. Jethro can wander around almost between their legs...but when they see Winston they go all flighty because they are on edge wondering if he is going to chase them! Naughty boy! They are all slowly getting used to each other!

I have just rehomed a Staffie and currently have a cat and ducks! She's ok with the cat as she is quickly put into place. On the lead we playin the same environment as the free range adult ducks and the ducklings have been introduced by housing then next to her cage and just affirming that they are family members to not to be touched.
We have only had her for about 3 weeks now but she is starting to loose interest when they continually cheep.

Long locks wrote:I have just rehomed a Staffie and currently have a cat and ducks! She's ok with the cat as she is quickly put into place. On the lead we playin the same environment as the free range adult ducks and the ducklings have been introduced by housing then next to her cage and just affirming that they are family members to not to be touched.
We have only had her for about 3 weeks now but she is starting to loose interest when they continually cheep.

Glad they all getting along OK, Hi and welcome to the forum too from Rocky and me.

thanks again everyone for the support and info. We have had the chickens for a couple of weeks now. Clio is brilliant with the chooks! actually she couldn't care less for them. They seem to like her, they like to follow her and when she is sunbathing (not been a lot of this yet!) they like to get very close at which point she huffs and goes inside! Very happy all getting on but will continue to keep an eye - just in case the situation changes. :-)

Thats brilliant! Hope you're enjoying them

Just been reading through this one (don't know how I missed it before!). There's NO WAY I'd allow chickens in the house! Droppings all over the floor! It was hard enough house training Dempsey!

Dempsey is fine with my boss's chickens, but you have to watch him 100% of the time because he watches them just a little bit too keenly at times....

good girl Clio !!

Hi Caryll - the chickens do not live in the house or allowed in, it was purely for the purpose of introductions, so Clio would understand the chickens were part of the fam and not something that just landed in the garden to protect the family from - she is very protective. When I said house I mean garage, connected to house. We just carried each one into the garage to introduce chicken to dog - it worked really well. She just had a good sniff and we were able to watch her closely for any adverse reaction. Not sure it would work for all dogs but luckily it worked for us.

Lemonadey wrote:Hi Caryll - the chickens do not live in the house or allowed in, it was purely for the purpose of introductions, so Clio would understand the chickens were part of the fam and not something that just landed in the garden to protect the family from - she is very protective. When I said house I mean garage, connected to house. We just carried each one into the garage to introduce chicken to dog - it worked really well. She just had a good sniff and we were able to watch her closely for any adverse reaction. Not sure it would work for all dogs but luckily it worked for us.

Thank goodness for that! I'm at work at the moment with Dempsey. My boss is away so I said I'd let his chickens out while I'm here - so, I opened the coop & forgot that Dempsey was with me; the chickens started to peck their way out & I suddenly remembered the dog. I looked around quickly, expecting to have to grab his collar or at least say "Leave!"...he'd gone! When I looked, he'd gone back in the door, through the church (I'm a church secretary) in the middle of a service ( ) and was sitting by the office door waiting to go in!

Wimp!

My Nan has chickens and when I took Buster there I thought he might be a nightmare with them but he hardly bothered with them at all. He did chase one. He was running along with Reece and they went through the chickens, they all moved out the way (my Nan has two dogs so they are used to them anyway) but one of them started to run infront of Buster so he started chasing it. I shouted leave (which he ignored ) but my mum was around the corner and grabbed Buster as he went round (by which point the chicken had flew up out the way) Then he didn't bother with them again. My Nan lets her chickens in the house - well, I think they only come as far as the conservatory type bit. It has hard floors and she has three parrots there, so they eat any food on the floor!

I'm glad the introductions went well, it is always nerve racking when you have to bring something like that home.

My boss's dog, a GSD, regularly grabs one particular chicken (Gloria) & carries her around. She seems to take in in her stride, though.

My boy is more scared of the chickens than anything! We have 9 chickens and they often gang up on Stanley

He does like 1 chicken in particular though...

jbaker wrote:My boy is more scared of the chickens than anything! We have 9 chickens and they often gang up on Stanley

He does like 1 chicken in particular though...

Brillient

aww guard dog in the making !