baymule
Garden Master
Paris is our Great Pyrenees that was given to us because she killed chickens. She is an awesome dog, she barks ALL night, digs holes with the depth and precision of a John Deere excavator, and is Queen of all that she surveys. What she stands on is HERS. What she sees is HERS. Motorcycles have no right to go down the street. How dare the neighbors go out in their own yard. Nobody should walk down HER street! We sleep well at night knowing that Paris will protect us from acorns falling off the trees. 
My coop is Fort Knox. I built a run this past fall out of cow panels and it is Fort Knox. I got more chicks that were hatched Christmas day. I acclimated Parker, our clown Great Dane/black Lab mix to the chicks by letting him "help" change their papers, feed and water the chicks. He loved them and wanted to lick them, only they would have rolled up in that long slurpy toungue of his! I put the chicks on him and cautioned him not to hurt "momma's babies". It worked.
I have worked patiently with Paris for the last 2 1/2 years for her to reach this achievement. She has gone from openly hostile to the chickens to their guardian and protector. I let her in the run with the young chickens and praised her. She never even wanted in the coop with the older hens. But she figured out that when I sat in the doorway of the run watching the young chicks that I was an easy target for her to get petting and love. Then she found their feed and laid down and dug it out of the feeder with her tongue. I didn't care. She was eating the FEED, not the CHICKENS!!
She progressed to the point where DH and I let the 8 laying hens out for an hour under supervision and she did.............nothing. Now both the layers and pullets free range ALL DAY in our back yard. Parker and Paris run, play, rough-house, growl, bark and tussle with each other. They run right through the flock and the dogs don't care and the chickens hardly ruffle a feather at these two goofy dogs that blast around the yard like a rocket. Yesterday I snapped this picture.
My coop is Fort Knox. I built a run this past fall out of cow panels and it is Fort Knox. I got more chicks that were hatched Christmas day. I acclimated Parker, our clown Great Dane/black Lab mix to the chicks by letting him "help" change their papers, feed and water the chicks. He loved them and wanted to lick them, only they would have rolled up in that long slurpy toungue of his! I put the chicks on him and cautioned him not to hurt "momma's babies". It worked.
I have worked patiently with Paris for the last 2 1/2 years for her to reach this achievement. She has gone from openly hostile to the chickens to their guardian and protector. I let her in the run with the young chickens and praised her. She never even wanted in the coop with the older hens. But she figured out that when I sat in the doorway of the run watching the young chicks that I was an easy target for her to get petting and love. Then she found their feed and laid down and dug it out of the feeder with her tongue. I didn't care. She was eating the FEED, not the CHICKENS!!
She progressed to the point where DH and I let the 8 laying hens out for an hour under supervision and she did.............nothing. Now both the layers and pullets free range ALL DAY in our back yard. Parker and Paris run, play, rough-house, growl, bark and tussle with each other. They run right through the flock and the dogs don't care and the chickens hardly ruffle a feather at these two goofy dogs that blast around the yard like a rocket. Yesterday I snapped this picture.
