Can I just vent? Dead chicks.

[kickinchicken]

That third picture made me laugh. Cookie has they psycho dog look in here eyes...her sister looks "normal

I can see how a dog like Cookie, while absolutely adorable, can make you feel at your wits end! If she is a danger to your animals AND your neighbor's animals, I think re-homing her would be best. She clearly has the prey-drive that this breed was meant to have. She's still young, perhaps a hunter would LOVE her to join his crew!

 

[cracked_egg]

Well, my dog is like my daughter, and even though she just killed 14 chicks, I still would NEVER re-home her... It is my fault, not hers, that I didn't make it impossible, and that I didn't protect them... So, anyway, she got a big lesson today in how to "stay out of the barn" lol... And she does really well cuz she's pretty scared of me, but I think no more free time outside, I'll have to go out with her.... So, hang in there!!!

Sad thing is, it is hard to make myself take her out.... I have 86 acres and live well off the roadd, it is so much easier to just open the back door... But u do what it takes when u love them....

 

[Lofty Dreams]

We dont have dog troble our dog is 12 y old Lab/Boxer cross

 

[la dee da]

You said your pen has chicken wire as the wire and snow fencing around it. What is the snow fencing made of? Chicken wire will NOT protect chickens from predators, so you may thing about getting hardware cloth and putting that 2-3 feet around the bottom (have you buried/put a "skirt" of fence around the bottom to prevent digging?). I hope it works out, one way or the other

 

[sommrluv]

We're going to try the trainer before making any decisions...I'm having hopes. All the other dogs have done really well with impulse control training, she's just a little more "terrier" than the others. Things that work with a mastiff, like dominance training, do not work with her at all. She's very positive motivated.

DH will probably do a solar electric fence. I probably wouldn't have had a problem with the chickens if the chicks didn't manage to squeeze out the one hole...well, other than the one she grabbed.

The run is box wire, chicken wire, and snow fence along two sides, where it's sunniest, and is facing our northerly direction. We have a very hilly large farm behind us, and wind just picks up steam and blows hard across the back.

Because of the direction we ran the fencing, very few of the openings are bigger than an inch. She had just broken off a piece and pushed it around. I'll have have to just look at the fence everyday if we keep her. She does the same thing with our regular fence...stretches it out or chews it apart.

We have fox, raccoons, groundhogs, skunks, I'm sure there are others out there I just haven't seen...nothing has gotten in the pen, so I'm confident of the predator proof aspect. The wire is buried under the ground as well. Three barking dogs are probably a big deterrent as well.

She's a really good "house" dog, so it does break my heart a little to think of re-homing her. BUT, that being said...I have muscular dystrophy. And while I most of the time feel ok enough to, in addition to their normal outs, play with them each day. I couldn't walk her a few times a day, and I couldn't go out every day without fail, especially in the winter. I've been in the hospital for having to chase her around when she ran away once, and seeing as I'm already there a few times a year without the dogs help, I do have to think of myself.

I don't really want to, though!

I had forgotten, I was once feeding baby rabbits when the girls killed their mother (successfully! Which is apparently rare) and one of them had gotten out and was bounding around the kitchen and Cookie killed her too. She's got quite the death toll for a little dog.

We've tried retriever training for duck hunting and she didn't respond well. However, I'm certainly no dog hunting training expert and I very possibly didn't do a good job in that aspect.

 

[sommrluv]

Thank you for all the kind words and hugs, btw. It really helps.

 

[FourPawz]

First of all, I hate you lost your birds. You've got a terrier, which has been genetically programmed to hunt down and to kill smaller animals, be they rodent pests, foxes or sadly, chickens. You can try training, but I can assure you after 40 plus years experience training and putting titles on dogs, you will never, throughout this dog's life, be able to stop training her and then trust her out of sight and off leash around prey species. Training is an ongoing process. Think of a human musician who must practice throughout his career.

There are many places where this little girl would be a valued dog indeed. Do you know anyone with a stable? They might want a good ratter. Someone who does the sport of flyball, or agility? A hunter, who specializes in foxes or even raccoons? How about a person who participates in earthdog trials? You can read about this sport here: http://www.akc.org/events/earthdog/

At the very least, perhaps you know a person with an active lifestyle, who would be ecstatic to have a spunky little terrier with which to hike or jog. A person with no small pets, perhaps with another dog to keep this little girl company.

Good luck,

Mary

 

[Supermommy486]

Hugs hun

 

[sommrluv]

Just wanted to update...we've done some different training techniques that have worked extremely well. We're using a remote collar with a beep & shock correction. The shock is minor, I've tested it myself before even using it. We had purchased it for a coonhound we were fostering.

We're doing a compound of aversion/reward therapy. Even if she needs a beep reminder, if she does the correct thing after the reminder, she gets rewarded.


She reacts really well to the beep alone at this point. There are several days I haven't used the remote at all.. Obviously, I don't think I'd ever trust her around the chickens alone. But the change has been fabulous. We had a delivery yesterday and she went out the gate (that they didn't shut...don't get me started) and I beeped her, she came back immediately. She sat on command and waited for me to open the gate and came right in.

I would highly recommend a remote trainer combined with rewards for a dog like Cookie. It was breaking my heart to think we'd have to rehome her and I'm glad she can stay.

 

[chickenwhisperer]

Quote:
She needs to go back to Terrier school, thats strange she let ANY live . . .

Sorry bout your chicks, my JRT has done it to me 3 times this year, but hes a good boy- he killed every last chicken each and every time!

I love my dog.
Shock collar is the only thing that works on him.