run suggestions

[maryhysong]

That's what they did to the chicken wire on my tractors. On one they made a hole big enough I could almost crawl through it. Thank you for your suggestions. We also keep a loaded .22 next to the back door and have since the attack in August. The only thing is I'm not a very good shot, so I'd be terrified of hurting the poor creature and not actually killing it. Not saying that I wouldn't shoot it anyway, but I would feel horrible if I injured it instead of killing it. Something we tried to explain to one of the neighbors who's dog was involved was that the dog was just doing what uncontrolled dogs do. It wasn't the dog's fault it was on our property, killing our chickens. That was the owner's fault. Dogs will behave as dogs will behave, if allowed to do so. I have no doubt that if I let Maggie and Toby roam the nieghborhood they would tear something up. They are reasonably well behaved dogs, but I'm not blind to the fact that they are dogs and will behave as such. Anyways, I'm ranting.
Thank you all for your suggestions. I appreciate them. I really want to keep my flock safe.

yep, if you have a place where you can do some target practice it will help. I usually aim just like a hunter does, right behind the shoulder, or right between the eyes, depending on how the animal is standing. Anyway, practice shooting at beer cans. Sounds crazy, but if you can hit a beer can, especially several shots in a row then you can hit most anything. I do miss running rabbits at a distance, I think I 'lead' them a little too fast, but dogs are bigger and usually don't run as fast as a rabbit. Or they are right there in the pen and not going anywhere any way.

Yes I agree it's not really the dogs fault, it's just being a dog. BUT it does it just to be killing. It's not hungry. I have a pack of coyotes that come across my land almost every night of the year and they have never come in the yard after my animals, but I have had three packs of dogs on killing sprees here. A young owl got one of my pullets recently but I really can't begrudge the owl, it was hungry and apparently the pullet didn't go in the coop to roost, so it's own fault it got picked off.