We had been talking about getting a puppy for a while so we were aware of the time and effort required as well as what to expect in terms of naughty puppy behaviour.
We have been taking her to puppy school and so far I feel we have achieved quite a lot, sitting, walking on the lead, not coming inside when the door is open (well most of the time) and generally being a fairly good little puppy for her 4 months of age.
However, she has recently developed an unhealthy obsession with the chickens.
Until now she has not been too interested and just sat outside the Chicken run (a large 6m x 15m enclosure surrounded by .9m fence) looking through the wire or watched them if we let them out into the house yard.
But she has now decided the best fun of all is to climb the fence and chase the chickens around the run.
So the chickens are squawking and flapping and the more they squawk and flap the more excited Jessie gets. She has never tried to catch one, she is just chasing them, but I have a bad feeling the catching part is not too far away if we don't nip this it the bud.
Now I cannot blame Jessie entirely for the bad behaviour as she is a Kelpie and Kelpies are herding dogs with huge energy potential (adults can heard stock covering up to 40km in a day and still not be exhausted), so she is doing what comes naturally to her. But this cannot go on.
The chickens can't take the stress and quite frankly I can't either!
Tomorrow night is puppy school so no doubt the trainer will have some tips for us. But because training takes time action had to be taken.
So early this morning I went to town and purchased some 1.8m garden stakes and a roll of chicken wire. Hubby is currently out in the rain raising our fence to 1.6m (bless his (wet) cotton socks) which will buy us some time while the training takes place.
I have just been out to inspect/pass approval on the work being undertaken and it is looking good. So good in fact that my mind has started running through a list of climbing plants that might like to take advantage of this new fence. And that is where I leave you. I'm off to see what kind of chicken proof, climbing, hopefully food producing plants I can plant around the run.
He is so cute. We have a two year old "recycled" dog from the RSPCA. She has turned out to be a fantastic little friend for all of us. Hope all goes well with your "fur child"!
ReplyDeleteSo adorable! Good luck with the training! If you have any tips, please share! My pup Ollie is also very keen on the girls to the point where he gets locked in the house when they are free ranging... hmm.
ReplyDelete(new follower too btw, love your blog)
We have actually run an electric wire around our chicken run, not for our dogs, but for the neighbours dog who mistakenly thought our chickens were up for grabs. It also is a fox deterrent. One hit with the electric wire and we haven´t seen the neighbours dog since and haven´t had an issue with foxes either.
ReplyDeleteThe chickens weren´t too happy with the new set up, but they are still let out to free range for the last couple of daylight hours when we are around to supervise. Chickens out, fence off. Chickens in, fence on.
Well the fence has had it's first day of testing and what do you know it worked, end result happy chickens happy me.
ReplyDeletePuppy training will still be undertaken but now we are not stressed about it needing some time to perfect.