Hello from chilly - snow covered - Upstate New York

Hi,
I just registered so this is my first post. I don't have any chickens yet, but I do have a dog. Barley is a wonderfully sweet 6 yr.old, rescued Golden Retriever/Australian Shepherd cross. I am hoping he can learn to love and protect our chickens once we get them. He is a house dog but he is let to run off leash when we are in safe areas for him and as far as I know, he has never killed another animal. Chased quite a few but he is very playful. He has never caught so much as a squirrel. Well, enough about Barley, I could go one...
I am here because I am studying chickens. I hope to add to our farm this spring. I don't even live there yet because there is no house so I have a lot of infrastructure to work on before I'm ready to add livestock. I'm thinking first up - after the driveway - will be a fence, mostly to keep Barley out of traffic, although he does stay pretty close to me. And I have to work on getting him friendly with our neighbor's horse. He chased ! the horse around the horse's corral once! The horse did not seem the least bit concerned about it, tail up, prancing about. Glad to have the play, I'm thinking. But I haven't talked to my neighbor about it yet. I've kept Barley away from the corral since. See, I'm back talking about the dog! Perhaps once I get my chicks, I will be going on about them as well! I am also researching breeds as I am looking for mostly layers and I am thinking a mix so I get a pretty egg basket. And, of course, looking at coop plans.
I am also on the Organic Chickens Yahoo group so may have met some of you there, too.
Nice to be here!
Valerie
Southern Coast of Lake Ontario