English Shepherd as Poultry Guardian

[aart]

Hope your troubles improve soon.

 

[centrarchid]

/

Hope your troubles improve soon.

In last 24 hours we decided to go to Mayo Clinic hoping for improvement. Last couple days have been really tough.

Last night I was looking for timberdoodles with pups at my feet. Pups make more difficult. Could barely make out a couple timberdoodles call. Could hear better the birds in cock pens reacting to low flying something I think where timberdoodles.

Tonight after pups romped they split up into pairs. As the pairs came in I could here penned birds cackle just a little as pupped ran past in the dark. Kind of like the timberdoodles the night before. Pups getting easier to pen now.

 

[centrarchid]

We had some stiff winds this morning while I was at work. A game stag slipped out of pen stretched by wind. He got into fight with an American Dominqiue. Dog(s) then killed stag. Other chickens not touched, just the stag.

 

[centrarchid]

I was unable to find carcass of stag mentioned above. I assumed Honey placed him close enough to pen for pups to pull carcass through fencing. I would have have been a stretch for pups to consume all including feathers.

A moment ago I went outside to find said stag run up to me looking for food. Dogs, including Honey, were present. Stag is largely missing his butt and he is weary of Honey. Looks like Honey caught stag fighting and began dragging him mostly by tail to east side of house away from Dominique he was fighting with. He is dinged up a little on his back.

Damage will be completely repaired by 90 days. May have to document regrowth since siblings used for feather set development or fecal study.

 

[centrarchid]

We are now having a problem with chasing motorized vehicles. Low flying helicopters from the National Guard are causing a real stir when flying over. Pups run chasing the noisy birds with adults following watching pups rather than the helicopter.

 

[aart]

Doesn't sound like fun.

 

[centrarchid]

Doesn't sound like fun.

They will get bored with it. We have a lot of helicopter traffic that also includes medical types going between Jefferson City and Columbia. We also sit between two local airports and under one of the busiest commercial flight corridors in the world. It is nothing to see 10 commercial aircraft at once flying overhead.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Seems the dogs were smart enough to know they weren’t supposed to kill the chickens and came up with their own creative way to break it up. Good girl, Honey! Haha it’s amazing to me how much of “rule followers” these dogs are. She knew they weren’t supposed to be fighting but also knew she couldn’t kill them and wasn’t going to break either rule.

 

[ShrekDawg]

They will get bored with it. We have a lot of helicopter traffic that also includes medical types going between Jefferson City and Columbia. We also sit between two local airports and under one of the busiest commercial flight corridors in the world. It is nothing to see 10 commercial aircraft at once flying overhead.

 

[centrarchid]

Seems the dogs were smart enough to know they weren’t supposed to kill the chickens and came up with their own creative way to break it up. Good girl, Honey! Haha it’s amazing to me how much of “rule followers” these dogs are. She knew they weren’t supposed to be fighting but also knew she couldn’t kill them and wasn’t going to break either rule.

Honey is trying for a compromise I guess. May take some practice before damage to birds is minimized. Dogs are only critters I know that can stop two game roosters from fighting. The stag / cockerel is now making sounds like an immature bird. It may take a while before he is interested in doing a pitched battle.