This week was supposed to be profile week. Unfortunately a lot happened and it wasn’t. We are dog-sitting a lovely dog, but he’s too excited, which means we couldn’t get the chickens and the dog in the same backyard at the same time. More below.

The Chickens

We started dog sitting this week. As a result, no chickens were let loose in the backyard.

During the week, we tried to introduce the dog and the chickens slowly. First I took Dolores in my arms to close to the dog (which was being held by Dean). Dolores was very nonchalant and stayed securely in my arms. The next day, I decided to take Consuelo. I opened up a little to the door, with Consuelo securely in my arms, with my foot stopping the door from opening too much. The excitement of the dog frightened Consuelo, who flew up in the air and shat everywhere. I had to get mad at the dog (who had no fault of his own, since he is a good happy and overexcited pooch) to get him to go back into the garage (as with Consuelo’s flight I lost a bit of the handle on keeping the door very narrowly shut). Not a fun event for anyone (but later I laugh at the scene).

Dean finally finished the temporary outside pen for them and we moved them there. The dog would not leave them alone (from the other side of the fence). He would bark loudly (and excitedly) at them, which would scare them to the back of the pen. We had to get mad at him to see if he would control his excessively friendly behavior. That did not work well. The dog spent most of the day locked up in the garage because he can’t handle his excitement of seeing new friends, even though the “friends” don’t really want to be with him due to being scared of the size difference. If he was nonchalant towards them, they would probably get along fine.

We are in a pickle with the chickens and the dog and trying to work out how to solve this. It saddened me.

The Challenges

Having time to explore the chickens’ beauty and behavior.

Photos

To see the 52 Weeks of Chickens – 2nd Generation project, click here.