Can the Family Dog Learn to be a Farm Dog?
Our family dog is also our farm dog…after careful training. We enjoy spending time with him while we tend to the livestock on our farm. The dog has naturally learned some things about life on the farm, such as which poop tastes the best, and where to sit to get the leftover cat food from the can. But most of the safety behavior and manners the dogs exhibit has been taught.Â
Starting at a young age, while on a leash, we introduce the puppy to the animals. Many times it is a less than friendly greeting, such as when the horse tries to kick or the cat decides to bat the puppy with her claws.
Meeting the farm animals
If left to their own choices, the dogs would run the animals into the ground. Prior to learning how to be a farm dog, our Labrador Retriever would run the ducks back and forth in their habitat. He couldn’t get to the ducks but he would bark through the fence and make the whole experience noisy and unpleasant. With firm training and the use of a long lead line, the dog eventually learned what behavior was tolerated on the farm. He has become a good farm dog. He learned that these other animals are cared for by us, his pack leaders. Chief learned that his job was to be vigilant, chasing off any harmful visitors and helping us keep the livestock in certain areas.
The goats and Chief are about the same age. I doubt either remembers a time that the other was not here on the farm. After being brought up with Chief, the goats treat him as one of the herd. It took the sheep a little longer to become comfortable with Chief. He never lunged at them and always seemed very comfortable with them grazing around him. Except for one time when one of the sheep got really close. They invaded Chief’s personal space and he barked as he had to get up and move away.
He basically ignores them and they go about their business grazing and foraging.
Two years ago a new puppy joined the family. The goats were wary of this bundle of puppy energy. The puppy just thinks they are playmates! With firm handling and calm discipline he also has learned to behave a certain way around the farm animals.
For times when a duck or chicken escapes their run area and may encounter one of our dogs, we introduce them and lay the ground rules with the dogs. I have found that their is less frantic chasing and running around if I show the puppy the chickens in a controlled hold. They get the opportunity to sniff while I talk softly and let them know that this is ours. After a few controlled encounters, I have had no more incidents of chasing escaped chickens. Instead, after some more training, Chief will help me round up the chickens and circle them calmly back into the run.Â
Jackson has learned to stay by Farmer Chris or he must remain in the fenced yard. He is gentle with the chickens although he does feel it’s his job to “shepherd” them back to their pens.
Now it is time for Walker to learn the farming routine. He recently had his first chance to kiss a duck!
When we are on the farm, taking care of the animals, we can’t always keep a close eye on the dog. We need to get the dog to the point where he knows his job is to stay nearby and watch. Then we can go about carrying water, feed and handling any animals that need care, without also holding onto the dog leash.
Does every dog work out as a farm dog?
We have had a few dogs that we could not get to the point where they could run the farm while we took care of chores. Mostly these dogs were happy to stay home and just go to the farm when we could keep an eye on them. This is a decision you may have to make if your dog just can not learn to calm down around the farm animals. Not all people work out as farmers either!
Safety for all is the first consideration
There are a couple of farm animals that we absolutely did not let our Labrador go near. One was the beef cattle. The cows were so huge. For his safety, he was trained to stay out of the pastures with the cows. The other animals we trained Chief to stay away from were the hogs. Again, size was part of the reason. The other is that hogs can be very aggressive. We keep a couple of boars for breeding purpose and the risk was more than we felt comfortable with.Â
There are a couple of suggestions that I think will help you train your dog to be a farm dog.
- Do not attempt to train more than one dog at a time. If you have more than one dog, spend time separately, with each dog, going over the practice exercises. Allow them to meet the farm animals under supervision only. Do not just bring your dogs to the barns or pastures and let them run free, until you are confident in the training and behavior.
- Â Remember that instinct will always lie below the surface. Some breeds may not be able to not chase chickens. Some may not be able to be trusted around small animals. It took a long time before we felt comfortable leaving Chief around the small farm animals unsupervised.
- If you have trained your dog in basic obedience, he will want to please you with his behavior. Reward his good behavior with praise and treats.
- If any aggression is shown while the dog is on a leash, end the training session for that day. We don’t do a lot of shouting and talking. Training commands are best kept short and firm.Â
Let me know how you trained your family dog to be a farm dog. Please leave your comments in the section below.
