I came home to a very un-welcome, but unfortunately not unfamiliar, sight this evening. I went out to feed my goats and saw feathers all over the ground, which I knew meant that one of my chickens or ducks had to have gotten into the goat pen and become a toy for my stupid Pyr, Bear. He is great with the goats, but he is an absolute JERK when it comes to any of my birds. He is about a year or so old, so still a puppy, and he thinks the chickens and ducks are toys. So far he has only managed to kill one chicken, but he also got hold of my Pekin duck and plucked her nearly bald before I found her and rescued her.
This time the feathers were black, so I went walking around the goat pasture with a flashlight, trying to think of which black chicken he might have gotten, hoping it was not one of my 'special' chickens and that he had not managed to kill this time. I found one of my favorite hens, a beautiful solid black EE named Jellybean, lying next to the goats' hay feeder, her back all red and bloody. I don't know how she was even still alive...
I brought her inside right away to see how bad it is...she is missing the skin down to the muscle from her entire back all the way from between her wings to her tail. I thought the best thing I could probably do would be to put her out of her misery, but I just can't make myself do it. So, I wrapped her all up in gauze and vetwrap and then a towel to try to keep her warm. I don't think she will last the night. So very sad and so very angry right now.
Don't even want to look at that darn dog at the moment. I am debating whether to bother trying to re-train or whether to just re-home him to someone who only has goats, no birds. Thing is that he is pretty valuable as a goat guardian for us because we have a bad coyote problem and without him the coyotes would probably make short work of my Nigis. I have been thinking about trying one of those electric shock training collars on him...thought maybe if I could catch him with one a couple of times when he didn't know it was me, he might associate the unpleasant sensation with the chickens and leave them alone.
I already found that yelling at him does absolutely nothing, he has that stubborn, independent, Pyr attitude. He had a chicken pinned to the ground one day and I went running to the rescue yelling in my scariest voice. Any of my other dogs would have dropped whatever they were doing, but since he's a Pyr, he just looked up with this expression that clearly said he was judging whether I was close enough to stop him in time and went right back to pouncing on the poor chicken. Thankfully that time I got there in time to rescue the poor bird, but Jellybean was on her own today so I'll probably end up losing her. I can't even think about what she went through, probably so scary and painful being pummeled all around and plucked until her skin came off....stupid dog doesn't even bite or try to kill or eat the poor things, he just tortures them for the fun of it.
And, since this was one of my hubby's favorite chickens as well, more of a pet than livestock, he is all torn up and mad, too. I think both of us are trying to remember right now that we love animals and would feel bad if we went along with our current overwhelming desire to turn that stupid mutt into a throw rug.
This time the feathers were black, so I went walking around the goat pasture with a flashlight, trying to think of which black chicken he might have gotten, hoping it was not one of my 'special' chickens and that he had not managed to kill this time. I found one of my favorite hens, a beautiful solid black EE named Jellybean, lying next to the goats' hay feeder, her back all red and bloody. I don't know how she was even still alive...
I brought her inside right away to see how bad it is...she is missing the skin down to the muscle from her entire back all the way from between her wings to her tail. I thought the best thing I could probably do would be to put her out of her misery, but I just can't make myself do it. So, I wrapped her all up in gauze and vetwrap and then a towel to try to keep her warm. I don't think she will last the night. So very sad and so very angry right now.
Don't even want to look at that darn dog at the moment. I am debating whether to bother trying to re-train or whether to just re-home him to someone who only has goats, no birds. Thing is that he is pretty valuable as a goat guardian for us because we have a bad coyote problem and without him the coyotes would probably make short work of my Nigis. I have been thinking about trying one of those electric shock training collars on him...thought maybe if I could catch him with one a couple of times when he didn't know it was me, he might associate the unpleasant sensation with the chickens and leave them alone.
I already found that yelling at him does absolutely nothing, he has that stubborn, independent, Pyr attitude. He had a chicken pinned to the ground one day and I went running to the rescue yelling in my scariest voice. Any of my other dogs would have dropped whatever they were doing, but since he's a Pyr, he just looked up with this expression that clearly said he was judging whether I was close enough to stop him in time and went right back to pouncing on the poor chicken. Thankfully that time I got there in time to rescue the poor bird, but Jellybean was on her own today so I'll probably end up losing her. I can't even think about what she went through, probably so scary and painful being pummeled all around and plucked until her skin came off....stupid dog doesn't even bite or try to kill or eat the poor things, he just tortures them for the fun of it.
And, since this was one of my hubby's favorite chickens as well, more of a pet than livestock, he is all torn up and mad, too. I think both of us are trying to remember right now that we love animals and would feel bad if we went along with our current overwhelming desire to turn that stupid mutt into a throw rug.
