[Greenerlife]

Might have to post this in the dog section too.  Story is I was out with my JRT in the woods this morning, and he ran down a bank and into a garden. i saw him running around like a lunatic and saw a phesant take flight.Lost sight of him but then saw a chicken lying on the ground.  Phoned up the woman whose garden it is (fortunately know her as I keep my bees there) to ask permission to get my dog which she says granted.  then the dog returns to me.  I then get to the car and drive round to the house.  one dead chicken stiff as a board.  Apparently she keeps three chickens but can only see this dead one.  Now my JRT has neverdone anything like this before, and I am now thinking it may have been a fox.  he does get rabbits but he eats them and if he killed this chicken he surely would have eaten it?  I really don't know.  Anybody else have any experience?  I will replace the chicken(s) anyway, but wonderedif anyone else had any views?

[jaykay]

Well if the chicken was stiff, your dog didn't kill it then, though I suppose he could have done at some time previously?

Dad's lurchers certainly killed chickens. I had to train Skye pretty definitely when he was a youngster (he's a border collie) - now he just 'obsesses' about the chickens instead of trying to eat them!

I can imagine terriers might well kill them, again, Dad's Lakeland terrier was lethal to everything except humans, up to and including dogs ten times his size. Chickens, pheasants, squirrels, rats......didn't stand a chance 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Yes I have lost a chicken to (my own) dog, and no they wont necessarily eat it.
So it would be quite possible for your JRT to kill someones chicken (and Im sure you wont allow that possibility again......)

However, a chicken killed a few minutes is not going to be as stiff as a board. So I think it is unlikely it was him on this occasion. However, while pointing this out to the owner I would as you are pay for a replacement  in the circumstances as recognition that the dog should not have been in their garden or anywhere near their chickens.

[Greenerlife]

Thanks for the replies.  yes Lachlanandmarcus, I will endeavour mot to let him in there again!  I am paying for the chickens as he shouldn't have been in there anyway - interersting that your dog didn't eat the chicken either.  Strange thing is that the woman regulalrly loses her chickens to predators of all types and yet just replaces them and shrugs it off.  I wouldn't be happy if a dog got my chickens, but then I protect them better.  Ho hum - glad I know her - Could have been tricky...

[Rosemary]

We had 13 chickens killed by a Staffie. There wasn't a drop of blood on any of them - he just chased, jumped on them so they stopped moveing then moved on to the next one.

[happygolucky]

Our dogs completly ignore the chickens, the problem is, Rohan our Yellow Lab is not keen on picking up game....Rhum our Chocolate Lab however will!!  I think terriers get a bit excited as well as some other breeds, ours may even run after some one elses hens!!  We looked after our in laws Springer and he chased on chicken but she got away!!

[harry]

WARNING TO OTHERS...be carefull its legal to shoot a dog doing this

[nic99]

I have had both chickens and ducks killed by other people's dogs coming into my garden. Makes me so mad! The ducks were killed through the mesh of their pen by a golden retreiver, it was really gruesome  My fiance wouldn't let me go and shout at the owners, who had let their dog run way ahead of them, out of sight, along the public right of way, which just so happens to also be our driveway. I was so angry! He was way too soft on them and they didn't even offer to pay compensation.

[HesterF]

I lost a chicken (my first loss) to a dog a few weeks ago. I was cleaning out the houses so had let them out to free range while I was in the vicinity - confident that foxes would not come that close and knowing they're now too big for the cats to touch. I hadn't even factored in dogs. The devastating thing was that I realised pretty quickly that something was up - they'd wandered off but were still well within our land, inside the field fence and a couple of hedges - when the rest all came dashing back squawking. So I ran in the direction they'd come from, in time to see a random dog running through the garden with the hen still flapping in his mouth. I just had no chance to get her back and he wouldn't let his owner get her either. By the time she was retrieved, she was still alive but lasted only a couple of minutes in my arms  .

I imagine it depends on the breed of dog. This was a spaniel (of some sort) so I believe bred to retrieve. He'd just been running through the garden (which he shouldn't have been) and seen his chance. But I don't think he'd have eaten her - not sure what he would have done in the end. I've calmed down a bit but I was very upset at the time. The owner (a neighbour but one I'd not yet met beyond waving in passing) was very apologetic but all I've asked is that she keeps her dogs on leads as she passes (she also offered to pay for a replacement but it's more the time/hassle/petrol costs etc. in my case than the actual cost of a hen). Same would go for you if you take the same route again - now he knows there are birds there, I wouldn't trust him not to go a-roving again. Yes, I know it's dogs instincts but it is private land and it's your responsibility to keep him out of there. No, it's not about them 'protecting their chickens better' - this is their garden and your dog was in it. It's you that needs to protect against that, not them.

