Monday, July 30, 2012

Fowl Weather

On Saturday, we brought the Badgershrooms to a friend's pig roast. We thought that the piggest problem would be keeping the dogs away from the spit, but we turned out to be barking up the wrong tree. What we didn't know was that our friend has a chicken coop in the middle of his backyard. After the dogs made a beeline for the chickens, we ended up with egg on our faces and had to keep them leashed to us the entire time.

Even after being leashed, Mushroom kept whining and pulling toward the chickens, so we took her to a corner of the yard that was out of line of sight of the coop. We practiced the "touch" command with her. If she could do it successfully 5 times, we moved closer. If she tried to pull toward the chickens, we moved feather. After about half an hour, we made it to our goal - the snack table (we were feeling peckish) and lawn chairs about 10 feet from the coop.
 
Badger was also a clucking asshole and tried to herd the chickens

Just as the pig was being removed from the spit, the weather turned fowl. The pork was eggcellent, but we were soaking wet. Mushroom was so miserable that she cowered under the serving table to stay dry, oblivious to the meaty goodness inches above her soggy head. So we flew the coop and headed home, where it was nice and dry.

"This place needs more chickens"

What confuses me is this - there were three other dogs at the pig roast, and none of them were interested in chasing the chickens around. Does hennyone else have a dog that chases chickens, or are we the only ones left alone and ostrichized?

3 comments:

  1. The shelter specifically told me to keep Schultz away from chickens when I got him, but my parents have them roaming in the back yard and both the dogs just run right through them like they are invisible. Cats are Schultz's weakness, and squirrels are Tess's. They both make these embarrassing pathetic whiny noises when they aren't allowed to chase one

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    1. We were not specifically warned about chickens, but then again, there aren't many in suburban Massachusetts.

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  2. My in laws have a coup in the back yard about 15 ft away from where Trinity plays. It's covered by trees but has a walkway to go there most of the time she goes on the grass area then slowly makes her way down to them. She then barks and play bows at them running around the pen. I laugh & kinda encourage it (we're gonna be eating them one day so I don't wanna get attached). I let her have some fun then walk away & she follows me. Before i had to tell her no then grab her by the collar & put her on the porch as punishment (I know I'm reall mean ;) it took afew tries to get her to stop & go away from them. Now it's a 50/50 chance of her stoping when I tell her wait. But she's not trying to kill them so I don't get to worried. What you did was good refocusing attention is the best solution besides removing them.

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