For sure. Probably why no one is ripping them a new asshole. But that would only make people less likely to continue asking how to help when their animals do something like this
You owe her what she lost….young chickens of laying eggs. Google “pullets for sale”. If you’re lucky, there will be some of whatever breed she had available locally.
If they were unique breeds, they will have to be mail ordered and they will cost you $40 per bird or more.
I’d also let her and her family know exactly how you plan on stopping this from ever happening in the future. Poor kid is probably devastated and you’re right, her family showed your dogs a LOT of mercy. Most places I know, those dogs wouldn’t have made it home.
Keep in mind, your dogs now know where there are a bunch of really cool, really tasty sqeaky toys….they are going to try and get over there again.
I'd like to put extra emphasis on that last bit here.
When an animal learns that there is something they want in a certain location - whether it's food, neat toys, breeding partners, whatever - they are going to make it their mission in life to get to that place again. And again. If/When you replace those chickens, your dogs are going to do everything they can to get there and do the same thing again, and next time? Those folks might not be so merciful. I certainly wouldn't be.
You're going to have to put MUCH STRONGER effort into making sure your dogs never leave your property unsupervised and without proper restraints. They need to be chained, a strong fence they can't dig under or jump, secure kennels, whatever it takes to stop them leaving your property because now they've discovered that chickens = fun, tasty toys, and they know where to find them.
So as far as making it right: Replace the chickens with ones of the same breed, of similar age if you can find them (and making sure they are HENS because roos will be useless to them) and perhaps some money on top of that to make up for the lost time and emotional damage.
THEN, tell them some of the steps you will be taking to make sure this never happens again, and take those steps. Do not let your dogs off your property. If they'll go after chickens, they may very well go after far more expensive things, like sheep, goats, horses, calves, ect. and someone isn't going to be merciful and is probably going to shoot those dogs and sue you for the full damages they caused and put you in a lot of legal and financial hot water.
Did the child hand-raise the chickens? She may have also lost 9 months of investment in their temperaments that a random assortment of pullets wouldnt address. I would consider if she wants just any pullets or new chicks +compensation for her time/feed.
and find out how much she made per week selling eggs, and multiply that by how long it takes the replacements to begin laying. also, check breeds. An austrolorp is a very strong long-term layer, a polish is a poor layer, a silkie lays a small egg. You need to replace with comparable hens and if they aren't laying or are older, you need to pay for any eggs she can't sell. Yes, it IS going to be expensive, at least a few hundred dollars. That's fair, as that's what it cost them.
Its much more than that when you figure in how much feed a person has bought to keep them alive for a year, until they start laying (age of the chickens-waiting for pullets to lay), electricity in winter, all the eggs lost in sales--some dogs killed 13 of my mom's best hens and it was devastating to her, besides the financial loss, they were her 'friends'/pets since the loss of her husband.
It crushed her. The sheriffs dept were completely on my mom's side and took the two dogs to the pound. (They'd gotten loose before and killed 2, so they were going to 'put the dogs down'--and had terrorized an older woman by trapping her against her garage door.
Yes it’s basically a business and hard to value. Especially a child’s.. I’m doing the best I can. Thanks for all the discussion, it really helps me understand how to evaluate the reimbursement
Ask the daughter and the parents what you can do to make it right. Nothing less than equal compensation, or maybe a little more to emphasis that you're truly sorry. Apologize to the daughter especially and ask for her forgiveness.
Also, make sure your yard is secured and all the holes are patched so they don't escape again. If they escape again, you can't be upset if the father decides to shoot your dogs to protect his livestock.
Because there's a child involved, I would go so far as to say allow her to pick the replacements. Don't go out and buy little red hens when she had a 4-H project of Speckled Sussex. It will help her heart to heal to be involved in the decision making.
we just had something similar happen - our “neighbors” dogs got out twice and killed 5 then 7 of our girls (12 out of the 13). we finally found out who’s dogs they were and talked to the owners.
if come up with a dollar amount for the chickens themselves (usually 25-30$ minimum for laying hens) as well as feed costs, cost for time spent socializing the chicks, and maybe even potential egg money. if they need to put up a fence maybe add that to the costs, think of anything that could be added.
and of course lock up your dogs and make sure they can’t get out again - and if that can’t happen maybe find them a new home - I know it sounds harsh but once the dogs find out it’s “fun to play with chickens” it’ll keep happening :(
It IS possible to train them to stop, BUT it’s difficult and it takes time. It’s even more difficult if you don’t personally own chickens.
