06-12-2008, 06:50 AM
We have a pair of border collies and free range chickens and geese. One of the border collies ignores the chickens unless they step on him. Then he gets up and moves away. The other border collie lives to herd the chickens. It is her vocation in life to keep the chickens in a group. Sometimes the chickens go a long with the idea and stay in a group sometimes they wander all over and keep the dog busy staring at them. Border collies herd things towards their handler by staring at what they want to herd so the dog intently watches the chickens a lot.
When we first got the geese this was a problem since the geese still had the idea that humans should be bit and having dog herding biting geese towards us was interesting for a while. Now the geese have been trained to come to get some sort of leafy handout (geese like vegetables) and are coming towards us as friends instead of attacking.
Our dog's niece lives nearby and her people have chickens too. When they first got the chickens their dog ran in and killed one right away. There was a huge outcry and the dog was severely scolded. She hasn't looked at chickens since then and when we go visit our dog herds their chickens while their dog hides since their dog is now certain that dogs aren't supposed to interact with chickens and she is worried about our dog being near them. Their dog has a very soft personality and really wants to please her people so that may be why they got such a determined reaction after one major scolding.
We have some friends who rescue border collies if you wanted an adult rescue dog. I don't know what the specific dogs opinion of chickens would be, but if you introduce them to the dog and explain they are part of the pack, then the dog should allow them to be in the yard without eating them.
When we first got the geese this was a problem since the geese still had the idea that humans should be bit and having dog herding biting geese towards us was interesting for a while. Now the geese have been trained to come to get some sort of leafy handout (geese like vegetables) and are coming towards us as friends instead of attacking.
Our dog's niece lives nearby and her people have chickens too. When they first got the chickens their dog ran in and killed one right away. There was a huge outcry and the dog was severely scolded. She hasn't looked at chickens since then and when we go visit our dog herds their chickens while their dog hides since their dog is now certain that dogs aren't supposed to interact with chickens and she is worried about our dog being near them. Their dog has a very soft personality and really wants to please her people so that may be why they got such a determined reaction after one major scolding.
We have some friends who rescue border collies if you wanted an adult rescue dog. I don't know what the specific dogs opinion of chickens would be, but if you introduce them to the dog and explain they are part of the pack, then the dog should allow them to be in the yard without eating them.
Kurt Wilson