8 year old lab scared off fox!

[Karen09]

So this summer, I have lost 15 chickens and 22 ducks to raccoons and fox. The raccoon mother and her babies even ripped up the floorboards to my coop, climbed through the airvent to get to them and waited til we let them out to grab them. After much repair to the coop and my husband working hard to do everything we could think of to get rid of the problem (new fence, doubling up floor boards with big rocks on top of that), a fox found its way in to take more. So I got a battery-operated radio and play that at night plus I went on-line to find a breed of dog that would protect the chickens but not eat them. Most breeds for that are not really very stranger friendly. Where we live, we have people in our lawn quite often as my husband is the Pastor of the Church across the road and the property belongs to the Church. So I found a dog at the dog shelter who was an AKC labrador retriever who is 8 years old and has had her 4 litters with her last litter of puppies in April and after the puppies were weaned and her milk dried up, he "retired" her to the shelter. We were not sure if she would work with the chickens but she is great! She stays back by the coop and barks at anything that is not supposed to happen. She also barks at the chickens if they do not go in the coop fast enough. The chickens walk all around her and even eat her dog food and she does not do anything to them. We had a fox take a duck the day before we got her and not a single attempt since, until today. I heard a chicken squacking out back and looked and saw a fox poke it's head out of the wooded area. The chickens all ran toward the dog and she barked and barked. The fox looked at the dog and ran back into the woods. Not a single chicken or duck were lost. They have all stayed very close to the dog the rest of the day. I am very excited! She is very sweet and gentle with the chickens. Couldn't have asked for a nicer dog.

 

[suki'smom]

Wow that's awesome! She deserves some treats I think

 

[kinsey228]

I'm glad things worked out for you and the dog !

 

[remuda1]

Congratulations!! How wonderful for you and for the dog. The peace of mind you will have now will be priceless. Enjoy!!!

 

[Beekissed]

God blessed you with that one! God has blessed me with three different wonderful labs throughout the years and they were all wonderful around chickens, rabbits and other livestock....not to mention completely safe around humans. Labs are the angels of the dog breeds, in my opinion!

 

[dichotomymom]

At first I thought it said "scared of fox" and I was going to say shame on her but good job pup!!!!!