A few pics of my family

[pioneergirl]

Here are a few pics of my 'family'

Thelma & Louis are getting bigger!

My "LGD"

It took only 2 days to train Ben to leave the chickens alone. I had taught him "leave it" and now I have to worries of leaving him unsupervised outside with the flock!

 

[me&thegals]

How did you teach him to leave the hens alone? I'm curious since we may be getting a dog this fall/winter and it will NEED to be a paws-off kind of dog regarding the poultry Thanks in advance!

 

[miss_thenorth]

Google Cesar Milan the dog whisperer. We did the same thing as he does even before I knew who cesar milan was. My chickens actually walk on my dogs, and the dogs don't care.

Basically, you bring a chicken to the dog-get the dog to lie in the submissive position until he no longer shows any interest whatsoever in the chicken. Rinse. Repeat. Correct the dog any time he shows any interest in the chicken until he doesn't anymore. Do this, supervised with the chicken walking around him until he shows no interest, predatory or otherwise ever, in the chicken. I often have bunnies and chickens walking (and hopping) around the yard with us and the dogs could really care less. It really only takes a few sessions around 10 minutes each to teach the dog. The idea is that the dog needs to know he is at the bottom of the pack Dog=lowest. Human=highest (pack leader) all in between, higher in pack position than the dog. If dog tries to challenge the pack position, you need to put him in his place, but ime, as long as dog knows you are pack leader uncontested, he doesn;t try to challenge with chickens.

Does that make sense?

(good to see you on here again Me&G)

 

[Beekissed]

P-girl, that is a lovely family! I especially love that big dog. Hey, I think you posted a video of working with draft horses? If not, ignore this, but us dial up folks can't really view those videos....have any pics of that you would like to put on here?

 

[me&thegals]

Google Cesar Milan the dog whisperer. We did the same thing as he does even before I knew who cesar milan was. My chickens actually walk on my dogs, and the dogs don't care.

Basically, you bring a chicken to the dog-get the dog to lie in the submissive position until he no longer shows any interest whatsoever in the chicken. Rinse. Repeat. Correct the dog any time he shows any interest in the chicken until he doesn't anymore. Do this, supervised with the chicken walking around him until he shows no interest, predatory or otherwise ever, in the chicken. I often have bunnies and chickens walking (and hopping) around the yard with us and the dogs could really care less. It really only takes a few sessions around 10 minutes each to teach the dog. The idea is that the dog needs to know he is at the bottom of the pack Dog=lowest. Human=highest (pack leader) all in between, higher in pack position than the dog. If dog tries to challenge the pack position, you need to put him in his place, but ime, as long as dog knows you are pack leader uncontested, he doesn;t try to challenge with chickens.

Does that make sense?

(good to see you on here again Me&G)

Thanks so much and thanks for the kind words

 

[pioneergirl]

Miss_thenorth has it right. It helped that he knew the "leave it " command from when I taught it a couple years back. Being as he is so big, he can rest his chin on the kitchen counter. I didn't want him "counter surfing" so we started there. Its also a good command for dead things , poop , and anything else you don't want them messing with. Around here I'm the Alpha everything, lol so it didn't take long. You can do it!!

Bee, yes I did post a video...I'll see if I can find some pics for you!