The hen I lost was supposed to be breeding stock for next year and I was already light on that colour so I went to get some replacements. Ironically I was chatting to the breeder who told me that his neighbour's dog had got through the fence the previous week, wreaking havoc. Amongst the many birds he got were the only two cockerels of their type in the UK (can't remember the colour for sure but bantam Orpingtons - red maybe?). So that kind of put my loss into perspective. At least I didn't have to source replacements from Europe. Meantime this breeder had diggers working to build the Berlin Wall equivalent, having no wish to fall out with the neighbour but clearly unable to stand that sort of loss again.

[SallyintNorth]

We lost four of our first five chickens to a rampaging JRT.  The owner never took responsibility and still didn't take the dog for a walk when there wasn't any hunting to tire him out. 

After which our hens were only allowed to be totally free range when we were on the premises, and we spent a fortune constructing Chicken Knox with 6' fences and three strands of electric to keep them safe from all-comers (except airborne, I suppose) while still giving them enough room to run about to qualify as free range.    We still let them out when we were there, calling them back into Chicken Knox with bread when we went out.

When I moved up to the moorland farm, we inherited 8 good brown hens with it.  Sadly our one collie had killed one before any of us could react, so he wasn't allowed to be loose unattended after that - although he did learn that it was baaaaaad, very bad, to chase choox, you wouldn't have trusted him on his own.

[norfolk newbies]

We have also lost chickens and duck to a loose spaniel ( 2 separate occassions, once it got loose from it's house, second time it slipped it's lead as it was being walked past our property). The same dog  has killed chickens eslewhere in the village and a pet rabbit ( trashed the rabbit house to get at the rabbit). A couple of hens were damaged, but survived the first time, along with the dead one, second time my OH saw it happening and gave chase, but duck dead by the time he got there ( in all cases the dead bird was warm and floppy...)
 
We informed the local PCO the second time it happened and the owner/owners daughter no longer walks dog past our property. PCO was not aware of the other 'deaths'. We have not been offered compensation for any loses, although I think that the rabbit hutch was replaced. We have been told that no charges will be brought unless a higher value animal was/is killed.
 
Our own dog has escaped on a couple of occassions, so we understand that these things can happen (fortunately our retriever is not interested in large chooks/ducks, having been trained that these are off limits - although I do not trust him around chicks and quail!). BUT an apology would be have been nice and/or an offer of payment to replace missing birds  . And if it happens more than once with the same dog then I think that the owner certainly needs to put into place stricter controls/avoidance measures.
 
HTH
Jo
 
Jo
 
Jo

[norfolk newbies]

PS - We actually, prior to moving away from Norfolk, lost a weaner to a couple of our neighbours JRTs....very traumatic for all concerned-except JRTs I suspect. But owners were exceedingly apologetic, we lowered the electric fencing and they paid for a new weaner, and the dogs were kept on leads as they walked past the pig field.
 
Jo 

[Welshcob]

At one point when I was a child we had lots of poultry (chickens, geese, ducks all of various ages) and lots of dogs, as my mam decided to keep a few bitches and breed from them. We had a selection of big and giant breeds (Great Danes, Newfoundlands, Dogo Argentino and Dalmatians) and they all left the poultry to their own little lives, except my favourite Dalmatian Peggy who decided she hated chickens (and only chickens) and could not be trusted near one unattended.

She certainly didn't kill for hunger as she was well fed and never ate anything, left the body whole just dead; and she never touched the geese/ducks, she just went dead straight for any hen on her path and at one point we even found her eating the eggs!! 

We also built chicken knox and they were ever so grateful for not being scared and killed anymore 

[in the hills]

These things happen but I suppose the minute your dog is in someone elses garden, then you are in the wrong. If a dog was in my fields chasing my hens then I would feel that it was the owners fault and not feel that I should have to keep my hens protected ..... just the same as if a dog was chasing the sheep in those fields. Still we all make mistakes and can only apologise/compensate and not let it happen again.


A neighbours JRT got into my fathers garden and caught one of my dad's chickens and when a neighbours daughter was visiting along our lane her JRT went missing from the garden. My neighbour was really worried because many around here keep poultry and she said the dog would def. chase/kill. Think many dogs not brought up with poultry would. The little terrier in question was found 3 days later still in the garden ..... in a fashion. She had managed to get stuck on a shelf fairly high up in the chimney of an old cottage that stands in the grounds. Hadn't made a sound and was found by chance!!!!! ..... covered in soot and very hungry. They think she had been chasing rats or squirrels and couldn't get back down