English Shepherd as Poultry Guardian

[centrarchid]

Or reasoning out how it works?
Scott

Or trying to tick me off. Daughter was keen on my responses as she put wood pieces on fence. I do not think they have such a well developed sense of what electricity is yet. My guess is they are treating the fence like they do briers where the offense can be suppressed by pushing it to the ground.

 

[scottcaddy]

Still a line of thought that suggests they will not let things stop them, but work on getting around whatever is in the way.
Good luck with both the pup and kids.
Scott

 

[centrarchid]

Pup putting on some good weight. Appetite finally respectable.

 

[centrarchid]

Weather is starting to cool down already. Coyotes are trying to intrude and normally two adult dogs keep them off us and even two neighbors with chickens to the north. Last night I could hear an adult coyote barking on property of neighbor to north and it had to be very close to pens. Neighbor has large dog that barked back but was also penned so coyote had free-range, Lucy was out barking back and is only dog in the area that can actively repel a coyote but she does not go out like she did with Scoob. It is good Lucy does not over extending herself. Ben hovered back on porch. Despite all the barking he does he did not join Lucy in producing warning barks. Hopefully he will join her starting in the fall by howling. He still has not harmed a chicken although he chased a stag briefly which he stopped when I complained. He is also shy around the fencing.

 

[centrarchid]

We butchered some games and one Missouri Dominique today. Pup and my daughter attempted to participate. Pup tried to run off with a head with probable intent of eating it. I should have allowed as that is an acceptable source of nutrition later. Offal from sheep and goats will certainly be used for such to offset feed bill.

 

[scottcaddy]

It's good to hear she is willing to be around the process, does her brother help out also?
Is Ben any better about fence?
Thanks
Scott

 

[centrarchid]

Pup is still reluctant to approach fence. Lucy also went for about 6 months where she avoided fence unless riled up.

Son was sleeping but he will eventually get involved. He will not have much choice and I have trained a good number of kids around such activities. It is not hard. Hard part is sometimes getting counter productive parents out of the way.

 

[scottcaddy]

Past the info on 'this is the heart, and this is a liver, and so on' my kids liked to get ahold of the cut off feet and make chicken tracks in the drive.
Scott

 

[centrarchid]

We discuss the parts and their functions. Kids are currently not ready for some biology lessons other that memorizing where a given part is located and what it looks like.

 

[centrarchid]

Very early this morning around 0130 we had an intruder or at least the neighbor did in the form of their dog getting loose. It came very near our border casing Lucy to do a great deal of barking. A special event then occured; Lucy ran back to the house and recruited Ben and I. Ben promptly went out with Lucy where she redoubled her efforts to drive the intruder back towards his home. Pup even put in a couple barks. That was all a very special event for both dogs. Lucy is now exhausted as she invested considerable effort in keeping the Great-horned Owls out. Dogs will watch us leave for work and then likely sleep much of day.