You can choose to read the short version or the full story.
If you plan on reading the long version, read that first as the short version bypasses the story element and basically contains spoilers!
The short version:
I keep chickens in movable coops. The coops are within a large enclosure, made with a netting fence that the dogs have been trained to respect as a boundary. We move the coops and netting to different places, so that the chickens get to enjoy fresh grass and different types of natural shelter, in accordance with the season.
Last year, Adi started biting at the netting to make holes in it. It took me from early spring to late December to realise that he was the culprit. He was getting into the chicken enclosure to eat their food!
I took steps and removed the open feeding containers that he’d been eating from, to make sure that there was nothing rewarding he could find in there.
Then, on the 15th February this year, he went into the enclosure and then into the run and coop where the chickens were sleeping. He killed three of my six chickens and ate one of them. I can only imagine that when Adi didn’t find the open food containers he was used to eating from, he ventured in further… perhaps the chickens started fretting and his prey drive was aroused. It became a game and three chickens were killed.
[The following text is also at the end of the long version]
Since then, I lock the chickens into their run every night. I also make sure that there is no food that he can access, nothing to reward his getting into their enclosure.However, Adi still continues to bite holes in the fencing to get inside. Perhaps he eats the chicken poo on the ground and that is his motivation and reward . If I keep him inside at night, then we’re fine, but if I let him out (and he often asks to be let out, so he can go and bark and creatures on the other side of the property fence, which is also his job) then invariably I’ll find that he’s made another hole in the fencing, or two. Also, there have been times when he’s bitten a hole in the fencing during the day.
- The movable netting is an intrinsic part of my chicken keeping and the best way I can give them an almost free-range lifestyle, while keeping them safe from the dogs.
- The holes mean that the chickens can get out and if they do, they won’t be safe from the dogs.
- The holes also mean that the other two dogs can be tempted to go in, a behaviour they never exhibited until Adi started making holes to access that area.
- I literally don’t have the time to mend all the holes that Adi continues to make. I have wasted so much time on this over the past year to year and a half, making repairs.
There is a lot of freedom here, for all the animals. The other two dogs were puppies of six and eight weeks old when I got them; Adi was eight months old. I was able to train and accustom them in ways that I have not been able to with Adi.
Over the years I have made many allowances and changes because of Adi. On a number of occasions I have thought that I should rehome him, because he does not fit into the very free lifestyle that we enjoy here. However, I always relented and instead strived to find ways make it work.
I have reached the point where, with great sadness, I recognise that Adi does not fit in here, with the way that we live. It works with the other animals but not with him. When the chickens were killed, I felt no anger, only sadness.
We wish that things could have been different, to have Adi spend the rest of his life with us. I have spent so many hours, days, weeks and months, over these 4 1/2 years, to train, rehabilitate and condition Adi. He has come very far, compared to what he was like when he first came to us, and the first years even.
I hope that all the time I have spent on him is a worthy investment so that he can spend the rest of his days with a person and/or family who love him and give him the environment and attention that he needs in order to thrive.