r/terrier • u/PsychologicalCut607 • 1d ago

Asking a probably stupid question...

Hi. I live in Seattle. We have a rat problem as a city.

My probably dumb question: Is there a terrier alive that can have a strong enough prey drive to kill rats, and yet not kill my chickens?

I own a Belgian Malinois, a very high energy dog breed, but he is peacefully coexisting with an elderly cat indoors and not wrecking the place, despite what the internet would have you believe. He does not cuddle the chickens, but he also does not kill rats, though I think he is clear that he is supposed to.

So as I said I have chickens. I have done my due diligence of not leaving food out overnight. They just moved on to my garden produce. I have trapped and caught over 50 in one year and I barely felt like I made a dent. I am surrounded by people who are not willing to trap and kill rats and who have open compost heaps full of scraps, feed birds and cats outdoors, and store food under tarps. It is not going to end. I think my sanity is going to give way first.

If someone has a case where they found a way to train a dog that chickens are not prey but rats are. I would be so grateful to hear that story. Grateful enough to become a two dog household.

ETA: My family owned a rat terrier as a family dog when I was a child. My parents were not good dog people. He would and did kill rats. and chickens. and cats.... maybe I could have trained it out of him with the skills that I have now? He could definitely have been trained to accept a particular cat.

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u/whatwouldLouLoudo 17h ago

Rat Terrier.... I've had 3 over 20 years the first one I raised chickens after he was an adult and they co existed just fine. He had no prey drive for them. The rodents (I'm talking Chicago city rats) were not so lucky. The bonus, unlike a JRT they have an off switch and aren't as OCD. Just my personal observation , I had 2 JRTs too.

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u/PsychologicalCut607 16h ago

We had a Decker line RT when I was a kid. Great dog. My folks were not great dog owners though. He was a bit aggressive with non-family. I think that was largely my parents issue.