My Dog attacked the ducks!

[MrsJewelsRae]

My poor duckies! Last night I heard them honking on the driveway and ran outside to find my 6 month old golden retriever chewing on one's neck! The kids accidentally left the cage open and the dog got in. Both the Pekins have their necks ripped open, there is some blood on them but they are not bleeding. I've cleaned them up some and got them fresh bedding and food and water, they are able to walk/run fine and are quacking but their wounds do not look good. I think I may have to call a friend to come and end their suffering.

I'm so angry at my dog! He has been around these animals since day 1, I frequently have him in the pen with me and have him go right in their cage to sniff at them and he is very nice to them, has never gotten aggressive with them, I am very firm with him, I wanted him used to them in case they ever got out w/o supervision. We got the dog because goldens are usually obedient loving family pets and he'll guard the farm somewhat just by barking at unwelcome visitors. So far so good but Now he is killing our animals! I think he must have started out playing with them but once he bit them and tasted blood, there was no doubt at the point I found him he was going at the duck for a meal. Is this it for him? I've heard once they taste blood they will keep going back for more, I wanted to free range my chickens while we are out there during the day but I will have to secure the dog in order to do this, which really defeats the purpose of having him. My dh is so angry at the dog he wants to get rid of him, he has been such a nuisance lately, we give him lots of tlc, let him in the house for family time, he comes and goes as he pleases. This week he has ripped garbage all over the lawn several times, knocking over bins, getting into feed, pooped in the house, and now tried to eat my ducks! I guess it comes with the territory when dealing with young dogs. I'm not near ready to give up on the dog, I love him, but last night I was so mad I could have killed him!

Any advice? I'm going to try to clean the ducks a little better this morning, they were so upset last night I had to let them be, plus it was dark and I couldn't see a thing, the baby was crying in the house, etc. I'll put some polysporin on and try to wrap up their necks , but I would think they will get infected pretty easily...we shall see, if they are suffering I will find a way to end it.

[JamieCatheryn]

Oh I'm so sorry that must be awful to have to deal with. Personally I'm clueless about both birds and dogs as of yet but I recently read a good article about livestock guard dogs and poultry: http://www.anatoliandog.org/poultry.htm

[mamadelbosque]

Your dogs just being himself - golden retrievers were/are bred to be just that - retrievers, specifically of geese/ducks/other waterfowl. You simply can't leave him alone w/ your birds, ever, or else this will likely happen again.

The bree of dog in the link is an Anatolian - they have have been bred for generations to be *guardians* of other animals - and thus are less likely to attack them - especially the ones they were originally bred to protect, like sheep & goats. Some (though not all) can be trained/taught to protect poultry as well and thus be 'safe' around them. But, most other breeds of dogs, and *especially* the hunting breeds - retreivers, labs, various hounds, etc will almost never be proper guardians and thus not safe around them.

Good luck!

ETA: Oh, and your dogs still a puppy and still learning besides. We had a lab as a kid (best dog we ever had,t ruelly!), and she was a *GREAT* dog. But definetly not safe around chickens (we had them, but they were always locked up), or most any small animal - she was constantly killing and bringing home raccoons, ground hogs, oppossums, etc. It was actually pretty amazing, tbh.

[MrsJewelsRae]

Thank you. I patched up the ducks as best I could, only time will tell at this point. They are eating a little and drinking, but they are so sad looking. I'm not mad at the dog anymore, I know he was just being a dog and he's at that stage right now between puppy and adult (6 months) and hopefully it won't happen again, so long as we are all careful to secure all the pens properly.

[htcamommy]

Alas it will indeed happen again unless you tractor your foul. My 4 month old lab got a full meal in on one of my chickens that had escaped during transition from coup to tractor. She's a lab. As a retriever she has hundreds of years of breeding that i simply can't hope to disipline out of her. She wont attack in front of me and does not stalk the cage. She is gentle and patient with my kids and keeps my goats in line if they wander too far from thf house. But if a wing flapping, noise making thing flaps in front of her, its a goner. There are manw ole timers who will tell you to tie the dead foul to the dog and then kennel or isolate it till the bird rots off. This gives the dog a negative association and it will wont nothing to do with the bird again. I personally find this beyond discusting.

[StrongBeliever]

I so feel your pain. My dog, who happens to be Pyrenees/Anatolian/Burmese, was a poultry killer when she was younger. We tried every trick in the book, including the very disgusting and hardly humane method of tying the dead bird around their neck. It was either kill her or cure her. By the way, that method doesn't work. We eventually had to resort to using a borrowed shock collar. I know it's not pretty, and I hated every minute of it, but it was the only thing that saved her. Now she is the picture of perfection, attacking any other dog that comes within 30 feet of a chicken. I couldn't imagine my farm without her. I think in the end her stock dog genetics won out. Every dog has the potential to be a killer, stock dog or not. The only benefit stock dogs have over other breeds is that, due to hundreds of years of breeding, they are more inclined to eventually figure out that the farm critters are part of the pack too. In the case of your dog... She IS very young. She has a lot of time to learn, BUT, I wouldn't count on it with her hunter breeding. I think your only option is tractoring. Which isn't all that bad... Birds don't get in your garden, poop on the porch or in the yard, and they are absolutely safe. Sorry you are having issues and best of luck to your duckies.

[Erinz]

I just wanted to add we had Heelers and no matter what we did they got into our chickens. After the second bout of masacre we decided the dogs needed to go. Wish we had made that decision after the first death frenzy.

[Arduinna]

Retrievers are not the ideal breed if you want to keep your lifestock, IME. Our hounds ( red bones, a blue tick and a walker) never even gave our livestock a second glance and were constantly in the pasture following their noses looking for stuff to tree. The retriever forget it, he downed my sheep, killed a bunch of my geese and ducks and would have gotten the chickens if he could have caught them. He even tried to get a couple of my goats. I'd have re-homed him the first time0, except I had to battle dh over it. He kept thinking he could contain the dog, but it was an escape artist.

My advice, re-home him now

oh and it will happen again, I'll guarantee it. This has nothing to do with puppyhood, it is instinctual. Before we moved to the country and got livestock our retriever was raised in the city in a back yard eating bagged dog food and was about 6-7 years old when we moved at that time and he killed anything he could get his chops on then.

[MrsJewelsRae]

Thanks, we did end up losing one of the ducks, but the other made a full recovery. We have a big hen house with roomy cages for all the birds to go in at night and they have a large run (25x20) that is fully enclosed that they run around in during the day, they never come outside of that into the open yard as there are neighbour dogs that sometimes stray into our yard and would certainly eat the chickens. The problem was the kids left the ducks cage door open, as well as the run door- it hasn't happened since. I think the issue is that the dog found the ducks on his turf and got to playing with them, then the play turned into dinner! I still bring the dog right into the chicken run with me and he helps me round them up at night, he just shoos them along, never chases or snaps at them. He is very obedient if I am there with him, of course I'd never trust him on his own in there unsupervised. He never pays any mind to the birds when they are outside in their run, has never tried to get in even. He actually sleeps in the hen house at night , the birds are safely locked in their cages.

[Arduinna]

When my daughter was a preschooler she left the door open and left the buny rabbits out. LOL ya, I had free ranging rabbits that we never managed to catch after that.