I taught my dogs not to eat the chooks

[cafarmgirl]

Yes that would be a good idea I don't really like the idea of hitting my dog with a stick even if it's softly it's just that my dogs are second hand from the pound so they will have had some bad treatment in the past! So they may hide from for and hour or so!

A dog with a questionable background is even more reason to use positive reinforcement training techniques. A confident, well trained dog who knows what you expect of him is always a better dog then one who is fearful and slinking around because he knows he's going to get the stick from his owner.