A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[memphis]

Rjohns, this pup is only 4 months old....he just stood there staring at the birds. With a little behavior modification he'll be fine with them. After all....he's a scent hound, not a sight hound or bird dog. I worry more about my stock dogs...with their herding instincts.
R2elk...she's good looking! I love that baying when they hit a tree! My dad hunted bluetick. I find the Walkers a bit more pleasing physically. Seem a bit more athletic than most of thee coonhounds.

 

[R2elk]

Rjohns, this pup is only 4 months old....he just stood there staring at the birds. With a little behavior modification he'll be fine with them. After all....he's a scent hound, not a sight hound or bird dog. I worry more about my stock dogs...with their herding instincts.
R2elk...she's good looking! I love that baying when they hit a tree! My dad hunted bluetick. I find the Walkers a bit more pleasing physically. Seem a bit more athletic than most of thee coonhounds.

I had two. The first was not a pure breed and was the sweetest dog I have had. I didn't own her, she owned me. She had to be right where I was. If I was busy doing something she would lie down and seemingly go to sleep but any movement that I made would cause her head to immediately raise.

The second one was hyper and just could not settle down. She would watch television with me and point out any good looking women for me. She would also sing along with the opening music for certain shows such as Star Trek TNG.

Athletic may be an understatement. She could and did catch song birds in flight. Mostly she held them until they calmed down and then let them go. She was a fantastic mouser doing a better job at it than cats do. I did have a guinea make the mistake of flying into her pen and she ate all but a few feathers. If turkeys got in her pen, she would catch them also.

The thing that I really liked about the Walkers was they never got fat. I left food available to them at all times and they only ate what they needed to stay in shape. They were also very finicky eaters and would not even try anything new.

I had a turkey hen hatch poults. On her way to the turkey pen she hid her poults in the grass and picked a fight with the dog through the fence. While she and the dog were fighting I found and collected her poults and put them in the brooder. She fought with the dog for about an hour before she went to collect her poults and found out they were gone.

It is my opinion that while Walkers are scent hounds they do hunt by sight also.

Good luck with yours.

 

[rjohns39]

I had two. The first was not a pure breed and was the sweetest dog I have had. I didn't own her, she owned me. She had to be right where I was. If I was busy doing something she would lie down and seemingly go to sleep but any movement that I made would cause her head to immediately raise.

It is my opinion that while Walkers are scent hounds they do hunt by sight also.

Good luck with yours.

As we talk about birds and dogs, I can't get the images out of my head of the RP hens harassing my avatar. She was pretty good around the birds, but when they were flapping and acting crazy her instincts kicked in and she couldn't resist. Only time she ever bit me was when I was loading CXs from a crate into the shelter. He got his wings free and started to flap and she couldn't help herself, she got me because I put my hand between her and the bird at the wrong time, so totally my fault.

But back to the RPs... They were infatuated with her. She'd lay down and they would come over chatting away and check her out, peck at her fur and at her occasionally. She'd just get up, huf, and go lay down somewhere else. The RPs froze when she stood up, but as soon as she laid down, they were on a dead run over to her new location. They would walk on her, peck at her, and finally she had enough. She lifted her head, made eye contact and then let out that deep sounding, very loud bark. Both hens took off and went back into their pasture. The look of satisfaction on prancer's face was amazing, and then she went back to her nap. Sorry, just had to share.

 

[memphis]

Thanks R2elk...so far we are off to a good start. The first thing I had to do was tail proof my house. Haven't had a dog with a tail since I was 8. I have to watch it....he's so tall already I forget he's just a baby. Still teething. He's got a full blanket. So his black saddle goes from his neck to his tail. My turkeys are NOT thrilled. So far he's ignoring them.

 

[Molpet]

poor momma

glad you were able to save it, superficial wounds? is it ok?

I thought she was a goner last Saturday, blood out of the beak and eye.. eye shut .. in shock, cold and back of the neck skin tore up...gave her eye droppers of water w/nutridrench... she started drinking the next day and eating Wednesday, but still content to sit in a cage in the basement.

 

[memphis]

Sure hope she'll be ok. Poor girl...

 

[PolarBerry]

Got the majority of the turkey coop pen done and they were scared at first but they love it. All the grass they could eat and sunshine to stretch their feathers in.

The gate isn't done (bungee corded shut) and needs the perimeter ground wire but I figured I'd let them out while it's nice and we were standing nearby.

 

[sfgwife]

“She would also sing along with the opening music for certain shows“


Hahhahaha. We had a husky/malamute... he sang the sponge bob song. Only song he sang but loud and proud he was every time it came on.... all the way to the end. His human LOVED sponge bob... so we watched it a LOT

 

[rjohns39]

Got the majority of the turkey coop pen done and they were scared at first but they love it. All the grass they could eat and sunshine to stretch their feathers in.

The gate isn't done (bungee corded shut) and needs the perimeter ground wire but I figured I'd let them out while it's nice and we were standing nearby.

View attachment 1172542
View attachment 1172558

I keep all the kids in protective shelters until they're 8 weeks old and move the shelters to new grass as they clean up the spot they're on. To move the shelter, I have someone bang on the back to scare them away from that wall and then move it two to three inches. When they see the fresh grass everyone comes to the front of the shelter and chows down. Works great until I get to the end, then I need to persuade them to move forward another two or three inches so I can finish the move.

 

[PolarBerry]

They will probably get free range once they get the hang of things in the future (i.e. In and out properly) and are better predator aware. As is they kind of get distracted by the grass and grasshoppers.

I shook the scoop I only use for food and mealworms and poured mealworms into their metal bowl as I called them so it made a big noise and once one came in to check it out the rest couldn't be left missing out on mealworms.