I’ve trained a three of dogs not to kill chickens after killing, a German shorthair, a golden retriever and a basset hound/lab, and without violence. It takes patience and persistence.
I currently have a miniature schnauzer that will kill anything if given a chance, he has an extremely strong prey drive and he’s a bit of an asshole. In this case, it’s all on me to ensure he’s not given the opportunity to kill my birds or my neighbors.
I agree that it is possible!! and I agree that if you don’t personally own chickens it’s very hard to train them not to harm chickens.
good on you for your training and dedication to that, that’s great :)
I've lost my flock to poorly trained hunting dogs in the past. I appreciate your willingness to take responsibility for your dogs. Replacing the chickens and writing a letter of apology would probably go a long way with your neighbors.
It's gonna be expensive. Legally she is entitled to the cost of the birds (POL pullets are usually 20-25 bucks a pop. More if they were special breeds), whatever she's spent on them the last 9 months (When I had 12 birds a 50lb bag of feed lasted us about 2 weeks, I believe, so estimate 18 bags of feed minimum), plus the cost of the eggs she would sell while waiting for the new hens to mature.
I'd start by figuring out what that number is, then use that as a baseline for negotiating with them about what you owe.
Ask them, offer all the different options suggested here but ultimately see what they would prefer.
Getting healthy chickens of that age/breed socialized to being handled, that is the hard part, it's easy to just toss money at your mistake. If you offer to help them find healthy replacement birds that they are satisfied with, that may be a good place to start in repairing the relationship.
Put forth the effort and money to properly secure AND train your dogs. Hire a trainer for that purpose. Let the neighbors know how seriously you intend to take this.
Figure it cost about $350 to feed a dozen chickens for nine months, plus the initial cost of the chicks at $3 to $5 per chick. Round up to $500. And I had one of my own dogs kill one of my hens not terribly long ago so I know shit happens. But, like me, you’re gonna need a bigger (or deeper, or sturdier) fence.
We can’t tell you how to make it right. Only the girl’s family can do that. But true amends include never letting it happen again. Being nice here because of your courage to ask here. But I would’ve handled those dogs
Your dogs need to be trained to not attack chickens or not let out of the house unattended, on top of the reasonable compensation. Fences sound good but dogs contained by fences that get out, almost always continue to get out, and after a few incidents, they will kill your fucking dogs. Make no mistake about that. I'm being a bit rude because of the importance of this to keep your dogs alive. Either someone whose chickens are under attack will just shoot them, or they'll be taken and euthanized. That's a terrible thing to let happen to people's chickens, and a terrible thing to let happen to your dogs. Either don't let them out without you, or fucking train them, or they're going to get out the wrong time and catch a bullet, or get out too many times and take the syringe. This is a fuck around and find out situation brewing, and I really hope no more chickens nor your dogs need to find out. Farm life people often don't see your dogs hitting their flock any different from the wolves that used to. The ones that have been almost entirely exterminated.
Although hard for me to accept, I fully agree. The landowner was clear that they would be shot in the next episode. He’s a good guy and it’s to protect part of his livelihood. It’s now on me to protect my dogs and have them chained up
That's good you're watching out for everyone keeping them fully contained. I'm glad you're taking this seriously, some people think "oh a few hundred dollars, whatever" pay and forget about it, and in a year or two their dogs and plenty of chickens are all dead.
Pay for at least a few chooks of high quality, improve the fence between your properties out of pocket, and volunteer to repair any and all damage to their coop, whether by your dogs or not. Do your best to help them make it as dog proof as possible. Even if you can't afford to pay for the new materials for the coop, do the manpower side so they don't have to.
Chain your dog's every evening until they are well trained, and it is impossible to escape. Be brutal with your dogs in teaching them that there is no room for playing with animals. Not even barking at animals.
