It's a long story, but the neighbor and I are very close friends. We moved in next to him about 6 months ago. He has cattle fencing, and free ranges his chickens (hundreds of them). They would come right through the fence and onto our property. Our senior dog never had an issue with them and would actually lay in the yard with them moving all around him. We didn't mind, we actually enjoyed having them. Until they started digging huge holes next to our homes foundation. Ernest knows the command "watch it". That means that he is to be on alert, and chase whatever it is. We started using this command with him and he'd chase the chicken away from the house but would always turn around and come back to be praised. Well, after the neighbor put up appropriate fencing, he asked if he could use Ernest to round up the 40 chickens from our yard back to his yard (I was at work). The neighbor said that HE got Ernest overly excited and his prey instinct kicked in and that's when he made his first kill. Since then, no chicken can free range in our yard. So, basically, my neighbor was responsible in every way for the outcome. My dog's are completely contained in our yard and cannot go beyond our property line (they are indoors for the most part). It's their property so I can't fault them for protecting it, but I sure wish I had my old trusted friend back.
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