I got a female Border Collie x White Shepherd puppy I named Clover about a month ago to help protect the flock. The first night, I showed her the chickens and let her sniff them, and she seemed genuinely uninterested. I had been advised that the best way to get her acclimated to the chickens and accept them would be to have her sleep in the coop with them, somewhere she could not actually get a hold of them. I put her in the downstairs of my 8x7 two story coop with large birds who were on high roosts. Upstairs I had 3 silkie chicks, a bearded black male and two females- a blue splash and a slate. I figured I would be asking for trouble having the chicks in the same room with her, so I closed the hatch door between the two levels.
I went back in the house for coffee and came back 20 minutes later to find a bloody, dying silkie chick on the floor. She killed my slate female. I was shocked, unmoving. The chick slipped through a crack in the door to get downstairs, where she was used to sleeping. When she saw what it was I was so interested in, she plopped it at my feet and licked my hand in pride. I put her nose to the chick and told her "No!" very firmly, then flipped her onto her back. A week later she killed the splash female when she got loose, and I reprimanded her in the same manner, but firmer.
Clover fell very ill. She was having an allergic reaction to the Sulfur the vet gave me to treat the mange she came with. I thought she was going to die. Her skin slipped off in chunks and she would not eat. After a few weeks, she recovered save a few bald, bleeding patches on her pits and neck. While she was ill, she did not even notice the chickens. Now that she is better, she is obsessed with them.
She constantly tries to run through the big chickens and play chases them. She smacks the ground in front of them, and tries to get them to play with her. She sniffs and licks the silkie chicks I recently got to keep Fiver (the surviving male) company. She wants them to play with her. I do not trust her at all with them, and she is never with them alone.
What should I do when she displays bad behavior towards them? I would rather not hit her, but she does not respond to flipping her on her back. She likes it because she thinks I am giving her a belly rub. How can I train her to at least not chase them? Will she ever just be neutral to them? Help!
I went back in the house for coffee and came back 20 minutes later to find a bloody, dying silkie chick on the floor. She killed my slate female. I was shocked, unmoving. The chick slipped through a crack in the door to get downstairs, where she was used to sleeping. When she saw what it was I was so interested in, she plopped it at my feet and licked my hand in pride. I put her nose to the chick and told her "No!" very firmly, then flipped her onto her back. A week later she killed the splash female when she got loose, and I reprimanded her in the same manner, but firmer.
Clover fell very ill. She was having an allergic reaction to the Sulfur the vet gave me to treat the mange she came with. I thought she was going to die. Her skin slipped off in chunks and she would not eat. After a few weeks, she recovered save a few bald, bleeding patches on her pits and neck. While she was ill, she did not even notice the chickens. Now that she is better, she is obsessed with them.
She constantly tries to run through the big chickens and play chases them. She smacks the ground in front of them, and tries to get them to play with her. She sniffs and licks the silkie chicks I recently got to keep Fiver (the surviving male) company. She wants them to play with her. I do not trust her at all with them, and she is never with them alone.
What should I do when she displays bad behavior towards them? I would rather not hit her, but she does not respond to flipping her on her back. She likes it because she thinks I am giving her a belly rub. How can I train her to at least not chase them? Will she ever just be neutral to them? Help!