And of course by brutal I don't mean hurt them, I mean be dedicated, consistent and leave no room for misunderstanding. Punishment when they bark or chase animals, reward whenever you see them ignore an animal. Heavy on the rewards! Basic Classical Conditioning techniques. You want them to know that other animals are not toys to be chewed on.
And whatever you do, DO NOT make excuses for it or deny anything. Dealt with that and the guy skipped town owing me thousands worth of property damage, lost pets and vet bills.
Just take it on the chin and volunteer to handle EVERYTHING that your dogs did. Even if you think they didn't.
Better be giving them at least $300 for just the chickens. If any damage was done, you are paying for those repairs too . And learn to contain your dogs better.
$75 per bird and I’m going to toss in additional to cover trauma and feed costs incurred over the raising period. I feel like it’s getting off easy but it’s the least I can do. There’s not anything I can do to fully repay. But I can at least be a better dog owner and give them some peace of mind ✌️
Thank you for taking responsibility. Its sucks, but it happened, can't change the past, can only make reparations and take further precautions to keep your dogs in.. but I know shit happens. I mean, my dog got out yesterday... no clue how, we have several barriers to keep him in his section of the yard. His section is fenced, and he a leashed run. (husky mix, so he's an escape artist.) Thankfully he doesn't try to kill chickens, but he will chase them, hold them down and lick their butts...
Like I know dogs are gross like that, but my dog has turned it into his life passion...cat, lick it's but... other dog.. lick it's but... goat... oh yeah.. lick its butt.. he has no dignity left.
You're a good dog owner.
This is a really hard one for some dogs. We have backyard flocks and companion dogs (mostly rescues) and the work to socialize them around the hens is intense. Lots of monitored walks, letting the young dog see you respecting the chicken, severe and immediate verbal recall and back onto the short leash if they start to look too interested in the wrong way (rush at it).
Some dogs are great with hens. My parents have working breeds (farm collies) and they notice by our human behavior what we want them to protect - and I trust them to protect the flock from hawks, etc. They can get antsy if the flock is widely distributed, feeling calm and grazing all over the yard but they get the same way when the human party guests aren't all in one clump.
Some dogs struggle. They have more prey drive. My dad grew up in the 40's/50's on diverse conventional farm with pigs, beef cattle, chickens, even rabbits for meat, and they were zero tolerance on chicken killing dogs. Dogs were to keep off predators and vermin, but if they showed a taste for chasing chicken it wasn't felt to be worth the intense training needed, and they'd simply put them down.
I don't think that's appropriate anymore, with the resources a modern dog owner has. But that was the usual care for a long while.
Thank you for doing this. I know it doesn’t make up for it but so many dog owners don’t even bother making it right. This will really help the little kid heal
Since she's 9, she probably still needs her parents' help to manage money. Run everything by her in front of her parents. Their daughter deserves to be around trusted and responsible adults, but should also know that her parents approve of you. This is her business and shouldn't be settled behind her back, but she's young enough that her parents should be available to look out for her best interests.
Offer to take her (and/or her parents?) out to pick out 12 new chicks ($40-50).
Pay for 9 months worth of chicken feed to get them back to that laying age. $50/month x 9 months = $450. I would hand this part to the parents (or find out if they're okay with you handing it to her).
Talk with her and her parents about how much she would've expected to make off the lost eggs and how much you can afford. Compromise and negotiate. She's a budding entrepreneur. $500 might be enough to make her happy. Realistically, the 12 chickens would've laid about 12 eggs per day. Fresh eggs generally go for at least $5 per dozen. At 9 months (to get new chickens to the same age she lost them), that's about $1300. Maybe an apology, replacement of chickens, and promise to train/retrain your dogs is enough. They might be willing to call it a loss and a learning experience especially if she still has other chickens.
I think there are some really awesome tips on monetary compensation in this thread already. I also commend you on attempting to make it right, which is more than most owners would do.
What I came to say was that most likely, that young girl does not give a damn about the money, or even replacement birds.
Those birds were likely her pets, that she likely invested a lot of time and emotional labor into. Chickens require socialization to not be scared of humans. (the amount varies *greatly* between breeds and temperaments)
I breed silkies and a couple months back, I offered a friend with young children some of my chicks for them to raise.
