Neighbor chickens flying over fence & my Pyre puppy is learning to kill them :(

[Sniggle]

I have had chickens for years & a very good chicken-guarder Pyrenees who is now aging. She has never killed any of our chickens in the 9 years we have had her.

We now have a 5 month old puppy pyr who we are trying to train around the chickens. The process is going very well until recently.

We have neighbors behind us who have chickens & their chickens are flying over the fence & our two dogs (even the chicken safe one) have decided it is quite a sport to kill them together. We have talked with the neighbors for years to get them to keep their birds on their property but they have yet to do anything.

Is this going to ruin my puppy?!!!! I trust that my adult pyre won't start to kill our chickens, she clearly knows that she doesn't touch our chickens, even now.

What can I do? Any suggestions? I am not one to tie a chicken around the neck, kind of thing...this dog is inside & outside...I am not about to live with a dead chicken in the house, LOL!

 

[scratch'n'peck]

You could offer to help your neighbor trim their chickens' flight feathers so they can' fly over the fence. I haven't done this myself, but I have read about it on the forum. If you want to learn more about it search "trim flight feathers".

 

[Sniggle]

I've done it myself & I will suggest that but these people have probably 100 birds & they are constantly getting more...the sad truth is that they don't miss them when they hang out in my yard &, as of now, disappear. I did realize today that my older dog isn't killing them. I caught the older dog with another neighbor chicken but it was unhurt & she was clearly blocking it from the puppy. The puppy had matching feathers in it's mouth so I think he caught it & the older dog got it separated from the puppy...maybe there is some training going on there by my older, wiser, dog!?? We still need to talk with the neighbors again though as it isn't a habit I want to continue...I hope they will care when they realize their chickens aren't coming home anymore!