My daughter's dog (5 month old Lab/Shep mix) broke her tether yesterday and went after all the birds!!! By the time I noticed (I'm not the one who put the dog out, it was my grandson who was more interested in his video game than checking on his dog), there were no birds in the yard, they had scattered.
Found a bunch of the ducks at the side of the road a ways up, and started to herd them back home. A passerby stopped and helped.
Slowly but surely, the ducks started returning from the woods. A few chickens, too, but those were much slower to come back. I thankfully didn't lose any of the 6 week old chicks.
There were yanked-out duck feather *everywhere*. Mostly blue ones, so when Mist, my pet Muscovy drake didn't come back, I really started to worry.
I was going around trying to clean up the mess that @!#$% dog made, when *my* dog started barking (my dog is well trained; he learned very early on that ducks and chickens are not toys! Or prey) I went to check what was going on. There was a vehicle in the driveway I didn't know.
Well, it was my neighbour (that I'd never met, since the distance between the houses is quite large) asking me if I'd lost a duck! I explained what had happened and he drove me to his place. It was Mist! Managed to catch him, and brought him back home. He wasn't damaged/injured that I could see. But wow, he had gone far! I'm just happy the neighbour came over.
Did a quick check of the ones that were there, and my blue female Muscovy seemed to have taken the brunt of the feather yanking. One of the 3 month olds also had a bunch of tail feathers missing. Otherwise, they seem fine.
All the chickens had returned by bed time, and I did a quick count of the ducks this morning and they all seem to be accounted for.
That dog needs training.
Found a bunch of the ducks at the side of the road a ways up, and started to herd them back home. A passerby stopped and helped.
Slowly but surely, the ducks started returning from the woods. A few chickens, too, but those were much slower to come back. I thankfully didn't lose any of the 6 week old chicks.
There were yanked-out duck feather *everywhere*. Mostly blue ones, so when Mist, my pet Muscovy drake didn't come back, I really started to worry.
I was going around trying to clean up the mess that @!#$% dog made, when *my* dog started barking (my dog is well trained; he learned very early on that ducks and chickens are not toys! Or prey) I went to check what was going on. There was a vehicle in the driveway I didn't know.
Well, it was my neighbour (that I'd never met, since the distance between the houses is quite large) asking me if I'd lost a duck! I explained what had happened and he drove me to his place. It was Mist! Managed to catch him, and brought him back home. He wasn't damaged/injured that I could see. But wow, he had gone far! I'm just happy the neighbour came over.
Did a quick check of the ones that were there, and my blue female Muscovy seemed to have taken the brunt of the feather yanking. One of the 3 month olds also had a bunch of tail feathers missing. Otherwise, they seem fine.
All the chickens had returned by bed time, and I did a quick count of the ducks this morning and they all seem to be accounted for.
That dog needs training.
