Training dogs to live with chickens
When we first got chickens
Lucy was a lot younger and very excited about these new feathered
friends we were introducing to the farm.
It took about 10 minutes to
train Lucy to leave all the chickens alone.
We put her on a leash, walked
her over to a chicken in a tractor and made her sit with her back
facing the tractor. She was excited and kept looking over at the
chicken, but each time I would bring her attention back to me while at
the same time saying with as much authority as I could muster "Our
chickens!.." This went on for about 10 minutes before she seemed to
figure it out and stopped being curious about the chickens.
I think walking her everyday
also helps to anchor the training, but the lesson was taken directly
out of Cesar Millan's book called "Cesar's Way", which might be the best
dog training book available at this time.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Just be careful if you get another dog, or if a stray shows up. I had my Bella well-trained. She & the free-ranging flock were best friends, with the chickens following her to hang out & vice versa. But then my neighbor got a dog . . . when I was gone Bella joined him & promptly forgot her training. . .
I suspect that even if the 2nd dog were mine, that "pack" mentality might take over when left alone.