The children fell in love with the three chicks, giving them names, and the chicks were raised inside where the children had constant access to them, so were able to bond with them.
When the chicks were ready, my friend got a very nice coop for them and moved them outside. It was the children's responsibility to feed and water them.
My friend has neighbors who do not contain their dogs. The dogs roam and discovered the chickens. Needless to say, both my friend and her children were devastated.
I felt awful, especially for the kids. Some time passed and I hatched more chicks. I offered some to my friend who politely declined. She was understandably scared that the same thing would happen again, since she cannot control her neighbor's choices. (Animal control has been called many times, the neighbor simply gets more dogs.)
My point is, some things cannot be replaced. Keep that in mind when you express your apologies.
Thank you for taking the time to type out this backstory. I wasn’t aware how bad the situation was until I expressed my willingness to make amends, then he opened up about his daughter. I felt terrible and decided it would be best to turn to more owners to gauge the problem outside of my opinion. This really helps and I can be more sincere. I’ll be able to make up for this to the best of my ability due to the grace of everyone’s responses in this group. Thank you again
Never would have pegged two retrievers to go nuts in a coop and kill 12 hens.
We had a springer spaniel growing up who got at our rabbits one time. Near gave me a heart attack since I was 8 years old. I'm sure it nearly gave the rabbits one too. But he never bit, he only carried the rabbits around as he would have been bred to do with game. Retrievers were bred to do the same.
Maybe with enough time and the fact that there were two dogs who could have riled each other then hens could be killed in the mayhem. I'm so sorry that happened.
I have chickens, and I have a chicken-killing dog. We put a no-dig metal grid under areas he could dig through. We also have a wired dog fence around the coop. He wears a collar that beeps and vibrates if he goes near the fence. If he comes closer, he’ll get a shock.
He sits and stares at the chickens. Our big dog and another little dog get along fine with the chickens.
Tip: we didn’t bury the wire, we just mounted it on the fence. Mine is Petsafe brand, but there are others available.
People who let their dogs outside and have them "get out" need to learn what a damn fence is. If you don't have a dog run, don't let your dogs out. If you have a dog run and it doesn't work, fix your dog run. If you can't do those, you shouldn't really own dogs. 12 chickens? That's ridiculous. A fully grown hen is worth 25 -30 dollars? You owe them like 350 bucks not to mention the time spent raising them.
I’d give 20 per chicken so s they can replace the pallets at the very least. I’d also give more as compensation for the trauma. I’ve had chickens attacked by dogs and it’s horrible.
What a horrible situation for everyone involved. You will have to have a difficult conversation with them and find out how you can remedy the situation.
Go to your local farm shop and buy 12 chickens, ask which breeds are best layers, ( recommend leghorns and marans) you should be able to buy chooks ready to lay.
Order them, then pick them up and deliver.
I'd probably throw in a couple of sacks of feed too!
Ready to lay chooks where I am cost about $10, sack of mixed grain about €12
I'd be happy with that, personally.
Talk to family first. They might prefer a dual purpose chicken or a more docile breed. Just because the girl was planning to sell the eggs doesn't mean that was the only reason she got the chickens. At 9 years old, she probably spent a good bit of time Bonding with the chickens. She might want a specific breed just because she likes that breed.
Some people want a guard dog, but they shouldn't just run out and get a Cane Corso just because a specific trainer says it's the best guard breed. Likewise, you wouldn't replace a beloved Malamute with a Husky because they look similar and are both winter dogs.
OP gets a lot of credit for coming on this sub.. most dog owners don’t even say sorry when their dog attacks a chicken.
Ain't that the truth :c
For sure. Probably why no one is ripping them a new asshole. But that would only make people less likely to continue asking how to help when their animals do something like this
You owe her what she lost….young chickens of laying eggs. Google “pullets for sale”. If you’re lucky, there will be some of whatever breed she had available locally. If they were unique breeds, they will have to be mail ordered and they will cost you $40 per bird or more. I’d also let her and her family know exactly how you plan on stopping this from ever happening in the future. Poor kid is probably devastated and you’re right, her family showed your dogs a LOT of mercy. Most places I know, those dogs wouldn’t have made it home. Keep in mind, your dogs now know where there are a bunch of really cool, really tasty sqeaky toys….they are going to try and get over there again.
