18 week old lab pup chasing and biting our hens!

[WinkyWinkola]

She got a mouthful of feathers today. She was really bullying one the other day, rolling her over and over in the wet grass. I thought it was one of the footballs but then realised and put a stop to it.

My poor girls, being harassed like this.

My lab pup is a minx. She's also a bad influence on our older 2 year old dog lab as he's now chasing the hens and he never used to.

I've told them both off good and proper but what else can I do?

Those hens have had enough stress in their lives as they are rescues birds.

Erm, keep the dog away from them until she is mature enough not to bother them fgs!

Keep them apart is surely the obvious solution? Ours are only let out to free range if the dog is inside and if he wants to go out, he goes on his lead. Otherwise they are kept in their run.

Yes. Except chickens are used to free ranging. Suddenly they are in their coop - that not going to go down well.

And I can't round them up when dogs are let out as they are continually.

Would it be not advisable to let them get used to each other and tell her off every time the dogs have a go?

Can't you keep them in separate areas of the garden ? It's taken my terrier 3 yrs to get remotely well behaved around our very large rabbit and he would still have a go if the rabbit was on the ground and moving . I think with your technique you're going to have some very stressed and potentially dead hens .

Right. So I'm going to have to fence them off.

It's only just started 2 months after arrival of pup. Will she lose interest as she gets older?

I think you need to fence off an area as you said. Maybe some electric fencing so the pup learns that hens = shock? Either that or borrow a huge grumpy cockeral! Our 3 chickens are very forthright and don't tolerate cats in our garden (even our own) but they would probably back down to a bouncy lab pup.

I have chickens, mine are fenced off securely from our terrier and 6 month old labradoodle pup. Terrier was a nightmare until he was about 2 with the chickens - he is now bombproof with them but that took quite a bit of training. Pup loves chasing them if she gets the chance - I'll keep on with the training with her.

Get a clicker, some tasty treats and start training her to ignore them rather than hoping she'll lose interest on her own. Likely to be much more successful than telling her off when she does go after them.

In the interim I'd either fence the chickens off or she only goes out on lead so she can't chase them.

You need to protect the hens and teach the dog not to react to them.

You know what a labrador is bred for? If I read one more post on here about labradors and chasing/catching bird shock/worry/anger, I may just combust with frustration.

Your pup needs to learn steadiness around the birds, so take him out there on a lead and teach him not to react to them.

Distract him with treats when he's near the hens to start with, then praise when he doesn't respond, then let him a little nearer and do the same thing until eventually he is aware that even though he wants to chase the hens, he is not to.

If you don't do this, the pup will get worse and worse and the chickens will never be able to free range again. It won't just get better with no input from you.

Labradors are game retrievers. They have been carefully bred for years to chase/carry/retrieve BIRDS. Your pup is doing just what he's meant to - you need to teach him how to manage his instinct and in the mean time protect the poor chickens.