No good deed goes unpunished.....

[ChickenPox]

We took in a foster dog with an extremely sad story. She was a good dog, just needed love and attention. No indication that she would go after the birds. Two weeks without incident, and this morning I woke up to her chasing down a second bird and the remains of the first strewn everywhere. I am heartbroken and feel very betrayed. Dogs are impossible to get rid of. No one wants them. We weren't originally planning on keeping her, but was thinking about it.....until this. I don't even want to look at her right now. She jumped into the pen with them to do this. We work full time and can't watch her 24/7. Our other two dogs we've never had a problem with.

It makes me never want to try to help ever again. These were meaties, and were going to the pot saturday, but that's not the point. I had saved that one from heat stroke about 6 weeks ago. It was a miracle she was still alive.

 

[bobbi-j]

When you got the dog, did you make any attempt to introduce it to the chickens? To see how it would react around them? To train it that they are your chickens? If not, why would the dog know that this was not acceptable behavior? You can't just get a dog, throw it into a situation and expect it to automatically know what's right from wrong. The dog didn't "betray" you. If anything, you betrayed the dog by setting it up for failure. While we're at it, if the dog could jump into the fence where your chickens are, they're not safe from anything, really. A fox, coyote, raccoon, opossum, mink hawk, owl or even a stray dog can get in there and kill your birds, too. You don't want the dog anymore, but can't get rid of her? Simple - take her out and shoot her in the head. That will solve all your current problems, and the dog's, too. You won't have to train her, find her a new home or figure out a simple way to keep the dog and chickens separated so she can't get any more of them. Your dog won't have to live in a place where she is just expected to know things without proper training, consideration for her breed or temperament or anything else. She won't have to be always wondering if she's going to get in trouble for something.

 

[SavageDestiny]

I just don't know why people are always shocked when dogs act like dogs. They're predators. They tend to also have a "honeymoon period" in a new home before displaying problem behaviors, usually right around 2 weeks.

Bobbi made a VERY good point that if the dog can get in to kill your chickens, so can everything else. That security problem really needs to be addressed.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Nobody implied that you were stupid. Stop trying to make yourself a victim here.


Two weeks is not nearly enough to trust ANY dog unsupervised with small ground birds. You're fighting millions of years of evolution.

 

[bobbi-j]

You're right - I was judgmental and harsh. While you didn't say that you didn't introduce the dog to your chickens, you also didn't say that you DID. I will admit that I have no sympathy for people who do get a dog and just assume that it will be fine around their chickens and are in shock when that doesn't happen. There are so many of those "Poor Me, my untrained dog went after my chickens and killed them" posts. I saw your post as one of those. I reacted to the statement that you felt "betrayed" by the dog. Betrayal is a very deliberate action. I know you know that the dog didn't intentionally go after your chickens to hurt you or betray you. My statement about taking the dog and shooting her in the head was to make you think about the dog and what your realistic alternatives could be. I would never do that to a dog myself. I have never been good at pussy-footing around or being politically correct. I tend to say what comes to mind. I understand that you're sad and angry. I felt the same thing with our pup who was left unsupervised by my DH while I was gone for a week, and the pup killed 11 of my 40 meat birds. I was sad and I was angry with both the dog and the husband. If it had happened on my watch, I would have been mad at myself. I do hope you can work out your differences with the dog and that all will end well for her.

 

[Nuggetirl]

I will say that earlier this week someone was already talking about getting rid of their family pet of 10 years because they believed the dog killed the chickens. Emotions run high sometimes when people set their dog up to fail.
You're right, we don't know you, but you are saying that you can hardly look at your dog and feel betrayed. That's just not fair to the dog. Dogs do dog things. You can't train a dog to sit and expect it to be perfectly reliable in 2 weeks, why would it be able to resist super exciting squeaky toys.
I'm having a hard time not treating you like the person in the other thread, so I'm just going to say I'm very sorry it happened to you. Having one pet destroy another is an awful experience I wish you never had to go through (even if one pet was to be eaten!)

 

[cafarmgirl]

We took in a foster dog with an extremely sad story. She was a good dog, just needed love and attention. No indication that she would go after the birds. Two weeks without incident, and this morning I woke up to her chasing down a second bird and the remains of the first strewn everywhere. I am heartbroken and feel very betrayed. Dogs are impossible to get rid of. No one wants them. We weren't originally planning on keeping her, but was thinking about it.....until this. I don't even want to look at her right now. She jumped into the pen with them to do this. We work full time and can't watch her 24/7. Our other two dogs we've never had a problem with.

It makes me never want to try to help ever again. These were meaties, and were going to the pot saturday, but that's not the point. I had saved that one from heat stroke about 6 weeks ago. It was a miracle she was still alive.

Helping a dog in need is fine, but you have to go into it prepared for problems. Don't feel betrayed, the dog didn't betray you she acted on impulse and from not knowing any better. If you want to keep her build her a good, safe kennel to live in when you can't supervise her and then train every moment you can when you are around. Take her in the pens with you on a leash every single day while you do chores, nip bad behavior in the bud and praise the daylights out of her when she finally gets bored and ignores the birds. That's how I raise ranch pups and it goes on for many months, it's a big time commitment but I have good ranch dogs in the end and they don't ever chase or kill a single bird.

WIth all that said, you also have to understand that not every dog can be a good dog around birds. Some just have to much prey drive and not enough people pleasing desire. You just have to know her temperment and see how training is going in a few months.

 

[20736]

This thread will go a long way towards discouraging anyone else from ever sharing a problem or mistake with this community!

BYC - If you can't say anything nice, post it.

Pox, thanks for the thread and I really hope you work things out with the rescue and the birds. Been there done that.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Oh c'mon.

The OP posted a problem, people told her how to fix it, and corrected her mistakes, and she started playing the victim card. There are more posts here from the OP saying she's being persecuted than anything else.

If you want people to agree with everything you say, the internet probably isn't the place for that.

 

[ChickenPox]

Keep your hope, it's the only way to get through life sometimes! Give yourself your bad days (goodness knows yesterday was one of mine!) but keep moving forward. Chickens are heartbreaking and rewarding, hard work, but WORTH IT.