He was doing well but I was also fostering another dog at the time and I think that having another dog around who didn't know any better kinda voided all his training that I had put in. He was a German Shepherd. Not the best breed to have around due to there high prey drive but he was slowly getting there. Thank you Miss Lydia. I was so very heartbroken. I had lost 11 babies including him within a 12 hr period. I was devastated and cried for days. I think it was a whole week that I had cried my self to sleep. It was a very terrible experience that i wouldnt ever wish upon someone. I blamed myself for his death and still do. That just makes it that much worse. That is very strange indeed. I wonder if its because of Sam's age and it not being breeding season yet as to why he's letting Opie get away with it.
Hey Ducky, just catching up on the threads. You poor soul. How sad for you. Was your pup chasing your neighbours´ livestock? Pups are such hard work and so easily led. What a bad experience for you, but that´s life, eh?
Just out of interest, a German Shepherd shouldn´t have a strong prey drive, as they´re a herding dog. Once trained, they should generally do well. Just sometimes the herding instinct in a youngster doesn´t know where to stop!
I have some fairly large mixed-everything dogs. The have pitbull, german shepherd, poss lab, and whatever else in them, and when they were tiny pups they were always with the chickens, ducks etc to get them used to them. No problems.
Then at 8 months they turned into thugs. From time to time when we would leave the house, we´d come back to a dead bird. Never eaten, just killed. They would never enter the birds´ runs, but a bird would get out somehow and then get killed. They killed a few pullets, 2 ducks, one I think was flying down to land and the dog bit it in the chest, because there was only one bite on her, must have got her heart. They badly injured a turkey that I had to put down. I did training on a lead, treats for ignoring, all the normal stuff, reprimand if caught in the act of showing interest, which was difficult, because actually they were more interested in the poop and the eggs! Well, they grew up. They´re now 2 years old, and although I don´t trust them totally, they´re absolutely fine with the chickens and geese, but I think the wagging tail of the ducks provokes attention. The second duck to get killed was when we´d gone out, and came home to find dead. It was the last bird that they managed to kill. She was up the top near the house, she was a very inquisitive duck that would come over the fence looking for food. The dogs were used to her, but this time....she was just too confident. Just a couple of bites on her back. Then they left her where she was. Pups are hard work for sure. You´re not alone!
We´ve built a run for the dogs and whenever we go out they get shut in it, sometimes for the whole day, as I still don´t trust them to behave themselves.
But sometimes they surprise me. The other day i saw my biggest dog (the worst with chicks) watching something intently. It was three little tiny Brahmas that had found a hole in the fence big enough for them to squeeze through and there he was about two yards away, just watching them. He´s improving.
One of my neighbours here has a huge black year-old GS and it´s a terror. If it gets out of its run at night it gets another neighbour´s birds out of their roosts. Takes them home for breakfast.
Another neighbour here has 5 GSs and keeps chickens and horses and cows, and the dogs are used to herd the horses but they don´t touch the chickens.
A bit like a Border Collie. Given enough to do, they can be great dogs, but some can be terrors. Have you seen people training Borders Collies to herd Indian Runner ducks? It´s great.
