A pup family told me their relative's toy breed was killed by a hawk puncturing the dog's lungs and dropping it.

Once my pups are 5 weeks or so, they are outside in a covered puppy pen on warm days. I want to put up a larger chain link yard with toys for pups but am worried about them not being covered.

Have any of you had or heard of bad incidents with hawks? We are out in the country and always have soaring hawks overhead.

Caution! I know of two incidences when Lab pups, 7 to 9 weeks old were threatened by hawks. One died with a punctured lung, and one was dropped from about 6 feet in the air. It lived. Different places and times and many miles apart. We think our pups are too big to get grabbed, not so. I live in town and there is a hawk that hovers when we have a litter old enough to go outside. I never leave them unattended outside!

Hawks won't go in areas less than 6' across, so if you must leave puppies outside, make sure there are no open areas wider than 6'. What many people do with chickens is string lines across the top of the yard in a criss-cross fashion and attach old CD's periodically - apparently the shiny, flashing, moving objects deter hawks. What I do in my puppy yard that is about 15 x 20 is put up my Easy-Up frame and attach a piece of the silver mesh shadecloth to it. I also have a deck that covers a portion of the yard as well, so there is very little yard that doesn't have some sort of cover over it.

I once brought three unplanned puppies into rescue when the farmer told me in front of my soon tearful young son that every night a Great Horned Owl was "picking off another one of the pups." For hawks or owls, the lighter color pups are even better targets. I had a mother dog and my Canaan Dog have to attack a hungry Cooper's hawk to protect 10 lb pups in winter. Apparently my being in a small exercise yard with the pups wasn't enough to deter the hungry hawk when most prey was under the snow or holed up. We had tail and wing feathers scattered in the yard, and safe, barely scratched pups. Lesson was learned; at least put bird or deer netting and lines over the run. The hawk was just hungry, and I was just freaked! Using cable ties or tent bungie ties, it goes up fast. However, it does accumulate ice in winter and will pull the run, so other plans may have to be made for then. The Raptor Trust told me that vinyl coated welded wire fencing was what they used at the top of their flight cages to keep raptors in/out. From what I have seen at bird sanctuaries, I wouldn't totally count on the "6 ft of space" rule. Not all raptors read the books. However, it helps deter most of them. With migration season soon upon us, it pays to be careful. The local hawk population will change, especially in the flyways.

We have Swainson's hawk that hang around our area. One day recently my neighbor called me over to show me a Swainson hawk in her tree eating a rabbit. For our outdoor play area we put up a frame for a 10X20 canopy, put kennel panels around it and strung welded wire over the top and attached it to the sides of the kennel panels. It's sturdy and will keep hawks and owls out. The pups are closed inside at night.

Thanks for all the input. Now I know my children aren't just paranoid when they "hover" over pups as pups play outside. I will have to replan our play yard, it probably will be a covered run. Pups are inside most of their life but fresh air and being outside is healthy and good socialization.

I have a nice black dog and here's his story.
The litter of ten was out in the yard in a double Xpen , at 7 weeks, not 10 feet from the back door of my house. I'm out sweeping the porch keeping and eye on them, and a Hawk swoops down to grab one of the babies, of course it's the nicest baby in the litter too. I leaped off the porch broom in hand, to save my pretty black baby, and smacked that Hawk with my broom or he would have had that puppy ! That puppy's name is Ch.Shalane Fly By Knight, we call him Hawk !

What would be the largest size puppy the birds of prey could manage to carry off or mess with????? I have 3x3 month olds that are about 40 lbs. now. I was concerned because over this past weekend I saw 6 very large black hawk looking birds circling my back yard??? I stood and watched as they flew past after circling for a while. By the way my pups are black.

A BIG hawk was circling and dove at my little yellow boy, about 10 weeks old, this past winter. I almost had a stroke running, slipping, sliding and SCREAMING on the ice (I was about 15 feet away), and my older dog went after the hawk. Puppy was okay, hawk flew away hungry, big dog okay, and I aged about ten years.
Never underestimate the hawks. Protect your puppies.

Around here we have turkey vultures that will go after pups .. 4-6 circle over/through the field hunting daily

Many years ago I had a yorkie mix who weighed somewhere between 12-15 lbs or so. He was in the backyard and I was inside and all of a sudden I heard him screaming. I ran outside and there he was in the talons of the hawk about 10 feet off the ground and rising. I started screaming at the top of my lungs, the dog was a bit heavy and the hawk dropped him. He was missing a large chunk of shoulder muscle which must have flown away with the hawk. Very scary.

I never leave pups outside alone, there is always someone sitting right there, we have a pop-up tent over a large part of the area and we have multiple types of "owls" bobing around the xpen.

Bonnie

Yipes!! I have owls, hawks and turkey vultures. Sometimes i watch the hawks soaring over head and think they are eyeing my dogs. They will swoop down as low as the roof and then take off again after they see the large dogs. I will have to keep the pups inside.

I found a Great Horned Owl perched on my ex-pen one morning, it was set up next to my back door. I don't even let my Chihuahua out by herself much less a litter of pups. I learned my lesson.

friend lost two Yorkie to hawks, just carried them off.

I had a red tail hawk picking up 12 lb chickens and dropping them from great heights to kill them so it could eat. I took care of the hawk.....

My outside pup kennels have shade cloth over them.

We've been seeing a couple of very large hawks or possibly eagles around here lately including this afternoon. We have 8 week old pups that go out in x-pens when we are watching them, brought in at dark or when we are not there. Pups are 12 pounds now. I don't think the raptors can see the pups in the pen because of the way this is set up. Pups were out today when these birds went over and birds never circled or looked that way.

I put the x-pens under a tree that has a very thick canopy of leaves (so thick that when it is raining it is hardly wet under there) then put a tarp over the x-pen area they fall asleep in and a kurunda bed is in the other half that they can and do crawl under. I usually sit out by the pen or have a couple of big dogs out by it to warn me if anything/anyone comes in my yard. The posts on this topic are making me wonder if the pups are safe enough in this set up though.

Besides my Labs I have a Toy Fox Terrier. Weight around 6lbs. Was at a show and noticed a Toy Fox in an x-pen across the way. She had scars all over her back and sides. I asked the woman sitting by the pen what happened to her. She said a hawk had grabbed her while in the yard and carried her off. She had a sweater on which they feel saved her. The hawk dropped her about 800 yrds away. Hawks talons sure did some damage. I have 2 big Owls that sit on the wires in front of my house and watch my yard. So my little girl does not go out alone. Also have seen a Hawk land in my yard and grab up a black snake.

Hawks regularly eat jack rabbits and they can weigh 25 pounds. We have bald eagles and I really worry about those so my puppies are well covered. I also had a cougar come down one day to look at them!

Scary stories! I'm contemplating whether or not I should share them with my MIL who routinely leaves her very, very annoying chihuahua outside unattended. I wonder if it's incessant barking would deter a predator?

Breeder Also;

You should also watch for Owls as well.

We always make sure our puppies are undercover when they are outside.