So for the past 9 weeks I've been slowly and steadily training both puppy and chickens to be calm around each other (high five to Rachael @Oberon for her advice regarding this). It was really simple - c/t for calm. Initially there was lots of paws up against the mesh and jumping around, the odd excited bark, but I kept at it. Occasionally I'd bring her into their garden with the leash and I'd continue to c/t for calm. Over the weeks I'd noticed a huge change in the chickens. Where initially there had been loud warning clucks and mad dashing away, now they would just continue doing their own thing, but would still keep an eye on this excited interloper. Well today I found out - unintentionally - whether my training had worked or not. As I tried to squeeze through the gate with my container of chicken poo, Xena squeezed past me into the run. HEART IN MOUTH. But you know what she did? Ran straight under the coop to snuffle up the sweet, sweet chicken poo. I'm trying to project calm but inside I'm dying. She comes out from under the coop. Looks at the chickens 3 metres away eating their dinner...looks at me (HEY MUM SEE I'M CALM WHERE'S MY TREAT WOMAN?). So I c/t. She potters around, I continue to c/t for calm, she eats more poop, she watches the chickens walk past, I c/t, more poo eating - you get the gist. The chooks were great. A couple of them walkedawayveryfast from Xena, but there was no frantic flapping run *phew*. I'm not going to start giving her free access to the main garden any time soon, certainly not unsupervised, and I'm going to continue to c/t around them, but the relief that she didn't try to kill my precious chooks is just...amazing. So to all those people (I know I'm preaching to the choir) who think that the only way to train a dog around chickens is harsh words, yanking at the leash, spray bottles to the face, and electro collars (all frequent suggestions on my FB chicken group) - well, I did it with patience and clickers and simply rewarding the behaviour that I desired. Now to get her to stop being so excited around the damned cats...
That's a great achievement, and absolutely the right approach! I breed rare breed poultry and have a few ducks kicking around. My dogs are great with them, although Bramble does struggle with her excitement, but that's OK. I just avoid putting her in the position where she feels she can't cope
Absolutely, tonight there was a little bit of luck involved. The chooks were off eating their grain a few metres from the gate, there were no food scraps to lunge after, Xena was calm. It was a split second decision whether to lunge after her or leave her and I'm just glad that it worked out!
