Protecting the Chickens

We go to great measures to ensure the health and safety of my chickens.  One of our most effective deterrents has been the electric wires that we strung along the entire perimeter of the chicken area.  Hopefully it deters wild animals from coming anywhere near the enclosed chicken area but we know it has been effective at keeping our dogs away.  At least until recently.

The reason it hasn't been as effective recently is that we had the electricity turned off.  Our new puppy, Frankie has been following Mike everywhere around the farm and we didn't want him hurt.  However, concerns for the chickens eventually overrode concerns for Frankie, and he is much older now after all, and yesterday we turned the fence back on.

When we first installed the fence, each dog had to only touch that fence once to decide never to do it again.  When Mabel touched the fence, she was so surprised and 'shocked', she ran down the driveway, through the corn field, across the street, across Frank and Lois's front lawn and right into their house through the doggy door.  When Blackie touched the fence, he took off.  Fortunately Suzanne was here and he headed towards the pond because that body of water stopped him and Suzanne was able to calm him down.  Needless to say, we were a little concerned about how Frankie would react.

Being kind hearted people, Mike and I had worked hard to keep Frankie away from the fence.  When Mike went into the coop, I distracted Frankie.  When I went into the coop, Mike distracted Frankie.  We had just congratulated ourselves on avoiding trouble and were heading back to the house, when Frankie went back to investigate the coop.  He started to step through the wires when he got shocked. He froze, yelped and then backed out.  He started to run away but it was actually more like a slow jog.  He headed back to where the dogs and Mike were standing but went straight to the other dogs.  He stopped running and started to play with the dogs.  That Frankie wins the award for the most fearless dog we have.  I hope in the long run that turns out to be a good thing.