I'd like everyone's input on how to handle this situation.
My neighbors have a chocolate lab named Kaiser. He's sort of like the rural neighborhood dog and comes to visit and patrols the 20 acres in our area including our 6 acres. We've never had issue with Kaiser and he's almost like one of our family. When he visits we often give him treats. He keeps predators off our land and kills the moles. He's always been dear to my kids and we've become attached to him despite his not being our dogs. We've always gotten along well with Kaiser's owners too. Now that we have chickens, I'm concerned that Kaiser will be a problem. His owners/our neighbors have expressed the same concern. I'm not sure how to handle the situation because I do want my chickens to have supervised free range priveleges. I've considered offering the neighbors the opportunity to bring Kaiser over and train him to leave them alone to reduce the potential threat (although I realize this is no guarantee.) I've also considered working out an agreement with my neighbors on a time frame in the evenings that they would put Kaiser up while our chickens free range a bit. Aside from that, I don't know what else to do. Does anyone have any ideas? Keep in mind that I would like to keep my chickens safe and maintain good relations with my neighbors.
Thanks.
My neighbors have a chocolate lab named Kaiser. He's sort of like the rural neighborhood dog and comes to visit and patrols the 20 acres in our area including our 6 acres. We've never had issue with Kaiser and he's almost like one of our family. When he visits we often give him treats. He keeps predators off our land and kills the moles. He's always been dear to my kids and we've become attached to him despite his not being our dogs. We've always gotten along well with Kaiser's owners too. Now that we have chickens, I'm concerned that Kaiser will be a problem. His owners/our neighbors have expressed the same concern. I'm not sure how to handle the situation because I do want my chickens to have supervised free range priveleges. I've considered offering the neighbors the opportunity to bring Kaiser over and train him to leave them alone to reduce the potential threat (although I realize this is no guarantee.) I've also considered working out an agreement with my neighbors on a time frame in the evenings that they would put Kaiser up while our chickens free range a bit. Aside from that, I don't know what else to do. Does anyone have any ideas? Keep in mind that I would like to keep my chickens safe and maintain good relations with my neighbors.
Thanks.