Pups With Poultry

[grrlpunk]

hey everyone...

i was just wondering if anyone out there has had some experience with pups and poultry. basically my situation is this:: i live on an organic permaculture farm where poultry (ducks and chooks) are an important part of our system. both ducks and chooks free range during the day without much in the way of restriction. our two older dogs dont really bat an eyelid at any of them and quite happily live side by side but our new little 12 weeks old american staffordshire terrier is quite different. obviously being a puppy she is excited by everything that moves (and doesnt for that matter ) i just wonder what steps i should be taking to make sure that her fascination in the poultry doesnt turn into something more sinister when she grows?? a dog that kills poultry is a major problem as its almost impossible to stop once it starts. so i would like to know if allowing her to familiarize herself with them now is a good idea and should i try to enforce the notion of NO when she chases them now or is that just a puppy thing that she will grow out of??

cheers for your thoughts in advance

:p

[fifi]

I have a very simple rule - all stock is well fenced off seperate from dogs.

Apart from flock bonded herd guardians like Maremmas, you are basically placing pedator & prey together in a very tempting mix.

good fences would be my only solution.

fifi

[fifi]

By the way, I love your signature, looks like a beautiful place !!

fifi

[persephone]

Hmmm..

our puppies freerange with the chooks and guineas.

As they are Koolies, they do ttend to chase, and providing it is 'chase and round-up' we let them be.

Any chasing and attempting to grab is frowned on, and a squirt from hose/rattly something thrown near is bought into play.

The pups are also praised for sitting/lying quietly when poultry are nearby.

Being as you are on farm tho..having the birds running is not desirable, so I would be praising her for being settled around them, and discourageing any chasing.

does she have her own(non live) chasey toys?

[grrlpunk]

yeah she has her own toys and she doesnt do it all the time....i mean she quite often spends time on the verandah just watching them as well as walking around with us whilst they are around and she normally finds more interest in the tag on my work boots rather that the chooks but just sometimes she will chase them. praising her for just being calm around them is a good idea and i will do that for now on. i believe that dogs and poultry can and do live in harmony in many circumstances. i will try to praise her for being cool, calm and collected :p

[grrlpunk]

p.s...thank you for the comment about my signature. where i live is incredibly beautiful, you are more then welcome to come and stay *wink wink*

Edited November 15, 2007 by grrlpunk

[persephone]

:p not GOOD pics at all..

but was outside just now and this is what I found Puppy Widget and one of our geriatric (12 yr old) chookies

Edited November 15, 2007 by persephone

[grrlpunk]

:p great pictures...i love seeing that because it goes against the whole notion of predator and prey. i see it with my bigger dogs all the time. you should check out this short clip of a dog with baby chicks;

it is the sweetest thing