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Integrating CMDs With Poultry

Someone on an LGD group was having trouble with integrating LGDs to poultry, so here is what I wrote them:

Regarding poultry training, I can tell you what I do. I've been raising Colorado Mountain Dogs for 15 years, so some of this might be genetics...I try to select for dogs that are easy to integrate with birds. Mileage may vary. But I did learn these things from a guardian dog who wasn't a CMD.

I find that their relationship to me has a lot to do with how they relate to the birds. And then I use eye contact very much. They have to know how to have me call them off in general before this would work...its based on my relationship to them.

I take them in with the birds, and with me, and I allow a quick informational glance at the birds, and that's all. If they are really wild, leash them initially.

Everything is in the eye contact. If they hold a gaze at a bird too long, I either clap my hands and say a sharp no, or I walk in between them and the birds to break the stare. I don't stare at the birds myself, but keep my back to them. Your dogs should identify guarding behavior from you rather than eating behavior, lol. You are guarding them and not forming a plan to eat them.

Two dogs will stare at birds, and then stare at each other, and then stare back at the birds.... they are saying, hey look at these tasty things... you in? Then they go get the birds. By breaking those thoughts up as they form, you are getting to the core of the behavior the way the dogs in packs do....they correct the agendas, long before a bad behavior starts that then needs correcting.

This can be funny... sometimes pups realize you are telling them not even to stare... and then you get to see the mental gymnastics as they look at them, you, them, you, them.... then you know that pup isn't ready, lol.

I don't leave my dogs in with birds until they look like they don't care.... they don't engage them or even look. I do allow a quick informational stare... they have to be allowed to look long enough to identify the creature.

LGDs are supposed to be bred to glance, and then drop eye contact with livestock....this is part of them maintaining calm in the herd. Herding dogs are bred to stare...that is how they move livestock. So you can really key in on this breed group trait, and ask them to drop the stare.

Then I will leave the pen, but keep the house windows open so I can hear a distressed chicken, lol. If I hear one, I go out and lock stares on the dogs. I have the chickens behind me, and am staring at the dogs saying no... or doing whatever corrective behavior you do that they know is corrective. This can be funny too... if a dog knows he blew it, and I am giving him a locked stare, he will go walk behind other dogs to try and break your stare off him.

I can often have my male pups in with birds guarding by 4 or 5 months safely. Females seem to take a bit longer. The commonly identified time for LGDs is two years. I thought I'd try and address that through genetics since that is a long time to wait. Long waits can be bred out for sure. But in the meantime, the dogs seem to be different. I've had some dogs here that take longer, some that I don't trust for a year, etc. If they kill and eat one, that doesn't mean they are ruined.