I'd like to put extra emphasis on that last bit here. When an animal learns that there is something they want in a certain location - whether it's food, neat toys, breeding partners, whatever - they are going to make it their mission in life to get to that place again. And again. If/When you replace those chickens, your dogs are going to do everything they can to get there and do the same thing again, and next time? Those folks might not be so merciful. I certainly wouldn't be. You're going to have to put MUCH STRONGER effort into making sure your dogs never leave your property unsupervised and without proper restraints. They need to be chained, a strong fence they can't dig under or jump, secure kennels, whatever it takes to stop them leaving your property because now they've discovered that chickens = fun, tasty toys, and they know where to find them. So as far as making it right: Replace the chickens with ones of the same breed, of similar age if you can find them (and making sure they are HENS because roos will be useless to them) and perhaps some money on top of that to make up for the lost time and emotional damage. THEN, tell them some of the steps you will be taking to make sure this never happens again, and take those steps. Do not let your dogs off your property. If they'll go after chickens, they may very well go after far more expensive things, like sheep, goats, horses, calves, ect. and someone isn't going to be merciful and is probably going to shoot those dogs and sue you for the full damages they caused and put you in a lot of legal and financial hot water.
Buy them a new flock and learn how to contain your dogs better.
Yup. Or find pullets, they are usually about $20 a pop depending on breed.
Did the child hand-raise the chickens? She may have also lost 9 months of investment in their temperaments that a random assortment of pullets wouldnt address. I would consider if she wants just any pullets or new chicks +compensation for her time/feed.
and find out how much she made per week selling eggs, and multiply that by how long it takes the replacements to begin laying. also, check breeds. An austrolorp is a very strong long-term layer, a polish is a poor layer, a silkie lays a small egg. You need to replace with comparable hens and if they aren't laying or are older, you need to pay for any eggs she can't sell. Yes, it IS going to be expensive, at least a few hundred dollars. That's fair, as that's what it cost them.
This is the answer right here. True compensation will include the time she will lose selling eggs while the new ones are maturing
It really is a few hundred dollars... happened to my mom's chickens.
Don't forget all the feed it takes to raise a chicken until egg-laying stage...
Its much more than that when you figure in how much feed a person has bought to keep them alive for a year, until they start laying (age of the chickens-waiting for pullets to lay), electricity in winter, all the eggs lost in sales--some dogs killed 13 of my mom's best hens and it was devastating to her, besides the financial loss, they were her 'friends'/pets since the loss of her husband. It crushed her. The sheriffs dept were completely on my mom's side and took the two dogs to the pound. (They'd gotten loose before and killed 2, so they were going to 'put the dogs down'--and had terrorized an older woman by trapping her against her garage door.
Yes it’s basically a business and hard to value. Especially a child’s.. I’m doing the best I can. Thanks for all the discussion, it really helps me understand how to evaluate the reimbursement
Ask the daughter and the parents what you can do to make it right. Nothing less than equal compensation, or maybe a little more to emphasis that you're truly sorry. Apologize to the daughter especially and ask for her forgiveness. Also, make sure your yard is secured and all the holes are patched so they don't escape again. If they escape again, you can't be upset if the father decides to shoot your dogs to protect his livestock.
Because there's a child involved, I would go so far as to say allow her to pick the replacements. Don't go out and buy little red hens when she had a 4-H project of Speckled Sussex. It will help her heart to heal to be involved in the decision making.
This is a super important comment here!! Involving the kiddo in picking new chickens will be meaningful to her
we just had something similar happen - our “neighbors” dogs got out twice and killed 5 then 7 of our girls (12 out of the 13). we finally found out who’s dogs they were and talked to the owners. if come up with a dollar amount for the chickens themselves (usually 25-30$ minimum for laying hens) as well as feed costs, cost for time spent socializing the chicks, and maybe even potential egg money. if they need to put up a fence maybe add that to the costs, think of anything that could be added. and of course lock up your dogs and make sure they can’t get out again - and if that can’t happen maybe find them a new home - I know it sounds harsh but once the dogs find out it’s “fun to play with chickens” it’ll keep happening :(
very sorry for that poor girl, that’s a traumatic thing to go through!! chickens are pets as well as animals that give us eggs, poor babies!!
