Need some practical advice

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Here's the deal:  we got this monster puppy on Valentine's Day, and he's a pretty good puppy for the most part.  Have trouble with him pulling clothes off the line and dragging junk around the yard, but that's all normal puppy stuff.  Well, we noticed that we'd been getting fewer eggs lately, but didn't think too much of it as the chickens look like some of them are about to molt.  Today, Ev was feeding the critters and was in the feed room of the chicken house when Goliath came crawling up the ramp into the hen house where he promptly sniffed out and ate three eggs, shell and all.  It won't be too long before he is too big to fit through the hen door, but in the meantime, he still fits.  Do I have to leave my chickens penned all the time until he is too big to get to the eggs?  Is there a way to break him of a bad habit?  I've always heard that the only thing to do with an egg-sucking dog is to shoot him, and I'm not going to do that, but also don't want to have to keep the chickens penned.   Any advice?

[peternap]

Nothing cheap. An Invisible fence would do it. Otherwise, it's hard to break that. Even if you watch and catch him, he;ll start sneaking in.
Time to start obedience training.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Well, the good thing is that soon he'll be way too big to fit through the henhouse door....  the hens are pretty good about only laying in their nest boxes, so if he can't get to the nest boxes because of his sheer size, that'll cure the immediate problem, but not the urge.  I'm also having issues with him hurting the kids accidentally.  He doesn't mean to, but he's a big clumsy pup.... he is walking good on a leash now and sitting on command.   Hasn't gotten the stay part down yet, lol.  Yesterday, he just swung around fast and caught the baby across the forehead... he didn't "bite" her, but his tooth hit her and she thought he did.  She talked the rest of the day about how "Goliah bite me!  Owie!"  Trying to get him a little calmer around her.... not having much luck with that so far.

[firefox]

Maybe set up a heart line until he is too big to fit through
the hatch doors.
Bruce

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Heart line?

[gandalfthegrey]

easy training 101

mdw and I raised rottie puppies for a few years and found a quick and eaasy training method.

dogs seem to love cooked chicken livers.  We bought chicken livers at the grocery in small tubs.  Cooked them and kept a supply in the fridge.

Sit was taught first.  We started them young (3weeks old)

all pups had little loosa e fitting collars.  We selected a pup, placed it in frontt of us a started.  Say sit (firmly) lift on the collar and push down on rear.  When the pups rear touches the floor, give him a small piece of liver. continue this method and every once and awhiletry without pushing down. when he gets good at sitting whithout pressure on rear try without lifting on collar. 


After sit is learned try down . this is easy with the pup in the sit position place a leash on the collar and just lay it on the floor.  Slide the end of the leash under one foot and holding the end pull the pups head toward the floor while saying down.   He will get it soon. 


Remember to treat on every time he tries correctly.

Good Luck
john

AKA
Gandalfthegrey1

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

  He is smart, but has kind of a passive aggressive  attitude about stuff (kind of reminds me of some kids I know).  Sometimes it is almost like, "You gonna make me?"   He does do really well on sit and heel.  Have to work on the come, stay, down, etc.  Of course, today I decided to try to teach the goat to walk on a leash, and she made the puppy look like an angel.

[firefox]

Heart Line.  We had a cat with feline lukemia and he loved being
outside. But if he was allowed to roam, he would infect other cats.
So I set up a long cable in the limited yard we had, which was not much more than a long driveway to some garages in the back of a duplex rental apartment.
Then I made a harness out of some plastic covered cable. All I did was make a figure 8  with a brass ring where the cable crossed.
All you did was stretch the figure 8 so that it was skinny and slip the ring to the center where it crossed. Then you slip one end over the cats body  and the other end over its head so that the ring is on the top of his back. The reason for this is so that it is both comfortable, sanitary, and he can't squirm out of it.
Then I made a lead in. One end had a loop which the long overhead cable went thru, and the other had a brass snap hook that snaped on to the ring in the collar.

He adjusted to it right away and seemed quite content for the next few years of his life. I believe he was about 19 when he finaly died.

Hopefully I was clear enough in my explanation. If not, than let me know.