Beautiful dogs. Wonderful article and well written. I think that pets are wonderful but owners need to take the time to train them like you have done. I trained our dogs-like they cant go into the gardens unless I invite them in. It takes time and love.
Thank you for the hard work you do on your blog and with fb. I know it takes time and energy.
Rachelle, thank you for the sweet comment. I agree that it takes a long term commitment to train a dog correctly. And, as you know, it’s ok to have limits and stick to them. The dog does not want to be in charge. thank you for commenting and reading.- Janet
I raise English Shepherds and you would be surprised at how many people assume that because they are a farm breed, they need no training. They need just the same instruction as you outlined in your article, great job!
We are to begin our homesteading adventure this summer and our playful Golden Retriever/Yellow Lab will need much training, I’m afraid, to learn to behave nicely around the farm animals. First introduction on the list? Chickens! Thanks for a great post — I’ve bookmarked it so I can find it exactly when I need it again. Because I know I will need it! 🙂
Any books you read while you were training? Our puppy is pretty good around the chickens most of the time, but sometimes our ducks stretch and flap their wings and he gets excited.
Megan, we did a lot of research and spoke to many experts and veterinarians when raising our first dogs. We took what worked for us and came up with our plan. I am sure it will depend on the temperament of the dogs and the humans to some degree
Your chocolate lab, Walker(?), is ADORABLE! He looks JUST like our chocolate lab, Cocoa. They are so sweet.
Sounds like you’ve got a good handle on giving your dogs great learning opportunities in a controlled environment. (Cocoa use to eat pooh, too.) 😀
Hi Holly
thanks for commenting. Yes, Walker is our youngest granddog. He is doing really well listening and learning the correct behavior. Our older lab Chief is amazing. the only animal on the farm he still chases is one of the cats. I guess its their thing! I doubt he would hurt the cat, but he likes to chase him. And yeah, that poo eating. Yuck! – Janet
What about an older dog that is trained to hunt birds like geese. We just moved and now have chickens and she already got to one of them and hurt our roo at another encounter. She even has a training collar on but when she is out she is in hunting mode and I can’t break her of that it seems like. Should we just keep doing the leash introductions? I want to be able to let her out not just when the chickens go to bed and before they wake.
Jennifer, I will admit this is a tough situation. Our dogs have not been trained to hunt and have not had the opportunity to do what your dog has been trained to do. We have had dogs that were harder to break than others, certainly, but I am not an expert in dog training. I surely wouldn’t leave the dog off leash while the chickens are out. I would consider trying more of the leash introductions to get a good idea of whether she is starting to understand the difference or not. Tough situation for sure. I will ask around and see if anyone has a good suggestion for you.
Going back to read your older posts… We have a 9 year old chocolate lab who still has the excitement of a 9 week old puppy. She’s taken to a lot of training, but sure doesn’t calm down around our chickens yet. :/
Yes they are great dogs but very energetic. They need to work!
-Janet
I have a three year old lab who trompts my chickens. she has an ear infection problem and we use white vinegar for that, she hates it so I was wondering if I could mist my chickens with white vinegar solution and possibly she would leave them alone
Well I must admit I just don’t know the answer to this. Interesting idea. I will try to find out if there is any reason to not do this. I will update here for you if I get an answer – Janet
We raise heelers. Our red male, Chief, was chased by our rooster as a puppy. Now, almost every time he is let out of his kennel, he must look for the rooster, just to spook him, lol.
I love the dog name! I admire the heelers. Never owned one. They all are capable of doing so much for us. thanks for the comment! – Janet
Hi, this was a great article. We are in the process of getting our first farm dog(an English shepherd). We don’t have any other animals yet. Obviously we can’t “fill the farm” all at once. What kind of animal would you recommend starting with so we can train our dog. It will be an outside dog and will sleep in the barn
Hi Megan I usually recommend chickens first, but since you mentioned having a barn, goats are a nice hardy animal to start with too. – Janet
We had golden retrievers when we lived on the farm. Never had a problem with the dogs and horses. The dogs would go on trail rides with us. I think the horses were so used to them because they were always with us. The only time I thought I might die was when I was on horseback, my horse HoJo, and one of the dogs wanted me. He jumped up and put his front paws on HoJo’s belly. HoJo didn’t jump, move, rebel, nothing. That was a whew moment. Lol
Oh wow! Nice steady horse! Thanks for commenting Debbi
Great article! We are picking up our black lab this week and she will be trained to be around our farm animals too…it will be a lot of work but it’s so encouraging to see it can be done! 🙂
We are getting our first puppy in a couple weeks. She’s an English shepherd. We don’t have a large farm, just a couple acres with chickens, a couple friendly barn cats and eventually we would like to get a couple goats. The puppy will become a primarily or full time outdoor dog, but I’m not sure how to go about this. We live in a colder climate and if she’s inside half the time I’m afraid she won’t develop a proper coat for the winter weather. But if she’s outside only, I’m afraid she won’t get enough attention in the winter. We want her to protect our yard from predators, for the sake of the chickens, future goats and our young children. I’m hoping she’ll be a good help all around. We really enjoy this breed of dog.
