I had to call New Daddy at work during a very busy week just to tell him about this.
On the day prior to this event, Precious had helped me release chickens with Rosie off the leash. Before we went outside, I explained to Precious what we were trying to accomplish and how to do it. She was an excellent helper. The plan was to use bits of liverwurst as Rosie's incentive to ignore the chickens and explain to Rosie that she got a treat when she did not chase chickens. Rosie was a little hungry, and this training session went beautifully. After the chickens exited their tractor, and she ignored them, we tied her onto her tether and gave her a few more treats for "sit" and "lie."
The day of this training event, it had rained, Rosie had been digging in the pungent dirt all morning, and she had already eaten. Therefore, I tried to repeat this training all by myself with a not-hungry, frisky-from-the-cool-rain, and quite dirty Rosie. I gave her a treat for sitting, and told her the rules again. While I was holding treats under her nose, I opened the door to the chickens' tractor.
And pandemonium broke loose.
There was a dog chasing seven chickens, who were all splitting off in different directions. Then, the dog decided to try to round the chickens up and make them stay in her circle. My yelling "Bad Dog! Nooo!" only made her more determined to have fun. They escaped the "circle," and she bounded my way.
As she passed in front of me, I grabbed a thick tuft of fur and landed on top of her-- the ultimate Alpha roll... me, 8 months pregnant, in my old knit dress. Super Alpha Mama. She yelped partly from surprise, partly from pain. After I tackled my mud-streaked, 70-lb. puppy, plopped my 140-lb., pregnant self on top of her, and looked her in the eye, I firmly told her: "No." I then led her repentant self to the tether, attached her, and walked off, ignoring her.
Then, I took the remaining liverwurst to the chickens, loudly informing Rosie that since she chased the chickens, I was giving them her treats. She crawled into her doghouse with a look in her eyes that could have rivaled a thousand rained-out parades. Half an hour later, I visited her at the doghouse with my sweetest, calm chicken, and she didn't budge. The chicken almost seemed to like being next to Rosie, too.
It has been two steps forward and one step back, but we might be starting to get somewhere. I have a feeling that it will be a pretty intense six months to a year of training before we have a LGD that we can trust.
On the day prior to this event, Precious had helped me release chickens with Rosie off the leash. Before we went outside, I explained to Precious what we were trying to accomplish and how to do it. She was an excellent helper. The plan was to use bits of liverwurst as Rosie's incentive to ignore the chickens and explain to Rosie that she got a treat when she did not chase chickens. Rosie was a little hungry, and this training session went beautifully. After the chickens exited their tractor, and she ignored them, we tied her onto her tether and gave her a few more treats for "sit" and "lie."
The day of this training event, it had rained, Rosie had been digging in the pungent dirt all morning, and she had already eaten. Therefore, I tried to repeat this training all by myself with a not-hungry, frisky-from-the-cool-rain, and quite dirty Rosie. I gave her a treat for sitting, and told her the rules again. While I was holding treats under her nose, I opened the door to the chickens' tractor.
And pandemonium broke loose.
There was a dog chasing seven chickens, who were all splitting off in different directions. Then, the dog decided to try to round the chickens up and make them stay in her circle. My yelling "Bad Dog! Nooo!" only made her more determined to have fun. They escaped the "circle," and she bounded my way.
As she passed in front of me, I grabbed a thick tuft of fur and landed on top of her-- the ultimate Alpha roll... me, 8 months pregnant, in my old knit dress. Super Alpha Mama. She yelped partly from surprise, partly from pain. After I tackled my mud-streaked, 70-lb. puppy, plopped my 140-lb., pregnant self on top of her, and looked her in the eye, I firmly told her: "No." I then led her repentant self to the tether, attached her, and walked off, ignoring her.
Then, I took the remaining liverwurst to the chickens, loudly informing Rosie that since she chased the chickens, I was giving them her treats. She crawled into her doghouse with a look in her eyes that could have rivaled a thousand rained-out parades. Half an hour later, I visited her at the doghouse with my sweetest, calm chicken, and she didn't budge. The chicken almost seemed to like being next to Rosie, too.
It has been two steps forward and one step back, but we might be starting to get somewhere. I have a feeling that it will be a pretty intense six months to a year of training before we have a LGD that we can trust.
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