Well, it happened to me.
One of my dogs killed my birds this morning.
I have always said that my own dogs were the biggest threat to my birds, and it was true. My own stupidity cost my birds their lives.
As many of you already know, I have a pack of dobermans (I do doberman rescue). I have watched the dogs carefully with the chicken pen, and only one dog was truly fixated on the birds. I have been keeping that dog, Harry, in a "back yard" (separate fenced area) during the day, and only letting him out to run the main property (about 5 fenced acres) after dark when the birds are asleep.
As many of you also know, I have been traveling back and forth from Knoxville to Lebanon, slowly moving a huge accumulation of stuff from my old place (Knoxville) to my new home (Lebanon). I did that again yesterday. I got back to Lebanon around 1:30 AM this morning, and understandably I was very very tired.
I let all the dogs out to run for a few hours, since some of them (including Harry) had been crated all day while I was gone (I don't yet trust any of them inside the fence when I'm gone, since I've only been living here a few weeks). I got up about 5 to crate the males again (including Harry) before sunup, so they wouldn't have a chance at the birds while I was asleep. Then I went back to sleep. UNFORTUNATELY, I was still half-asleep when I put the dogs back in their crates. I didn't notice that Harry was actually not one of the dogs I crated. Unbeknownst to me, he actually stayed out the rest of the night.
Well, Harry killed the birds while I was sleeping.
I have been in the process of reinforcing the chicken pen. The previous owners had chickens and a pen, but some of it was chicken wire and some of it was strong 2 x 4 wire. I had already reinforced the chicken wire with 1/2" x 1" welded wire, but I had not yet gotten around to putting that over the 2 x 4 wire. Unfortunately, I did not notice that at one side, that 2 x 4 wire was very weakly attached to the posts. Harry pushed in that one side to get into the pen, and killed all the birds.
I'm not mad at Harry. He told me over and over that he would kill the birds if he got a chance. I knew it. I am angry with myself for two things: 1. I kept putting off the project to finish reinforcing the pen, because I had "more urgent things to do"; and 2. I didn't stop and carefully COUNT which dogs I put back in their crates early this morning.
I still have my baby mille fleur bantam cochins, which were in a dog crate on my sun porch. I'll slowly be "replacing" the other birds as I can. But it won't make up for the lives that were lost.
So this is just another reminder to everyone: BE CAREFUL! BE ALERT! Don't put those projects off til tomorrow. YOUR BIRDS DEPEND ON YOU!
One of my dogs killed my birds this morning.
I have always said that my own dogs were the biggest threat to my birds, and it was true. My own stupidity cost my birds their lives.
As many of you already know, I have a pack of dobermans (I do doberman rescue). I have watched the dogs carefully with the chicken pen, and only one dog was truly fixated on the birds. I have been keeping that dog, Harry, in a "back yard" (separate fenced area) during the day, and only letting him out to run the main property (about 5 fenced acres) after dark when the birds are asleep.
As many of you also know, I have been traveling back and forth from Knoxville to Lebanon, slowly moving a huge accumulation of stuff from my old place (Knoxville) to my new home (Lebanon). I did that again yesterday. I got back to Lebanon around 1:30 AM this morning, and understandably I was very very tired.
I let all the dogs out to run for a few hours, since some of them (including Harry) had been crated all day while I was gone (I don't yet trust any of them inside the fence when I'm gone, since I've only been living here a few weeks). I got up about 5 to crate the males again (including Harry) before sunup, so they wouldn't have a chance at the birds while I was asleep. Then I went back to sleep. UNFORTUNATELY, I was still half-asleep when I put the dogs back in their crates. I didn't notice that Harry was actually not one of the dogs I crated. Unbeknownst to me, he actually stayed out the rest of the night.
Well, Harry killed the birds while I was sleeping.
I have been in the process of reinforcing the chicken pen. The previous owners had chickens and a pen, but some of it was chicken wire and some of it was strong 2 x 4 wire. I had already reinforced the chicken wire with 1/2" x 1" welded wire, but I had not yet gotten around to putting that over the 2 x 4 wire. Unfortunately, I did not notice that at one side, that 2 x 4 wire was very weakly attached to the posts. Harry pushed in that one side to get into the pen, and killed all the birds.
I'm not mad at Harry. He told me over and over that he would kill the birds if he got a chance. I knew it. I am angry with myself for two things: 1. I kept putting off the project to finish reinforcing the pen, because I had "more urgent things to do"; and 2. I didn't stop and carefully COUNT which dogs I put back in their crates early this morning.
I still have my baby mille fleur bantam cochins, which were in a dog crate on my sun porch. I'll slowly be "replacing" the other birds as I can. But it won't make up for the lives that were lost.
So this is just another reminder to everyone: BE CAREFUL! BE ALERT! Don't put those projects off til tomorrow. YOUR BIRDS DEPEND ON YOU!
