# Do they all want to eat chickens? :-)



## zabasrainbow

Okay, this may seem like a silly question but do they???? I have had dogs all my life from sporting to working to just plain fun types But have just recently gotten into Goldens. We are enjoying them but I'm not so sure about this prey drive. We live on a farm and have all manner of animals including chickens and ducks. Well, we were pet sitting a golden for a friend and she had been fine for the first week; playing ball, going on walks, and swimming in the pond in the meadow. Then... she decided to jump the fence and dive bomb my best layer. I thought they were retrievers not bombers! Anyway that's one layer that will now be supper.:no: I hoped that it was just her and we were glad to send her home since we couldn't trust her off leash the rest of the week. Well anyway, we just got a pretty 7mo. old girl and she seems pretty interested in my ducks. She hasn't seen the chickens yet thankfully but the ducks are babies, so they are in a little enclosure till they get bigger. When she saw them she just went nuts and was climbing all over the cage trying to get at them. It took quite an effort to get her away. Is this something that I should be able to train out of her or was I naive about the temperment of a Golden in this area?? Maybe I'll have to find a good home for my feathered friends?? Thanks for any info.


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## For the Love of Goldens

I really couldn't say about the chickens. I know that my Golden REALLY TRIES to catch any bird on our property though!


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## Celeigh

My mother is trying to help find a home for a 4 year old golden girl who's owners are giving her up because she chases their chickens. Maybe I'm naive about farm life, but can't the chickens be enclosed or fenced to keep the dogs away?

My girl, Lily, is particularly interested in birds and bunnies, and Fergus will chase anything that moves, with or without a heartbeat. Since they were bred for hunting birds, it's very logical that chickens would be an easy target.


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## Lucky's mom

Goldens are very good about wanting to please you. I'm sure you can get it across that your chickens and ducks are to be treated gently. Your golden may not know that she isn't supposed to play with those little duck toys...

Lucky has killed a baby squirrel and a bird...but if I had chickens, I'm confident that he wouldn't hurt my chickens once he got the idea that they were important to me. But I wouldn't trust him while he was a puppy...


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## LibertyME

My girl Liberty is afraid of chickens...or maybe it is just chickens wearing dresses??
The link below is of her first experience meeting Mallory...

http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com/showthread.php?t=30085&highlight=dresses


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## zabasrainbow

The chickens are in a fenced area but it happens to be a large meadow that has the pond in it. So far we have been taking the dogs to swim before I let the chickens out but I really don't want to put the chickens in a small pen. I'm not really fond of that sort of set up. And the ducks will go to the pond when they get a little bigger. I don't reallly want the dogs chasing them all over the water instead of the balls! Casey (the 7mo. old) isn't trained at all:no:She won't come, won't sit, pulls the leash, won't retrieve, nothing! So, we are starting at square one with her anyway. And she is a bit "afraid". Tucks her tail, pees, and jumps at little noises-even her leash retracting:doh: I'm not sure of her previous situation but we're trying to baby her and start some training. I don't know that "no ducks" is the best place to start considering all the other ground to make up. Any advice that way would also be appreciated. We also have a little 12wk old girl that is a real sweetie. She knows her name, comes (mostly , and is working on sit and down. But she also when she sees the birds is VERY interested. She doesn't go nuts but she goes into that perfect focus/retriever stance and watches very carefully. Maybe I'll be able to teach her they are friends not food, but how to do that without losing some to mistakes????
Thanks for all the info here, I have appreciated reading some of the other posts. Kathryn


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## TiffanyK

We have chickens and goldens and since our goldens were very small pups, I've carefully brought them in the hen house in hopes that the goldens will learn not to kill them. Whenever I do let the chickens out to free range during the day, I do have to watch the goldens close if they are outside too. Sometimes they just can't help chase one or two, but are mostly very good about not chasing them AND when I say a firm "Maggie NO" or whichever one is chasing them, they do stop right away. Maggie really doesn't mess with them or chase them any more, but Nala (my 1 year old GR/hound mix) and even Dax will chase them sometimes...