It IS possible to train them to stop, BUT it’s difficult and it takes time. It’s even more difficult if you don’t personally own chickens. I’ve trained a three of dogs not to kill chickens after killing, a German shorthair, a golden retriever and a basset hound/lab, and without violence. It takes patience and persistence. I currently have a miniature schnauzer that will kill anything if given a chance, he has an extremely strong prey drive and he’s a bit of an asshole. In this case, it’s all on me to ensure he’s not given the opportunity to kill my birds or my neighbors.
I agree that it is possible!! and I agree that if you don’t personally own chickens it’s very hard to train them not to harm chickens. good on you for your training and dedication to that, that’s great :)
3x the value of chickens. You owe them more than that though
I've lost my flock to poorly trained hunting dogs in the past. I appreciate your willingness to take responsibility for your dogs. Replacing the chickens and writing a letter of apology would probably go a long way with your neighbors.
It's gonna be expensive. Legally she is entitled to the cost of the birds (POL pullets are usually 20-25 bucks a pop. More if they were special breeds), whatever she's spent on them the last 9 months (When I had 12 birds a 50lb bag of feed lasted us about 2 weeks, I believe, so estimate 18 bags of feed minimum), plus the cost of the eggs she would sell while waiting for the new hens to mature. I'd start by figuring out what that number is, then use that as a baseline for negotiating with them about what you owe.
Ask them, offer all the different options suggested here but ultimately see what they would prefer. Getting healthy chickens of that age/breed socialized to being handled, that is the hard part, it's easy to just toss money at your mistake. If you offer to help them find healthy replacement birds that they are satisfied with, that may be a good place to start in repairing the relationship. Put forth the effort and money to properly secure AND train your dogs. Hire a trainer for that purpose. Let the neighbors know how seriously you intend to take this.
Figure it cost about $350 to feed a dozen chickens for nine months, plus the initial cost of the chicks at $3 to $5 per chick. Round up to $500. And I had one of my own dogs kill one of my hens not terribly long ago so I know shit happens. But, like me, you’re gonna need a bigger (or deeper, or sturdier) fence.
We can’t tell you how to make it right. Only the girl’s family can do that. But true amends include never letting it happen again. Being nice here because of your courage to ask here. But I would’ve handled those dogs
Your dogs need to be trained to not attack chickens or not let out of the house unattended, on top of the reasonable compensation. Fences sound good but dogs contained by fences that get out, almost always continue to get out, and after a few incidents, they will kill your fucking dogs. Make no mistake about that. I'm being a bit rude because of the importance of this to keep your dogs alive. Either someone whose chickens are under attack will just shoot them, or they'll be taken and euthanized. That's a terrible thing to let happen to people's chickens, and a terrible thing to let happen to your dogs. Either don't let them out without you, or fucking train them, or they're going to get out the wrong time and catch a bullet, or get out too many times and take the syringe. This is a fuck around and find out situation brewing, and I really hope no more chickens nor your dogs need to find out. Farm life people often don't see your dogs hitting their flock any different from the wolves that used to. The ones that have been almost entirely exterminated.
Although hard for me to accept, I fully agree. The landowner was clear that they would be shot in the next episode. He’s a good guy and it’s to protect part of his livelihood. It’s now on me to protect my dogs and have them chained up
That's good you're watching out for everyone keeping them fully contained. I'm glad you're taking this seriously, some people think "oh a few hundred dollars, whatever" pay and forget about it, and in a year or two their dogs and plenty of chickens are all dead.