Also, if she did sleep in the barn, how do we handle this when she’s still a puppy? I’m having a hard time finding resources for keeping a family farm/outdoor dog and especially for the puppy stage.
Insite would be helpful!
Tabitha thank you for reading my blog post. I am glad it raised additional questions for you. Sounds like you future puppy will have a beautiful life. I am sorry to say that I just don’t feel comfortable in the arena of giving dog training advice other than sharing what we did to train our own dog. That was my only purpose with the post. I am not qualified to tell you the best way to train your puppy. Hopefully some of what I shared will help you or you will be able to find a qualified farm dog trainer or friend in the area. Best wishes to you = Janet
Just an interesting bit of trivia…I got a 2 year old shelter dog 4 years ago that had an Akita mother. I believe his father was a red heeler now. Jasper is naturally protective of his chickens, rabbits, cats and people. Almost overprotective of children. He herds them and breaks up anything he thinks is a quarrel which is a full time job with chickens. I’ve never had a dog that waited outside the bathroom door for me. I did not train this dog nor can I to do ‘dog things’ like fetch. He will however listen to what I tell him and do it as if he understands. It’s uncanny. He never leaves the property. Is this the Akita or the Heeler?
Sounds like you have a faithful companion there. I would guess it’s more of an Akita trait
Hi, really enjoyed your article. We have 2 border collie pups(siblings) the female has recently attacked a chicken and has become over powering to her her brother. Both are getting desexed tomorrow. I’d love some tips to help introduce her to the chickens and geese.
Thank you for reading the post Leanne. It’s really hard for me to give you specific tips. Take it slow and never leave her alone with the chickens. It is helpful to have a second person around when trying to introduce the dog to chickens or any smaller animal. No reaction should be tolerated. Quick correction and removal from the area will help the dog learn that the predatory behavior is not acceptable. Good luck to you
Thank you for your article! I want chickens, but have a 10 yr old energetic pup that rescued us at the shelter 10 yrs ago- He was quiet around all the other dogs, and we live off a golf course in the suburbs of South Cal., so not barking at every little thing is a must. Deuce is an indoor dog when we are home, but knows how to let himself in/out of doors, even opening doors to rooms that are not locked… He is constantly checking to see where we are, even if that means opening the bathroom door when guests are over!(so we were use to this behavior when our kids did it again and again). We are thinking of getting 2-3 chickens, but I want them to be able to come out of the chicken run when we are in the backyard… We have two children, ages 4 & 5, that I want to grow up with animals and an appreciation for nature, but do not want to endanger our chickens for our very protective Deuce and high pray drive! He is always leaving us presents on the back patio (birds, rats, mice, rabbits, frogs, lizards, etc…). This is the first article I have read about introducing on the leash and in the owners arms. It is very promising for me, as we may be able to pull this off.
Hehe-> might have to introduce the chickens the same way as the kids, get their smell on a blanket and have Deuce smell it, keep it on his bedding area.
Thank you for writing a comment Michelyn. Proceed cautiously and always supervise your dog around chickens and any other small critters. It sounds like he wants to please you – the leaving of gifts being a sign. So use that to your advantage and keep the training sessions short and end on a positive when ever possible Good luck!
Thank you for this post! We’re getting our first puppy (an Australian Shepherd) in a few weeks and I’ve had a hard time finding into on how people begin training an outside dog. Would you say yours are outside dogs? If so, did you have them outside from the get go or did they begin inside?
Our dogs are always family pets that work along with us on the farm.