Hello bird friends!
I am so proud of my dog right now! We spent a great deal of time slowly getting him used to the chickens and hoping he would accept them as part of the family to protect. We had many supervised attempts to let them all free in the yard together, always resulting in the dog chasing after the birds- once briefly getting one in his mouth. I asked a friend of mine who trains helper dogs how to get him to stop this behavior and accept the chickens as part of the family, she suggested I bring him along with me when I take care of the chickens every day, that he sees that they are something we take care of and not chase. After months of letting him tag along, I still couldn't trust him, out of fear.
Last weekend we went away for the weekend and had a neighbor take care of the animals. We had the dog outside roaming all day (with his electric fence collar on) and I told them to let the chickens out ( I guess I forgot to mention to just let them out in the run, not in the yard). When we got home it was already dark so I went right to the coop to lock up my birds and saw that the main run door was open...I almost started crying right there, sure that I had lost all of my chickens. The dog was with me and ran ahead into the run and turned and looked at me proudly. Sure enough, all of the chickens were safe and sound in the coop, not a scratch or scrape on them.
Needless to say he got a nice fresh egg in his bowl that night and lots of praise and treats!! What a good boy!! So anyone who would like to train their dog to take care of their birds- take a lesson from my dog-trainer friend. It CAN be done!!!!
I am so proud of my dog right now! We spent a great deal of time slowly getting him used to the chickens and hoping he would accept them as part of the family to protect. We had many supervised attempts to let them all free in the yard together, always resulting in the dog chasing after the birds- once briefly getting one in his mouth. I asked a friend of mine who trains helper dogs how to get him to stop this behavior and accept the chickens as part of the family, she suggested I bring him along with me when I take care of the chickens every day, that he sees that they are something we take care of and not chase. After months of letting him tag along, I still couldn't trust him, out of fear.
Last weekend we went away for the weekend and had a neighbor take care of the animals. We had the dog outside roaming all day (with his electric fence collar on) and I told them to let the chickens out ( I guess I forgot to mention to just let them out in the run, not in the yard). When we got home it was already dark so I went right to the coop to lock up my birds and saw that the main run door was open...I almost started crying right there, sure that I had lost all of my chickens. The dog was with me and ran ahead into the run and turned and looked at me proudly. Sure enough, all of the chickens were safe and sound in the coop, not a scratch or scrape on them.
Needless to say he got a nice fresh egg in his bowl that night and lots of praise and treats!! What a good boy!! So anyone who would like to train their dog to take care of their birds- take a lesson from my dog-trainer friend. It CAN be done!!!!
