I have a bunch of rather dim neighbors...

[arabookworm]

yesterday, as lilarabookworm and I took a few of the chickens out to free range (this story will explain why we only took a few), our neighbor who is lilarabookworm's age came over to see the chickens. she was followed by her older brother who is (I think) in college. and he in turn was followed by... their rather large dog.

they live a little bit down the street, so we could see him coming, and I told our nieghbors to catch their dog before he attacked the chickens.

there was a storm of protest:
"he isn't aggressive"
"he's a friendly dog"
"he just wants to play with them"
etc, etc.

I meanwhile try to round up the chickens before he reaches them. I managed to catch one of the three before he arrived. He terrified them out of their wits, snapped at them, and caused one of them to inadvertently trap itself under a rather thorny bush. and instead of trying to actually catch their dumb dog, they stood around yelling at it to stop

It took about half an hour to round the two chickens up.

fortunately he didn't catch any of them, and our neighbors learned a valuable lesson: their dog, because he isn't particularly well trained, will definitly attack my chickens if given the chance... exactly like I told them he would.

 

[debilorrah]

SOME PEOPLE!!!! I am so glad I have great neighbors.

 

[Run-A-Muck Ranch]

Gald your chickens were safe(maybe frazziled a bit, but safe)...
To bad the neighbors and their dog didn't end up in the Pricky Bush....

 

[arabookworm]

I just wanted to add that they are very nice, and we get along fine, but they just fail to use their brains at times.

 

[Emzyyy]

Wow, even if they didn't know one thing about chickens they should know well "Don't cha think that dog will chase 'em since they move?" *scratching head*

 

[JennsPeeps]

My mom tried to tell me that her sheltie - the same one who has killed countless oppossums - wouldn't hurt my chickens because she's a herding dog. She thinks it's because they've taken the 2 shelties to a herding place in town once and watched them try to herd ducks. Whoop-dee-doo.

My response: "It only takes one time to find out who's right, and I'm not willing to risk the lives of my chickens so you can prove that your dog won't kill them."

She hasn't raised the issue again.

 

[hennypenny9]

When my mom and I adopted a fully grown Aussie, we saw her lazily walking around a farm with chickens, other dogs, and children. So we were almost positive she wouldn't attack our chickens. But we still had her leased when we showed her our hens, who were behind a fence, in their pen. Of course, she has never attacked a chicken, and even will sit with them if they free-range. But the point is that we didn't know for sure! Just like your neighbors didn't!

Goodness, people amaze me every day.

 

[breconbcs]

Quote:
My dogs work sheep, goats, ducks and cattle on the occasion and I would never trust any of them with the chickens! Heck I wouldn't trust them on their own with any of the stock. The chickens at the farms we work at don't flock together when they go into panick mode which is what the dogs want, so like instint tells them, grab it and make it do what you want. Most times that grab is enough to kill a chicken or have to kill it. They have driven even my calmest dog nuts cause all she wants is them in an area and together, when that doesn't happen she gets fustrated and all her training goes out the window and she goes into "chase" mode, just a willy-nilly frenzy on both sides. That's why when they aren't working and we are at the farms they are either in a run, tied to the fence or in the truck.

As for the neighbour's dog. You could do what dh did to one of ours. Last winter their dog kept marking our snowbank, right where the kids liked to play - not alone I had my own intact male here. DH was ticked cause he'd cut the snowbank and the next day same thing. Well he got a service call at their house. They didn't realize who he was and they got to talking about the neighbourhood and about the by-laws for dogs. DH turns around and says, ya there isn't much the by-laws can do to protect my property from "some" neighbour's dog that keeps peeing on my snowbank so I'm going to take care of it myself seeing as the owner is trespassing if the dog is on leash and if he isn't then I can protect my property. Next time I'm off I'm going to sit on my deck and when I see him peeing, I'm going to shoot him with a paintball gun in the privates and then I'm going to shoot his owner in the same spot. And if that dog gets hold of one of my wife's dogs, I guarantee she'll neuter the dog and the owner at the same time. Since then the dog is walked on leash past our house.

May have been wrong, but it got the point across seeing as we had been asking them to not only to respect the leash law (he's come on the property at a full run for one of my girls when in heat) but to have some respect for their neighbours.

 

[mjdtexan]

My dog would have chicken for dinner every time. I cant stand that its that way and I have tried to work with him but it is just not to be. So sadly, my chickens do not free range. They do have a large area and I am thinking of makeing it even larger.

 

[Chicky Tocks]

Yeah, due to the number of stray dogs that appear on our land, and the fact that my weinersnappers immediately killed a pair of ducks the first time my DH let them out of the pen and into the pond, my girls have to stay penned. I don't trust any dog around my feather babys.