When we moved to the farm, we could never have imagined that our sweet, shy, neurotic rescue dog, Bella, would find her passion here. Hunting. Don’t get me wrong. Our two golden doodles, Bear and Bella, are loveable house pets, who are outstanding at doing as they are told, except when they don’t want to, and completely lack the discipline required to be hunting dogs in the classic sense of the word. Add to that the fact that Bella is terrified of manmade things that go boom, like fireworks and guns. She definitely isn’t ever going to be any help to a hunter. But never the less, she LOVES to hunt. Walks on the back of the property, she is always on the prowl, nose in the air or to the ground, and it is amazing and wonderful to see our timid girl transformed into an adventurer.
However, one day, about a year after we arrived, she decided to try out hunting the chickens. Not so amazing anymore! After she killed one chicken, and injured another, I contacted a local trainer. I wish I remember the name, as I would definitely share it here, because I appreciate her honesty. She told me she could work with us and Bella if I wanted her to, but no matter how good the training was, once that chicken hunting instinct had been acted upon, training wouldn’t undo it. The only guarantee for safe chickens was physical separation. The chickens have a large fenced yard where they spend every morning, and we initially decided to just keep them in full time, ie no more free ranging. But those chickens love to forage, and are amazingly attuned to their ‘usual’ routine. Every afternoon all the chickens could be found huddled by the gate, looking longingly out of their yard. Then after a few days, a determined chicken got herself over the fence and out of the yard, despite the gate remaining closed. Before we realized what had happened Bella was able to catch and kill her. UGH!!!!!! What to do? And who would have thought chickens could communicate so clearly with us that they desperately missed their afternoons out? Although we love to let the dogs “hang out” with us when we work outside, we decided we needed to compromise. For morning outdoor work, the chickens stay in their yard, and Bella and Bear hang with us. In the afternoon, the chickens get to roam, and when the dogs are out, they are either in the fenced dog yard or on leash. So far, the compromise has worked well, and on the infrequent occasions when there has been a lapse in physical separation, as long as we are with her and aware of the situation, Bella has accepted verbal instruction to leave the chickens alone. But time has also proved the trainer right. Despite Bella’s willingness to leave the chickens alone when we are watching and supervising, when a young hen squeezed through the fence into the dog yard, during at time when Bella was out there and we were not, it did not end well for the chicken.
