We are in the process of training a 10mo old pyr. She's so awesome with everyone EXCEPT the chickens that get out of the pen and killed her second guinea today. She'd gotten a hold of my game cock and he walloped her so she leaves him and his ladies alone. I'm trying to be patient and understand that she's still a pup, but I've lost more birds to her in the last two weeks than I've lost to ANYTHING else in two years... I'm frustrated but am willing to try just about anything to get her to understand that the birds are strictly off limits. The problem is that we never catch her actually doing it! Now we're thinking of tying her at night and turning her loose when we get up (because the vast majority of killings are happening when the sun is rising, before we're up and about) but I don't want to defeat the purpose of having an LGD.
On the other note about all dogs being bad with poultry, again that's a bunch of hog wash! I've owned many dogs over the years and out of the number, large breeds and small, only 3 were bird killers. I have two chinese cresteds and one is a chaser, but not a killer and the other couldn't care less. I've even had "high prey drive" breeds like a Xolo, and she ignored them all. We had dobermans when I was growing up. Two would kill anything they could catch. One was completely trustworthy and would snuggle with the cats...ignore the ducks and steal the trimmings of hoof when the farrier was out
On the other note about all dogs being bad with poultry, again that's a bunch of hog wash! I've owned many dogs over the years and out of the number, large breeds and small, only 3 were bird killers. I have two chinese cresteds and one is a chaser, but not a killer and the other couldn't care less. I've even had "high prey drive" breeds like a Xolo, and she ignored them all. We had dobermans when I was growing up. Two would kill anything they could catch. One was completely trustworthy and would snuggle with the cats...ignore the ducks and steal the trimmings of hoof when the farrier was out
