Ah thank you for that blondeduke.
My old springer was super soft mouthed and I once found him with a chick in his mouth! I said oh my God digger what are you doing??! And he gently popped it down on the floor and it toddled off.
Unfortunately my 20 month old cocker is not soft mouthed at all. She wants to kill things. The chicken she caught was shredded terribly. Luckily with some antibacterial powder and care she miraculously survived but I think she would do it again in a heartbeat.
I had her on the lead around the chickens and cats, telling her no for ages but she doesn't care. She is a brick of a dog. It is such a Shame as we have had to build a larger run so the chickens are permanently secure and a tree house for one of my cats who's had enough of being chased. The other one is toughing it out in the house but life is not as nice for her.
It's really disappointing as our other dog lived beautifully peacefully with all our other animals and I never trained him not to hurt them-he just didn't want to. This one is quite frankly a bit nasty. I don't suppose you can ever tell their nature as tiny pups but this one has some really unpleasant characteristics that I can't seem to train out.