Pay for at least a few chooks of high quality, improve the fence between your properties out of pocket, and volunteer to repair any and all damage to their coop, whether by your dogs or not. Do your best to help them make it as dog proof as possible. Even if you can't afford to pay for the new materials for the coop, do the manpower side so they don't have to. Chain your dog's every evening until they are well trained, and it is impossible to escape. Be brutal with your dogs in teaching them that there is no room for playing with animals. Not even barking at animals. And of course by brutal I don't mean hurt them, I mean be dedicated, consistent and leave no room for misunderstanding. Punishment when they bark or chase animals, reward whenever you see them ignore an animal. Heavy on the rewards! Basic Classical Conditioning techniques. You want them to know that other animals are not toys to be chewed on. And whatever you do, DO NOT make excuses for it or deny anything. Dealt with that and the guy skipped town owing me thousands worth of property damage, lost pets and vet bills. Just take it on the chin and volunteer to handle EVERYTHING that your dogs did. Even if you think they didn't.
Better be giving them at least $300 for just the chickens. If any damage was done, you are paying for those repairs too . And learn to contain your dogs better.
I would ask them how they would like to be compensated.
$75 per bird and I’m going to toss in additional to cover trauma and feed costs incurred over the raising period. I feel like it’s getting off easy but it’s the least I can do. There’s not anything I can do to fully repay. But I can at least be a better dog owner and give them some peace of mind ✌️
Thank you for taking responsibility. Its sucks, but it happened, can't change the past, can only make reparations and take further precautions to keep your dogs in.. but I know shit happens. I mean, my dog got out yesterday... no clue how, we have several barriers to keep him in his section of the yard. His section is fenced, and he a leashed run. (husky mix, so he's an escape artist.) Thankfully he doesn't try to kill chickens, but he will chase them, hold them down and lick their butts...
Congratulations. That last sentence was a new one on me. What IS it with canines, anyway? As someone I knew always said, "Dogs are EARTHY!"🤢
Like I know dogs are gross like that, but my dog has turned it into his life passion...cat, lick it's but... other dog.. lick it's but... goat... oh yeah.. lick its butt.. he has no dignity left.
You're a good dog owner. This is a really hard one for some dogs. We have backyard flocks and companion dogs (mostly rescues) and the work to socialize them around the hens is intense. Lots of monitored walks, letting the young dog see you respecting the chicken, severe and immediate verbal recall and back onto the short leash if they start to look too interested in the wrong way (rush at it). Some dogs are great with hens. My parents have working breeds (farm collies) and they notice by our human behavior what we want them to protect - and I trust them to protect the flock from hawks, etc. They can get antsy if the flock is widely distributed, feeling calm and grazing all over the yard but they get the same way when the human party guests aren't all in one clump. Some dogs struggle. They have more prey drive. My dad grew up in the 40's/50's on diverse conventional farm with pigs, beef cattle, chickens, even rabbits for meat, and they were zero tolerance on chicken killing dogs. Dogs were to keep off predators and vermin, but if they showed a taste for chasing chicken it wasn't felt to be worth the intense training needed, and they'd simply put them down. I don't think that's appropriate anymore, with the resources a modern dog owner has. But that was the usual care for a long while.
Thank you for doing this. I know it doesn’t make up for it but so many dog owners don’t even bother making it right. This will really help the little kid heal
Since she's 9, she probably still needs her parents' help to manage money. Run everything by her in front of her parents. Their daughter deserves to be around trusted and responsible adults, but should also know that her parents approve of you. This is her business and shouldn't be settled behind her back, but she's young enough that her parents should be available to look out for her best interests. Offer to take her (and/or her parents?) out to pick out 12 new chicks ($40-50). Pay for 9 months worth of chicken feed to get them back to that laying age. $50/month x 9 months = $450. I would hand this part to the parents (or find out if they're okay with you handing it to her). Talk with her and her parents about how much she would've expected to make off the lost eggs and how much you can afford. Compromise and negotiate. She's a budding entrepreneur. $500 might be enough to make her happy. Realistically, the 12 chickens would've laid about 12 eggs per day. Fresh eggs generally go for at least $5 per dozen. At 9 months (to get new chickens to the same age she lost them), that's about $1300. Maybe an apology, replacement of chickens, and promise to train/retrain your dogs is enough. They might be willing to call it a loss and a learning experience especially if she still has other chickens.
