Puppy killled a chicken

[OffgridAlex]

Hello,

Today 16 week old duke killed one of our pet chickens.

This was 100% our fault.

I was at work, My wife put duke in the garden for a runaround while she spoke on the phone to her Mum. One of the chickens had escaped and she hadn't spotted it.

I haven't managed to train duke to be calm around the chickens yet. He did what came naturally and killed it (very swiftly and cleanly it has to be said).

When my wife went out a few seconds later he had eaten it's head and neck.

I am sad that we lost the chicken (she was a lovely old girl) and sad that I let this happen and I am sure have made it much harder to tame Duke around chickens now.

I am very pleased that when my wife went out Duke immediately brought the dead chicken to her, put it at her feet and lay down and let her pick it up and take it away with no struggle.

I am angry that my mother-in-law tried to give my wife some dog training advise down the phone. She has two of the worlds worst behaved Jack Russels, they are snappy, rude, jumpy things that steal things, hump things, pee on things, try to physically dominate, cannot be walked on lead and destroy the house if left alone. Despite this My MIL felt she was right to offer dog training advise "What you have to do is kick him as hard as you can, he has to respect you, he is going to be a big do you have to get his respect I know it looks brutal when (moronic, criminal scum bag father-in-law) kicks our dogs but they respect him"

Anyway, thanks for reading.


I have a question: Can I give Duke the dead chicken to eat? Will he take this to mean that he is allowed to kill our chickens? Should I try and disguise it first?

Can he eat the whole chicken? Intestines? Feathers? or do I need to pluck and gut it?

Any advise appreciated.

[Jax08]

Yes, you can give Duke the chicken, I would pluck the feathers and cut it up and take out the intestines. He can eat all the organs, the bones as long as they aren't cooked, the meat. I would not give the whole chicken at once because it could make his stomach a bit upset if he's not used to eating RAW. Train him to not hurt the chickens and you shouldn't have a problem.

You could explain to your MIL the definition of Respect vs. the definition of Fear, but I think you would just give yourself a headache.

[JakodaCD OA]

Poor chicken, but stuff happens. If your going to let him eat it, I would pluck it and gut it prior to giving it to him,, The heart/liver should be ok, but the rest I just wouldn't feed him And I'd cut it up, not sure you want to give a whole chicken to a 16 week old all at once??

Raw feeders would know better than I, but that's just what I would do.

Yeppie, your wife's parents sound like patient dog owners (not...

If your chickens are friendly, maybe you can introduce them in a controlled environment? I have 9 chickens, my aussies would love to pounce/pin/probably kill them,,my gsd is fine with them, however I mine are locked in a run and never with the dog unsupervised.

Sorry you lost your chicken

[TommyB681]

That sucks but it happens, bad set of circumstances. Pluck clean and take out the gut of the chicken and its all his

[APBTLove]

Just prepare it like a store bought chicken. I would not give him all that unless you feed your dogs a prey model diet and allow them to have 'gorge' days, otherwise you're going to have one unhappy puppy.

Pluck, gut, and give him pieces.. A whole chicken is a bit much.. I only feed organs like liver/heart and the gizzards to mine. I'm sure he could eat everything, but I'd wash the stomach and intestines first, unless you want him eating crap.


It happens, he's a dog, they're chickens.


I wouldn't give it back to him whole. To me, that seems kind of counter-productive if you want him to tolerate your chickens without thinking they're the food. My dog isn't allowed to attack our cat. If he killed one of them one day, I wouldn't have it back to him and let him go to town on it.

[Rua]

All of the advice given is exactly what I would do. I've given Juno many of our chickens in the past, bar the guts.

One question though...was this an older laying hen? If it was, just watch your pup with eating the bones. I've found that when I've given our dog our old laying hens to eat, the leg bones (and sometimes the backbone) are ridiculously hard compared to bones from store bought raw chickens. (I feed mainly Raw to our dogs.)

I think it's because they are free range hens and get plenty of exercise. Either way, just watch your Duke so that he breaks them up small enough when he eats them. Our hens were tough old birds and Juno struggled with the legs a bit! It may be worth just cutting up the legs/back a bit before giving them to him.

[wolfstraum]

I had one grab a young chicken once at a club....there was not a mark on the chicken - but it died....I have been told chickens will just die if grabbed by a dog....so hopefully she did not suffer at all...

I have no advice about feeding it to the dog....

But I feel about about the chickens....yours and the one Wolf got....

You will need to spend some time teaching the pup "leave it" and then applying the command to chickens......

Lee

[RowdyDogs]

The commonly-mentioned danger with chicken bones pertains to cooked bones, which splinter extremely easily. Raw fowl bones are safe for dogs to eat.

I commend you for not freaking out about your pup killing a chicken. It drives me nuts when people punish dogs for being dogs, without training them how to behave. Killing prey animals like chickens is a very natural canine behavior.

I probably would not let him eat the chicken, just because it could be a reward for him. I have chickens as well and don't feed my dogs any chicken meat except cooked (and deboned) meat that is very different from a live or recently killed chicken. I don't want them thinking chicken=food, but I also don't have any scientific backing for this....but on the rare occasions one of my dogs has killed a chicken, I have not let them eat it.

I commend you for not listening to your mother-in-law. Seriously, killing chickens is disrespect towards people?! I don't even understand that, and I know the dog isn't thinking that. Killing chickens is a natural behavior based in a strong prey drive, it has nothing to do with people. You have a very realistic, rational approach to the problem.

Specific advice...I wouldn't let the dog eat the chicken, just because of possible scent associations or whatever. I think it's a small risk (once the chicken is dead) but I wouldn't want to risk it personally.

Instead, I would not punish the dog and focus heavily on teaching him to ignore chickens. One benefit of herding breeds like the GSD is that even though they have a strong prey drive, they tend to easily learn that certain species are off-limits.

I think you're on a good track, and should at most smile and nod (then ignore) when your MIL gives you advice about kicking (!) the dog.

[Jax08]

How could it be a reward for him? dogs associate things within 3 seconds. After that, they don't make the connection. So if the puppy killed the chicken and immediately was given it, then it's a reward. Cut up and hours later he won't make the connections.

[RowdyDogs]

I was thinking they were just letting him continue to eat the chicken after he killed it. I would remove it in that instance.

If they're taking the chicken away and cutting it up then feeding it to the dog later, then I agree that isn't a reward. However, it still makes me uneasy...but I've lived most of my life in rural areas where the general philosophy is "shoot the dog who kills a chicken," so I really err on the side of caution. I don't know how much they associate dead chicken flesh with live chickens, but I never wanted to risk it. I had meant to make it clear that it was just a personal concern.