Is this likely? Advice please

Mince Pie

Mince Pie

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 June 2011
Messages
9,756
Visit site
I live on a farm where there are various animals such as chickens, ducks, geese, sheep and a pig. My dog (a collie) and I have lived here for 6 years, my dog is 6 1/2 years old. Before we moved in, when my dog was about 3 1/2 months old he chased one of my cousins chickens in her garden, because of this I took great care to train the dog not to chase any of the farm animals when I first moved in and now he is complete reliable around anything that we have here.

2 weeks ago a chicken and a duck were found dead, because they are directly outside my house he has been given the blame. I'm open to it actually being him, but I will admit to being highly sceptical - why would he totally ignore them for the 6 years previously, chase and kill 2 birds, and then go back to ignoring them? I have been keeping a close eye on him since and he is acting his usual self around the chickens - as in he's ignored them?

There have been at least 2 occasions when he has be blamed for something that turned out not to be him, am I being unreasonable to defend him on this occasion? I do appreciate that no dog is 100% reliable but this doesn't make sense to me?
 
I wouldn't rule it out....a dog in the company of their owner and a dog without the company of their owner can be two different animals behaviour-wise.
If you are there, you are the person, through whatever methods, trained him not to look at the birds, if you are not there, then that variable (the thing or the person who prevents me from/has scolded me for, paying attention to the birds) is removed.

Relapses are possible, they are not robots, the birds may have been moving or behaving in a certain way, I have yet to meet a 'fully trained' dog that didn't need a bit of a refresher/repetition every so often.
 
A dog that is 100% reliable when the owner is around will not necessarily be 100% reliable in the owner's absence.

Personally, I have always kept my working dogs in the kennel when they are not under my immediate supervision. Anyone, in my humble opinion, who does differently is asking for trouble. As the old saying goes, "When the cat's away, the mice will play". Or when the owner isn't around, dogs will do what dogs do. I gave a friend, a farmer, this advice but he just laughed. It took his dogs three years to start chasing sheep but they got around to it eventually.

Have you carefully plucked the corpses and examined them for tooth marks, bites, or broken bones? Sometimes a predator will leave a hair or two on a kill and even if you have to use a magnifying glass, it might be worth looking. Don't waste the corpses either but hang them on the electric fence!

Edited to say I see CC has similar thoughts!
 
I wasn't there at the time. I had gone out but because it was a very hot day and I live in a mobile home, he was on a long line with access to a kennel, however unbeknownst to me (I hadn't put him on it for a while) it was torn so when I came home he was loose in the farm yard.
He's been loose around the farm whilst I've been out before as he knows how to work the yale lock for the front door!

I appreciate that it could well have been him but as I said I am sceptical.
 
Oh I also agree about the kennel thing or at least somewhere where he is physically prevented from accessing livestock without supervision.

Oops, just read your above post.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top