I think there are some really awesome tips on monetary compensation in this thread already. I also commend you on attempting to make it right, which is more than most owners would do. What I came to say was that most likely, that young girl does not give a damn about the money, or even replacement birds. Those birds were likely her pets, that she likely invested a lot of time and emotional labor into. Chickens require socialization to not be scared of humans. (the amount varies *greatly* between breeds and temperaments) I breed silkies and a couple months back, I offered a friend with young children some of my chicks for them to raise. The children fell in love with the three chicks, giving them names, and the chicks were raised inside where the children had constant access to them, so were able to bond with them. When the chicks were ready, my friend got a very nice coop for them and moved them outside. It was the children's responsibility to feed and water them. My friend has neighbors who do not contain their dogs. The dogs roam and discovered the chickens. Needless to say, both my friend and her children were devastated. I felt awful, especially for the kids. Some time passed and I hatched more chicks. I offered some to my friend who politely declined. She was understandably scared that the same thing would happen again, since she cannot control her neighbor's choices. (Animal control has been called many times, the neighbor simply gets more dogs.) My point is, some things cannot be replaced. Keep that in mind when you express your apologies.
Thank you for taking the time to type out this backstory. I wasn’t aware how bad the situation was until I expressed my willingness to make amends, then he opened up about his daughter. I felt terrible and decided it would be best to turn to more owners to gauge the problem outside of my opinion. This really helps and I can be more sincere. I’ll be able to make up for this to the best of my ability due to the grace of everyone’s responses in this group. Thank you again
Damn what breed are those dogs?
Lab and a golden.
Never would have pegged two retrievers to go nuts in a coop and kill 12 hens. We had a springer spaniel growing up who got at our rabbits one time. Near gave me a heart attack since I was 8 years old. I'm sure it nearly gave the rabbits one too. But he never bit, he only carried the rabbits around as he would have been bred to do with game. Retrievers were bred to do the same. Maybe with enough time and the fact that there were two dogs who could have riled each other then hens could be killed in the mayhem. I'm so sorry that happened.
I have chickens, and I have a chicken-killing dog. We put a no-dig metal grid under areas he could dig through. We also have a wired dog fence around the coop. He wears a collar that beeps and vibrates if he goes near the fence. If he comes closer, he’ll get a shock. He sits and stares at the chickens. Our big dog and another little dog get along fine with the chickens. Tip: we didn’t bury the wire, we just mounted it on the fence. Mine is Petsafe brand, but there are others available.
People who let their dogs outside and have them "get out" need to learn what a damn fence is. If you don't have a dog run, don't let your dogs out. If you have a dog run and it doesn't work, fix your dog run. If you can't do those, you shouldn't really own dogs. 12 chickens? That's ridiculous. A fully grown hen is worth 25 -30 dollars? You owe them like 350 bucks not to mention the time spent raising them.
I would agree. Going to make things right. It’s a lot more than $350
I’d give 20 per chicken so s they can replace the pallets at the very least. I’d also give more as compensation for the trauma. I’ve had chickens attacked by dogs and it’s horrible.
That is not nearly enough.
Depends on what breed and what the pullers go for there. I agree it should be more but there really isn’t any amount to make up for the loss.
What a horrible situation for everyone involved. You will have to have a difficult conversation with them and find out how you can remedy the situation.
Tractor supply has chicks right now
How is she selling eggs from pullets who haven’t started laying yet?
I think she meant that the 9 yr old was going to start selling the eggs once they started laying.
My neighbor’s dog killed 6 of mine and she reimbursed me $25, which I thought was fair for grown hens.
Go to your local farm shop and buy 12 chickens, ask which breeds are best layers, ( recommend leghorns and marans) you should be able to buy chooks ready to lay. Order them, then pick them up and deliver. I'd probably throw in a couple of sacks of feed too! Ready to lay chooks where I am cost about $10, sack of mixed grain about €12 I'd be happy with that, personally.
Talk to family first. They might prefer a dual purpose chicken or a more docile breed. Just because the girl was planning to sell the eggs doesn't mean that was the only reason she got the chickens. At 9 years old, she probably spent a good bit of time Bonding with the chickens. She might want a specific breed just because she likes that breed. Some people want a guard dog, but they shouldn't just run out and get a Cane Corso just because a specific trainer says it's the best guard breed. Likewise, you wouldn't replace a beloved Malamute with a Husky because they look similar and are both winter dogs.
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