ldirk7
Songster
Hi all! I am trying to find help/advice in all places, and I figured there must be some cross over between pointer breed owners and backyard chicken owners.
We have an almost 8 month old german wirehaired pointer, and I am new to the breed. I do not hunt, she was purchased for personality and her energy levels- I regularly run far distances in the woods and wanted a companion that would keep up with me. So- we have been diligently working on obedience training but have had no hunt training. Everything was going very well, until we put our new backyard chickens outside. It has activated her prey drive and BOY I have never seen a prey drive like this. Being new to the breed, this far exceeds any expectation on what I thought "high prey drive" was. She is singularly focused on it, all she does is sit by the window and ring the bell to go out. We are struggling to get her to eat a meal because she is so focused on the chickens. We have stopped letting her in the back yard and are now just taking her out front to use the bathroom, which is not sustainable.
I am looking for advice on how to desensitize her to the chickens at 8 months old. I have been told by many people that I would have avoided this if I had already hunt trained her/introduced her to birds early but I haven't. I have reached out to some local gun dog specialist trainers and I hope to work that area of her to gain better control and understanding.. but in the mean time does anyone have any suggestions for this? Her prey drive is so insane (which is on par for the breed), and she is so neurotic about it, that we are currently miserable and really need to understand how to train this to solve it. We are worried that we have made a gigantic mistake.
Thank you in advance!
Edit to add puppy tax:
We have an almost 8 month old german wirehaired pointer, and I am new to the breed. I do not hunt, she was purchased for personality and her energy levels- I regularly run far distances in the woods and wanted a companion that would keep up with me. So- we have been diligently working on obedience training but have had no hunt training. Everything was going very well, until we put our new backyard chickens outside. It has activated her prey drive and BOY I have never seen a prey drive like this. Being new to the breed, this far exceeds any expectation on what I thought "high prey drive" was. She is singularly focused on it, all she does is sit by the window and ring the bell to go out. We are struggling to get her to eat a meal because she is so focused on the chickens. We have stopped letting her in the back yard and are now just taking her out front to use the bathroom, which is not sustainable.
I am looking for advice on how to desensitize her to the chickens at 8 months old. I have been told by many people that I would have avoided this if I had already hunt trained her/introduced her to birds early but I haven't. I have reached out to some local gun dog specialist trainers and I hope to work that area of her to gain better control and understanding.. but in the mean time does anyone have any suggestions for this? Her prey drive is so insane (which is on par for the breed), and she is so neurotic about it, that we are currently miserable and really need to understand how to train this to solve it. We are worried that we have made a gigantic mistake.
Thank you in advance!
Edit to add puppy tax: