Chicken Dog

[Colonel]

This is our "Chicken Dog", Shiloh doing his job. Although he is actually a Shetland Sheep Dog, he does pretty well as a chicken dog. When one of the ladies escapes from the pen, Shiloh will get to work and hold the chicken until we come and pick it up and toss it back into the pen. He has never attempted to harm any of them - he just chases them until they give up. He then stands over them and barks for us to come and do our part. Since the chase is what he really enjoys, if we don't come out quickly enough, he will get bored and walk away until the chicken moves - and then the game starts all over again. He has saved me a whole lot of work.

In this photo, you can see one of our blackberry plants in the foreground, another Buff Orpington watching from on top of our compost pit (in the main chicken pen), and our two "nursery pens" where we keep the young ones before mixing them in with the rest of the flock.

 

[chicken_china_mom]

Good dog Shiloh! I had to get rid of the puppies I rescued last summer. They ate my Bantam White Cochin Priscilla.

My other dogs get along with my chickens, for the most part. I still have one bird eater, but she's been here since LONG before the chickens came, and she hasn't eaten one yet, but I think she knows she's in BIg trouble if she does. She knows the difference between out cats and the neighbor's cats (but ours are inside, the neighbors are outside) and she will chase the neighbor's cats with intent to kill if they get too close. She's half chow, hald sheepdog, and as a pup, the sheepdog traits were more dominant, but as she's gotten older, the chow has become very dominant, so I don't trust her around my chickens, my ducks, or my cockatiel and button quail. Better safe than sorry I say!

 

[cthrash1]

VERY good for a Sheltie... I'm impressed! Our Sheltie wanted to chase them down then play with the squeaky toys, even though they were good size chickens on the most part. Had to quit taking her back with us. The flock knew she wanted to eat them too and would clear away the fence line when they saw her coming... She also hated moles, so there were ALOT of holes in our yard, but she always got them rodents. My parents would borrow her for a couple of weeks every Spring for mole extraction. Now they have a cat that does that.
Unfortunately we lost our beloved Sheltie "Amy" last October at 9 yrs old due to Kidney failure.

 

[specklesmom]

Shiloh is a big help, I'm sure!! The chicken he has cornered looks like she knows the game is up and she better just sit there quietly and forget her wandering ways. Shiloh is a beautiful dog and I've always heard the herding type dogs are very intelligent. Nice photo!!

 

[Colonel]

I had a cousin over for a visit yesterday, and one of the chickens was kind enough to escape just so that Shiloh could show off his chicken skills. I don't know how long the hen was out there with Shiloh holding her in place before we saw her and helped her back in, but she was definitely glad to see me there!