Need some help. My new puppy think the eggs are great toys. I see her with one and she runs. Then she breaks it and the others eat it. Any ideas how to stop that? I can't be outside with her 24/7. I was thinking of showing her an egg and telling her no! But not sure if she'll even care.
I don't know how your nest boxes work, but I had to staple hardware cloth to mine to keep the turkeys from eating the eggs. Hens can get in, the turks cannot. Can you do something like that for your dog? It's kind of hard to train when you don't always catch them. My boxer decided eggs are pretty yummy. He was getting them off of the counter. Now we just keep them out of his reach.
The only problem is that she's still a puppy and small, she's 10 weeks old. Although I showed her an egg and she went after it and told her NO! after a couple of that, she just stared at it. We'll see how good it worked.
Maybe you could leave eggs out for her, that they have coated with some bitter tasting substance like "Bitter Apple,". Or make a small hole in egg, blow out contents and fill with hot sauce,etc. and wax up the hole. I don't think it would take too many tastes for her to decide not to eat eggs.
Does she live outside always? It's hard to teach a pup much when they are on their own alot. Any way to pen her away from the nest boxes and also treat the eggs with bitter stuff? I was just wondering how long it would take before the hens got upset and started laying eggs somewhere else to avoid her. Best wishes!
Nest boxes can be built to where an egg will roll to the back and thru a hole to other side where only a human can retrieve it. Another way is to make it like a large rectangular funnel with the exit place in the center and human-accessible underneath. PITA when you go to check for eggs tho. Best to just wait until late in day and get them all then, maybe an hour or two before dark. Likely, you will come to prefer this method .
I do like the hot sauce idea, that might work. She is outside most of the time with my other dog and I do collect the eggs by the end of the day. I managed to fence off an area where she can't get to the nest but the chickens can. There is one chicken that manages to lay in a crate that we have for the dog/puppy and the puppy always seems to get that one. I guess loosing one egg instead of 6 is not too bad. Although I might try that hot sauce and she won't touch it at all.
Quote:I have an 11 week old. Their attention span is not that long yet. The puppy needs to be worked with, daily. If the chicken is laying in a crate designed for the dog/puppy ... of course it will go for that one. It's a toy. IMO, it is wrong to punish the puppy with hot sauce when the chicken is laying the egg in her territory i.e crate.
we have a chinese goose and she lays a egg at least once a week. Due to the fact she eats more of the chickens layer food than the chickens, but of well she is one of the flock. Well our dog will sit there and watch angelina lay an egg and when she gets up mocha will go over ther and pick it up and crack it and eat it. i saw her yesterday throwin up and it was from the egg hopefully that will break her bad habit. very nasty!!!!!
