Need help with some bad habits

[sammyguy]

First I think I need to give a short history of Samson. I got Samson from family my last year in the military. He is a pet instead of a working dog. He did exhibit strong instincts as a puppy. It was a big surprise to find out that I would spend my last months in the military deployed again, so Samson headed up to my family's home while I was away. When I dropped him off he was herding the chickens, circling around, bringing them to the chicken coup, crouching and staring at the door. He was being a pest but he wasn't really harming anything.

 

Present day... Samson does not herd chickens anymore. He doesn't bite at them, but he loves chasing them. He goes a lot of places now where there are loose chickens. Last week I walked outside and he was between two groups. He'd chase one group, send them flying, then go towards the next group, send them up in the air and just continued until called in. I'm not sure if he learned it on his own or he picked this up from the other BCs he was with when I was deployed, but I would like to stop him from terrorizing the chickens, turkeys, and any group of animals he finds.

 

I heard of Control Unleashed as being a good training tool, would some of you here recommend that? I was also thinking of training him with livestock to learn commands. I would love to hear any suggestions.

[Tommy Coyote]

Well sure. Chasing chickens is probably a whole lot of fun.

 

There are lots of people here who have chickens and should be able to help with that. My comment would be not to let him loose if there are chickens around.

[GentleLake]

This is exactly what's meant when the Scots shepherds say that border collies are the worst sheep worriers.

 

They;re talking about dogs that are permitted to run at large and their herding instincts -- which are really predatory instincts -- run amok without anyone to channel them.

 

As Tommy Coyote says, the dog needs to be confined or supervised when the chickens are around. . . . or it will only get worse.

[waffles]

First thought is why is your dog being left unattended, unleashed with chickens?? I would leash the dog and obviously never leave him alone with chickens. You obviously know that he is just harassing them and it isn't fair to the chickens to be chased and scared like that so the dog can have a bit of fun. Either leash him or get a good solid recall on him so you can call him off the second he starts heading their direction. I would never let our dog harass our hens, they're quite sensitive (at least I think so ) and I don't think it is okay to allow an animal to stress out another for their pleasure. It is up to us humans to protect them and make provisions to prevent these situations.

[sammyguy]

This might not happen to everyone, but sometimes my dog finds his way out of the house. One the particular incident, I was over someone else's home so it may have been a door that wasn't closed, or someone that didn't know my dog wasn't allowed outside on his own.

 

I am just looking for advice to get him not to want to chase.

Here is Samson on said chicken chasing day while supervised.

 

[Gloria Atwater]

Control Unleashed does come highly recommended so I'll second that. By all means, do check it out!

I have chickens - (or did, until a bobcat broke in their coop the other night ) - and I have to say that once a border collie, or any herding breed, develops a self-gratifying chase behavior like this, it's very, very hard to break. The gratification of doing this far outweighs most counter-conditioning. Simply put - it's FUN. I honestly don't know that you can un-do that conditioning to the point that he won't try it again, if he's ever loose and unsupervised with chickens again.

Check out Control Unleashed, but be prepared for the eventuality that he just can't be trusted around loose chickens again, without your supervision.

Best of luck,

~ Gloria

[GentleLake]

 

I am just looking for advice to get him not to want to chase.

Ummm . . . don't have a border collie? Or any other dog, for that matter. Dogs are predators. Most of them chase other, smaller, prey-type animals, especially when no one bothers to control them.

[sammyguy]

Thanks Gloria!

[Shetlander]

Work on training a solid recall, making it fun and rewarding to come to you and be with you. Teach him "That wil do." I second (third) the idea of Control Unleashed. And do everything you can not to let him practice unwanted behavior. When you visit people with chickens, make sure he stays with you and explain to them you need their assistance in not letting him get out unsupervised to engage in what has become a bad habit. Management is a big part of a well behaved dog. Good luck!

[juliepoudrier]

My 9 border collies share the yard with my free range chickens. If the dog is going after the chickens, I have a "come to Jesus" meeting with the dog. Chasing the smaller animals is simply not allowed at my house. These (all but one anyway) are all working dogs. They also know not to chase the cats. And they aren't allowed to harass the sheep through the fence either.

 

I know he's been having fun so it will be a bit more difficult to break the habit. But what I do is put a long, light line on the dog and walk it near the poultry. If it makes any move to chase, it gets corrected. This doesn't require any hands on the dog. You can raise your voice, use intimidating posture, etc. Unless the dog is a real hard head, this sort of correction, applied consistently, should be enough.

 

Most border collies will soon figure out that they should leave the small critters alone. My seven-month-old pup went through a period of harassing the chickens. I repeatedly corrected her for the behavior until she figured out that making mom mad was not worth the bit of fun she was having making the chickens fly.

 

That said, I have a couple of dogs who will work chickens, but only if asked. The pup has enough interest in poultry that I could probably get her to work them as well (one of the two aforementioned dogs is her mother). I wouldn't do that until I've gotten her well started on sheep though.

 

Anyway, you just really need a means to "reach out and touch" (i.e., the long line) our dog when he's misbehaving and you need to consistently correct him every time he makes a move to go after the chickens. If you want to redirect with treats or similar, you can do that (I don't, but that's just my personal preference).

 

So, yes, you can train him to leave chickens alone to the point where he can co-exist peacefully in the yard with them. It will take consistent action on your part to make it happen. I brought a young dog home from the finals back in mid-October. When I started letting him off leash in the yard, he dragged a line. If looked like he wanted to bother the chickens, he got a verbal correction and was called back to me. Had be been bad about chasing, the long line would have allowed me to stop him without having to outrun him or corner him.

 

The downside to having chickens who feel safe around the dogs is that they don't tend to try to run and hide if doglike predators (coyotes, foxes) come after them.

 

J.

[Maja]

Excellent advice, Julie, and others too. It is going to be uphill for you if the dog has developed the habit, but it is doable, Just be prepared with a lot of patience and consistency. My doggone chickens get out of their run so the border collies and the guard dog all had to learn to leave them alone. My main BC works them too when needed.

[simba]

'Come to Jesus' and discouraging excessive interest worked for me, with a labrador. Interestingly she would still happily kill similar-sized wild birds, and unfamiliar chickens, but could be left alone and unsupervised with an excited flock.