Cats, Dogs and Chickens

My old dog Bob would herd the chickens and spent several nights accompanied by a sick chicken in a box, never bothered with them unless I needed to get them back the other side of the fence. On the other hand if my Mums dog comes to visit we have to be very careful. She's a terrier, turn your back and she will have chicken for tea!

We have 100's of dogs and cats coming through our doors every year, as the animal welfare is awful over here and 1000's dumped and 100's of puppies/kittens disgraced.

When we got our Chickens last year we picked up a puppy on the same day that was put in the trash, we ended up calling her Po, short for pollo (chicken in Spanish) she would go inside the chicken house and sleep with them, spend as much time as she could with them, we used to joke saying that she thinks she is a chicken. All of the dogs just seem to love them, the queen chicken (called Queenie) does give the dogs a peck if she needs her own space but the dogs think it is a game. We even have a dumped hunting dog and again he is fine with them

Again the cats love them and i will often see the cats laid out with the chickens, it is so funny to watch.

Sadly last week we got Quails now the dogs love harassing them and one of the cats tried to kill them, so can not keep them as "sort off" free range and had to build a giant enclosure. Have not received any quail eggs for the fright that they had. Bloody cat.

The worse is that some of the dogs LOVE, eating the chicken poo

We didn't use to let our birds free range and when we had our little boy (a rather large greyhound) it was a good thing. Although he was fine around them most of the time as soon as we had guests he would chase them and play up to show off. As soon as he got excited about anything all sense left him

Our birds range now and we have about 8 cats visit and none of them bother.

Our old staffie hated the chickens....but hated foxes and cats more....so he gave us his best look of suffering martyrdom when the girls pecked his bum and he huffed loudly if they cimbed on his back while he sunbathed but he kept them safe from harm.

Now I have a whippet. a lurcher and a Rhodesian Ridgeback.
The chickens wouldn't stand a chance.

Seven ( our collie ) is fine with the chickens & turkeys. If the chickens are in there run seven is fascinated by them running up and down the fence line choosing lunch, especially if I'm talking to the chickens. But if the chickens are out the back of the house ( they can come and go as they please ) and seven is out there he pretends the chickens aren't there, denies there presents. If he comes face to face with a chicken he just freezes & looks to me or Bob to help. He is not a brave dog if there isn't a fence between them!