Is this a fox or a dog track ??? - It killed my hens....

[Ireland-or-bust]

Hi,

Lost two rare breed dorkings including my rooster.
Plus one of my egg layers to whatever made this track.
I saw my neighbours sheep dog stalking the hens an hour later
and he looked like he was about to pounce over the fence.
I have a 4ft high fence all around the field.
But the banking goes up about 4 ft on one part.
So the perp must have jumped down and then back up without
touching the fence as it was 100% intact. There are also no signs of entry
anywhere on the fence.
The kills were made between 6:30am and 9:30am today.

Please, can anyone in authority tell me if this is a fox or a sheepdog?
My neighbour denies everything of course.

Thanks,
Mark.

[red]

sorry - i dont know. but sorry to hear about your chickens.. thats pants..

[old tree man]

ITs hard to see but if it has killed indescriminently it probably was a fox,
sorry to hear about the problems though,
all the best

Russ

[mybarnconversion]

Is that a finger?

Looks big for a fox.

[Ireland-or-bust]

Hi,

Yes its my finger for scale.
I have average sized hands for a man.
The print is about 2 1/2inch long and about the same wide.

[Ireland-or-bust]

How about this....
I think its a dog personally.
Just want to know i'm not bias.

[MKG]

Looks more like a dog than a fox, in shape and size. Not necessarily, of course, your neighbour's dog.

[red]

ITs hard to see but if it has killed indescriminently it probably was a fox,

I have witnessed on two occasions dogs killing chickens indescriminently. purely for pleasure it would seem.

[Ireland-or-bust]

From the bodies it looks like they were just shaken to death.
there are hardly any puncture marks on the bodies at all.
And nothing has been bitten off like i hear foxes do.
They have a few small puncture holes on the neck, common in all three bodies.

PS, I only have one neighbour with a dog, nearest other house is way too far away. If its a dog i suspect its the one i saw stalking the remaining chickens a couple of hours later. Not a smoking gun exactly but seems most likely.

[old tree man]

Wow never seen a dog do that , but i'm sure some are capable.

Russ

[Eigon]

My dog went after chickens in her youth - it was very embarrassing (not to mention expensive).
She did get very excited by all the flapping about, so it was quite indiscriminate, just like foxes.

[Enormous Sage]

It does look like a dog paw print more than a fox, and as you say, foxes normally bite chickens and make a mess of them.

I found an interesting article on animal behaviour here

Out of interest, what sort of dog does your neigbour have? Is it a hunting type dog?

[snapdragon]

I'd guess a terrier of some sort - Yorkies and Jack Russells shake prey to break their necks - Chickens in a coop become playthings unfortunately
as they're in an unnatural environment and of course the natural escape senses have mainly been bred out of them

[Clara]

I´d say your suspicions are correct....what do you plan to do about it?

[Ellendra]

That's a dog track.

Fox tracks are surprisingly tiny, that diagram doesn't do them justice. Plus, foxes tend not to touch down with their heel pads, they essentially tip-toe. If a fox had walked through that mud, the toes would be dug in a bit more.

Check to see if there are any feral dogs before filing any lMaybe share with that neighbor that your chickens were attacked and "did you happen to see any stray dogs running around?" Let them come to the conclusion first, if you accuse their dog they'll only become more defensive.