Puppy sees chickens as toys.

[Free Feather]

Thank you all for the advice.
Whenever I am outside, which is nearly always, I take her with me. "We" take care of the chickens and build things around them all the time. In the mornings when I first let her out, she is really hyper and wants to chase them. I started playing with her for about a half an hour before we go see the chickens. This definitely has nearly stopped her chasing. I would never leave her alone with them though. When I am in school, since she is starting another mange treatment, my mother does not want her out running around. This means she has to stay in her 8x7 pen until about three p.m. on weekdays. This is likely why she really wants to chase them, but this can not change until her mange is gone.
She was acting tired or sick or something today so she was uninterested in them all day while I was building a run addition. I knew you were not supposed to hit them and instead use reinforcement training, but I was not sure how to go about this. I heard flipping them on their backs was a good idea. Whenever she does something to the chickens more than just showing interest and sniffing at them, I say in a low voice, "Hey", or "no". I am not sure if this is right, but she is starting to listen. When she is being good around them, I calmly pet her while I work.

 

[Free Feather]

Okay, just came back from closing everyone in.
Before I came in for dinner and to answer you guys earlier, I had told my brother to put Clover in her pen and open the coop door.
I go down to find that for the good hour that I was inside, Clover was in the bantam coop. Alone....WITH THE SILKIE CHICKS!
They were fine, she was tired, and I was freaking out. I am going to chalk it up to today being one of her common sick-ish days and she was not in the mood to maul them. I am pleased that she did not hurt them, but I will not be leaving her alone with them anytime soon on purpose. I am not getting my hopes up that she is out of the habit.
But I am still killing my brother.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Don't kill your brother - rub his nose in the poop and then flip him on his back. (just kidding!)
glad to hear that exercise is helping. Keep up with the training and working with her. Sounds like you are headed in the right direction. Hope her mange is gone soon.

 

[Free Feather]

I definitely hope it goes away, too. Just glad it is nothing the chickens can get. All the puppies in her litter were infested with mange. Some had nearly no hair. But the owner swears up and down it is just fleas, even though we had a vet check her. A different vet gave us another kind of medicine, one you put on her neck, to fight the mange. I hope she is not allergic to this one too. She also had a ton of worms. The last puppy I got from him had worms so bad, she was stunted as small as one half her age.

 

[dainerra]

what type of mange did the vet say that it was?

from the sounds of it, it could be Demodex. It's most common in dogs/puppies with a compromised immune system. If that is the case, she won't get better until you get the worms under control and the rest of her systems up to par. If she was just born with a weaker immune system, she could be having problems off and on for her entire life.

http://www.dogguide.net/mange.php

unfortunately, things like this are common in dogs that are bred by those with a lack of knowledge or caring. Hoping that you didn't have to pay him for either of the pups you got from him? I defintely wouldn't take another pup from him, even if it was free. It merely encourages him to do it over and over.

 

[Free Feather]

I am not sure what kind of mange it was. We planned to worm her first, then wait until her neck sores healed a bit more to where they were not bleeding to put the new treatment on. Clover was free, as was the last female, Kubairu. He lives like a mile up the road and we get feed from him. We tried telling him that it is definitely mange, and very serious or him since he sells feed and what-not to people that was in the same barn as the mangey litter. He had a stroke and is not right in his head of late. His dogs run loose and breed like crazy, so he has a litter he needs rid of at least twice a year.

 

[Stacykins]

I am not sure what kind of mange it was. We planned to worm her first, then wait until her neck sores healed a bit more to where they were not bleeding to put the new treatment on. Clover was free, as was the last female, Kubairu. He lives like a mile up the road and we get feed from him. We tried telling him that it is definitely mange, and very serious or him since he sells feed and what-not to people that was in the same barn as the mangey litter. He had a stroke and is not right in his head of late. His dogs run loose and breed like crazy, so he has a litter he needs rid of at least twice a year.

Sounds like it is time to call whatever local animal protection resources available regarding that man and his animals. For their benefit and his. If he can no longer handle his animals (letting them get mange and not treating properly, and letting them run amok) than it is what is best.

 

[Free Feather]

I am pretty sure if I did that they would just end up being euthanized. My mother would also be pretty angry with me because they are our neighbors and we deal a lot with them. I really do not know what to do.

 

[Stacykins]

I am pretty sure if I did that they would just end up being euthanized. My mother would also be pretty angry with me because they are our neighbors and we deal a lot with them. I really do not know what to do.

So animal suffering < neighbor relations?

 

[Free Feather]

No, but if I want them to go anywhere, it would be somewhere that will not kill them. Which is very unlikely. What I meant was I do not know how I would go about doing that without my mother knowing. Trust me, I am one of the last people who would want an animal to suffer. His adult dogs are treated very well and he cares about them. He just lets them have puppies all the time. The mother was hunting and brought a mangy groundhog or something of the like home. The owner has not been himself after the stroke.