Dog Problems and Solutions

Problems with Dogs are a recurring subject on BYC. Many recommend SSS to resolve the issue and I must confess to resorting to that on multiple occasions. However I have other stories for solutions, here are some, what stories do you have?

My Uncle was a Kansas farmer with crops, cows, & chickens. He always had a few half-wild feral barncats and a dog around for hunting and varmint control. I never saw purchased pet food, the dog ate scraps and rabbits plus any barn rats/mice the cats missed. If his dog got to chasing/killing chickens, he would tie a dead chicken to the dog’s collar and it would remain there till it rotted off. He claimed a dog never even looked at a chicken after that and he had done that only once per dog. (He’d several dogs over his lifetime on the farm). A side note on the feral barncats---they were too wild to touch or try and pet when we were kids, but they always showed up during milking time to get their faces squirted straight from the cow teat.

My dog was a Newfoundland border collie cross and was trained. I suppose the Livestock Guarding genes had something to do with it. I used a pinch collar and leash walking among the chickens, correcting him firmly when he tried lunging at them. Eventually I had him lying down among the juvenile chickens, placing food on his nose for the chicks to retrieve---this satisfied his urge to sniff them. Within a few weeks he would just lay out watching the chickens unleashed as they free roamed the yard foraging. I never had foxes or other predators when I had him, sadly, he’s gone now and I have to keep my flock in a Run.

This was told to me by the Nuclear Engineer that had the problem. We were working 12 hour shifts on nights 6 days a week. His elderly neighbors that he was friendly with had a small yappy dog that barked all day long while the neighbors were out which made it very difficult to sleep during the day. He didn’t want to hurt the dog or offend the neighbors and someone at work told him Cold Medicine would act like a sleeping pill. That very same day on the way home from work in the morning, he stopped and bought some cold capsules. While he fixed his supper/breakfast he emptied 3 capsules into a little ball of peanut butter and tossed it over the fence. He said he saw the dogs nose sticking out of the doghouse start to twitch, then the dog came out to the peanut butter ball and ate it. The Engineer then took his shower and headed for bed, looked out and saw the dog lying in the middle of the lawn apparently dead!!!! “Ah…..Pooo” he said and went to bed to sleep soundly. However, when he got up to go to work that evening, the dog was up moving around. “Alright”, so the Engineer did this every morning for the weeks we were on nightshift. On his day off, he was out in the yard when his elderly neighbor came over to chat over the fence. During the chat, the neighbor mentioned there was something wrong with his dog and he was taking it to the Vet, seems the darn thing was up all night barking keeping them awake!