But here is a photo of Maggie with one of our chickens, if this makes you feel better about Goldens and farm birds:











Tiffany


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## gold'nchocolate

My first golden would chase and catch chipmunks and squirrels but she didn't chase my chickens, who free-ranged in my back yard. She was already 5 yrs old when I got the chickens so maybe that helped. My lab never chased them either.

The goldens that I have now I would never trust with the chickens because of their prey drive. Maybe when they are more mature but now my chickens have 1/2 the yard and the dogs have the other half. I have a problem with my new rescue, Nash, because he chases the chickens along the fence line and scares them so that they run and squack (sp?) but he can't get to them because of the fence. 

I don't really like an electric collar but possibly you could use an E-collar with a remote control and give the dog a zap when he so much as looks wrong at one of the ducks or chickens. What kinds of ducks and chickens do you have?


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## zabasrainbow

The chickens, I'm not sure about. We got them from some friends that were moving out of the country(literally! to Ukraine. But they are good layers, we have 4 chickens now since the other one is on ice, and we get 3-5 eggs a day. The ducks are peking and are just starting to feather. Then we can put them out in the meadow but for now they are just sitting around getting scared by the cats or the dogs or whatever else walks by them! They are such scaredy-cats. I'm trying to figure out how to introduce the dogs to the other critters without anyone freaking out to much. It seems one or the other gets scared and then the encounter gets out of hand pretty quick. The puppy we can control pretty well still because she is little, but the 7mo old is hard to hold when she wants something. So I'm not sure how to get her to calm down enough to have a good introduction to bird=friend and not bird=food. 

That picture is great of the chicken on Maggie. Maybe one day...


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## winewinn

I am actually thinking about setting up our wireless invisible fencing system around the chicken shed and surrounding area so my birds can free-range safely in their "area" and the dogs will get punishment for bothering our farm birds. I just haven't done it because I hope it doesn't affect them for hunting.


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## historicprim

My chickens are in a chicken coop with fencing all the way around and netting for the top to keep out unwanted critters. My old girl would mouth baby chicks who would end up dead from shock.


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## Lucky's mom

TiffanyK said:


> We have chickens and goldens and since our goldens were very small pups, I've carefully brought them in the hen house in hopes that the goldens will learn not to kill them. Whenever I do let the chickens out to free range during the day, I do have to watch the goldens close if they are outside too. Sometimes they just can't help chase one or two, but are mostly very good about not chasing them AND when I say a firm "Maggie NO" or whichever one is chasing them, they do stop right away. Maggie really doesn't mess with them or chase them any more, but Nala (my 1 year old GR/hound mix) and even Dax will chase them sometimes...
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> But here is a photo of Maggie with one of our chickens, if this makes you feel better about Goldens and farm birds:
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> Tiffany


That is a very very sweet picture!


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## happyjoy

I, too, have chickens and my dogs (I had my Sophie - first goldie -back then). When I first introduced them to the chooks, they both chased them around the yard. Elliott, I think, picked one up in his mouth and it subsequently died. There was no outside damage so I think it might have died of shock. I did give them both a stern telling off. So after that I made sure the chooks were locked away in their pen. I can't remember how long later, a few months I think, I came home from work - there were the chooks wandering around the yard and Sophie and Elliott had not one iota of interest in them. So after that I have had chooks, cat and dogs living happily together in the back yard. I think they realised that egg hunting and eating was better than chasing and catching birds!!!!


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## usangel

*chickens and goldens*

i have an almost 10 year old retriever and a 3 yr old german shepherd and they both know that our new chickens are family..however, my golden likes to follow and herd them into one area...he doesn't try to eat them but can be annoying to them an the smallest bantam is his favorite..he tried mouthing her to bring her into the coop at the end of the day and did not harm her just scared her..i washed the bantam and she almost fell asleep in my hands..so when i let my golden out now, i have to watch him..he likes to stay by the coop at night until they all settle down.. monitor and let them know that they are family correcting and praising their behavior and the dog(s) will learn to be gentle...my golden has to spend some time in the house also when the chickens are out so they can graze the area...


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## mranken

My golden, almost 6 months, attacked one chicken this week. I managed to get her off and the Plymouth Rock seems OK. Today I came home to find a Rhode Island Red dead in the yard. My older dog- a Jack Russel/ Lab mix, has never been aggressive to the free-ranging flock.


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