Training Your Dog to be Chicken Friendly

A few of you have reached out to me after seeing videos of my dog, Tucker, on Instagram hanging out with my chickens. The reactions have been “How on earth did you get him to leave your chickens alone?!” 

My answer to those questions is very consistent positive training. A well behaved dog does not happen overnight, especially when they’re fighting some serious instincts.

Tucker is a Springer spaniel and Labrador retriever mix. A perfect 50/50 of each breed and dang good genes to be a hunting and sporting dog. 

Plenty of warning beforehand: this will be a very in depth post explaining the exact steps I took to train this behavior. I have a background in animal behavior so this kind of stuff excites me – read on if it relates to you!

First steps: slow and steady

The most important major step before you start any of this training is to make sure your chickens are secure secure secure. Same with your dog – keep them on leash. Set everybody up for success from day 1. One slip up can create a lifetime of behavioral issues, or worse, can lead to the death of a chicken.

Here’s a picture of our setup to give you an idea of how we did this. We have a large yard with a rectangular chicken coop situated at the back. 

We started by keeping the chickens in their run and spending plenty of moments outdoors with Tucker on leash, just watching them. Sitting in a lawn chair, reading a book, giving him an antler to chew on or a puzzle feeder toy to keep him occupied.

 Giving him something to do is important so that he is not just lazer-beam focused on the excitement of the chickens.

Every once in a while I will reinforce calm behavior (I’m looking for him laying down, head settled, gazing elsewhere, relaxed lounging position).  Be sure you set these guidelines for yourself beforehand so you know what behaviors you will consistently reinforce. 

Continue this step REGULARLY until your dog is 100% used to this environment: seeing the chickens on one side of the fence in any situation. Try to do it at different times of day so they’re not just lounging around every time – I liked to switch it up to when they were frisky and flighty in the mornings, then to the afternoons where they lounged right up against the fence, to everything in between so Tucker would get used to seeing them in any state.

Next steps: coming closer

I penned in a small area of the yard where the chickens could free-range happily around me and Tucker. At this point he is STILL ON LEASH. Make the space big enough for them to safely keep their distance. 

Repeat your beginning routine with him. He will be getting accustomed to seeing them outside of their ‘normal’ area and will likely want to check them out. Reward the same calm behavior you were in step 1.

You might want to have a second person on hand on this step, to make sure no super friendly chicken comes running up to you and the dog. The chickens have no way of knowing that you’re training this dog to not chase and eat them!!

After that step, a good next move is to make the free range area around you smaller. Narrow the space between the dog and the chickens. But again, keep them from running right up to him right now. Set everyone up for success.

When you are at the point when you are ready to initiate contact between the dog and chickens, this is what we did.

Have a second person sit exactly where you have been sitting and training your dog for nice calm behavior. Let chickens free range around you. Have second person hold a chicken and walk toward you. 

If your dog reacts negatively, do not scold. 

Remember he is full of instincts. Scolding will only leave a negative memory of being around the chickens, which is exactly the opposite we are training for. If he reacts negatively, simply take a step back training wise. That’s your dog’s way of telling you that you skipped by the last step maybe a little too quickly and he needs more information from you on your expectations.

If your dog stays relatively calm, let the chicken holder (official name) walk by with the chicken. You can keep getting closer with the bird but don’t walk DIRECTLY towards the dog. That’d be mean. Like coming right up to you with a pie under your nose and then not giving it to you.

The trainer at this point should be reinforcing any calm behavior the dog exhibits when the bird comes closer than it has before. This keeps your dog’s attention directed mostly at  you, because you are the giant treat bag with arms.

Don’t worry if this step doesn’t happen in one shot. It likely won’t. This is a crucial step, and you certainly don’t want to push the interaction on either animal. 

If your dog continues to exhibit calm behavior, come closer with the bird and keep reinforcing that calm behavior. In a perfect world, the dog will obviously notice the chicken carrier coming closer and closer, but keep looking back towards you, the one with treats and praise. 

I always like to end my sessions on a good note, so if you have gotten this far, FANTASTIC. End it here for the time being and repeat repeat repeat for the next however long it takes for the dog to exhibit the same calm behavior we were reinforcing in the first steps. Make this his new normal.

Next steps.

Now this is where it has the opportunity to get dicey if you have not properly lead up to this step. You should be entering this stage with a dog that shows absolute calm all the way through these steps up to this point. If not, please go back and continue to work through those stages. Your chicken’s safety depends on it.

Call your handy dandy chicken carrier over and have them approach you with the chicken in arms. Reinforce that calm behavior! Then ask them to take a seat right next to you in a chair, next to the dog as it is laying down. Don’t sit down right on the ground next to its chompers. That would be too tempting.

Reinforce reinforce reinforce calm behavior. Repetition builds confidence.

Have your chicken helper get up, wander again, and come sit down with you and the dog a few more times until you have a calm dog throughout this step.

“Repetition builds confidence.”

beccagrowsstuff

Ask your dog to come to you while you are sitting. Reinforce. Ask dog to lie down next to you where he has been this whole time. Reinforce. Ask dog to return to you. Reinforce his attention on YOU and not the person holding the bird right next to you.

See how we’re running through some ‘simple’ behaviors to build his reinforcement history?

Ask the dog to lay down next to you. Reinforce. Have chicken helper place chicken on ground at their feet PLENTY of distance from the dog. 

You should be between the chicken and the dog. 

Don’t let the chicken go, but just place it on the ground. Reinforce calm behavior. If dog gets up to investigate, the chicken helper calmly picks the chicken up and places it in their lap, while you (the trainer) redirect the dog to lay back down. Reinforce.

Repeat each of these steps over and over until dog is exhibiting desired calm behavior over and over. 

Next: Switch helper’s chair over next to dog so this is your set-up:

 chicken helper with chicken –> dog –> you, the trainer.

It should go something like this: Helper sitting in chair next to dog, dog exhibiting calm behavior. Reinforce if so, if not, take it back and practice the previous step.

Repeat the previous to previous step.

You should have a strong leash hold, but NOT a tense, tight leash on the dog – animals are very good at sensing and reacting to OUR emotions. Keep a tight grip but a relaxed leash on the dog like you have been. 

Repeat previous step, but this time, let the chicken wander. Chicken helper should be at the ready to grab chicken if it gets dicey, but reinforce reinforce reinforce for good calm behavior. At this point, your dog should have such a strong reinforcement history from his calm behavior around the chicken. So much that he should still be exhibiting calm behavior.

Next step: Walking your dog on leash among chickens that are roaming. 

Reinforce.

Can you see the way we are going here? Of course, I can’t perfectly predict your dog’s behavior – every animal is a study of one. It would be unfair to base your dog’s needs on my dog’s individual needs. But hopefully, you can follow along this loose guide to how I trained my high energy dog to remain calm around my birds. We have gotten to the point where he can be off leash around them and I’ll trust in his reinforcement history to come through. The only moments where he gets overly excited are when I have a squawking chicken in my hands. But if that chicken were on the ground, he’d ignore it. Knowing this, I try to set him up for success by keeping him away when I know I’ll need to grab up an unwilling bird. I want him to continue to associate chickens with the calm behavior we’ve trained from the beginning.

If you’ve stuck around until the end of this article – good on you! I hope you’ve received some helpful advice that you can apply to your own situation. Feel free to reach out, I’m always down to chat about animal behavior and training.

Until next time my friends,

Becca