# Help, LGD is eating my chickens...uggg



## Jellybelly (Jun 12, 2019)

I have a LGD puppy, he is 3 1/2 months old and will eat the chickens. Drives me insane!! We are never around when he is being "bad". He has been with turkeys since day 1 and has no issues with them but he likes to eat the chicken. I have no idea what to do since I never see him do anything to even bother the chickens.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

At that age, he really shouldn't be left alone with them.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

I agree.

Do you have an area where the chickens can be in a chicken coup, and let them out when you want to?
Always watch the dog and correct as needed.


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## Robinsonfarm (Jul 17, 2015)

What breed is the dog? 

A LGD at that age should not be unsupervised with stock, especially chickens. Getting a dog good with chickens takes time and training, you can just throw them in with the chickens and expect them to be good. Many LGD's are not mature until 18+ months, some mature earlier but often times they still have puppy behavior well past 12 months.

I would start with penning it next to the chickens and supervised time with them so you can correct any bad behavior.


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

The puppy says," But, chickens are so fun! They squack, fluff up and run! So much fun to chase them." 

Good luck on foiling the foul fowl phantom!  (Sorry, couldn't resist)!


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## Treva Brodt (Jan 11, 2019)

My grandfather used to say once they start killing chickens they will never stop.


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

Same with egg sucking. Once a dog figures out how to eat eggs, it's hard to make them stop.


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## erehwon (Nov 19, 2019)

Firstly do not fall for the tie a dead chicken around his neck idea, yes it may work but he will never protect your chickens again, secondly the other tactic of picking up a chicken he has killed and battering him around the head with it, not a good solution, I have seen it used and it worked on farmers GSD but again it ruined the dog for livestock work. We had a rescued Kangal and now have a rescued Kangal cross both were cage trained with livestock, progressing from the cage to an open pen then free on a leash and finally free running (all supervised initially) supplemented with regular but simple command training away from livestock. Our surviving Kangal X we rescued when (we think) he was about a year old when he was a street dog eating cats and chickens to survive but until we came to Bulgaria he never had to live with small livestock so his training regarding this did not really start until he was possibly three but with supervision and guidance he is now sound with all our free ranging and house rabbits, chickens, ducks and geese (though he does have a gruff at the geese when they pull his tail!) so with work your situation can be turned around though I will admit we have yet to solve his cat issue, we can walk him past them, have him watch them and even have our neighbours cats (and there are many) go nose to nose with him but if any strange cat enters his guarding patch when we are not around they are dinner. He is still a work in progress on that score........

PS I am not a qualified dog trainer but have trained my previous dogs (GSD's and BSD) up to doing protection work and apart from here have always done voluntary work in dog welfare and spent two years living in Turkey helping out at the Municipality Dog Shelter which is where my admiration for the Kangal breed (and our rescued Kangal X) comes from.

I will stop waffling on but seriously change your method and stop giving him the opportunity to get to your chickens, go back to basic supervised reinforcement training and persevere. Good Luck.

It will be interesting to hear how others train and resolve these issues with their dogs LSGD's or not.


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