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- #11
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Been there, felt that, too. My little bastid dog has managed to kill 4 chickens from January to last week. The first three were adolescents, over 3 month ago, and he is very leery of the others now that they have grown up. The fourth was a bantam.... The first killing was a total surprise to me. The last three were totally my fault at not being as vigilant as I should have been. He had stopped trying to dig into the run.... and was not chasing the chickens any more. But I forgot that bantam chickens are pretty darned small, and they're newer to the flock so they startle more easily. Zorro's prey drive is triggered by running & flapping small chickens.
I keep him inside when the chickens free range, and I am EXTREMELY careful in locking the run gate and coop door. NOW. My other dachshund wants to have NOTHING to do with the chickens, won't even stay outside when they are free ranging. HE doesn't care that Zorro is the one at which I'm yelling "NO!" and "BAD DOG!"
I had the dogs first - Zorro is 11, and Dooley is 4. I've not only been a crappy chicken owner, but a bad dog owner, too. *sigh*
We had our dogs first as well. We never expected that they would be able to "get along" - I really made the mistake of underestimating how wry this one dog would be. The other two would have been happy to chase them given an opportuntiy. This guy MADE one. I wish he'd go after the darn mice on our property with the same conviction....
Been there, felt that, too. My little bastid dog has managed to kill 4 chickens from January to last week. The first three were adolescents, over 3 month ago, and he is very leery of the others now that they have grown up. The fourth was a bantam.... The first killing was a total surprise to me. The last three were totally my fault at not being as vigilant as I should have been. He had stopped trying to dig into the run.... and was not chasing the chickens any more. But I forgot that bantam chickens are pretty darned small, and they're newer to the flock so they startle more easily. Zorro's prey drive is triggered by running & flapping small chickens.
I keep him inside when the chickens free range, and I am EXTREMELY careful in locking the run gate and coop door. NOW. My other dachshund wants to have NOTHING to do with the chickens, won't even stay outside when they are free ranging. HE doesn't care that Zorro is the one at which I'm yelling "NO!" and "BAD DOG!"
I had the dogs first - Zorro is 11, and Dooley is 4. I've not only been a crappy chicken owner, but a bad dog owner, too. *sigh*
We had our dogs first as well. We never expected that they would be able to "get along" - I really made the mistake of underestimating how wry this one dog would be. The other two would have been happy to chase them given an opportuntiy. This guy MADE one. I wish he'd go after the darn mice on our property with the same conviction....
