Posts Tagged dogs and chickens

"Scooter", one of our six-week-old Australian labradoodles, meets the hens.

We’ve had the best luck with our two Australian Labradoodles and the two elderly hens Daisy and Sweetpea. Labradoodles are rather high energy dogs and I really thought that we would never be able to let both hens and dogs out in the yard together to free-range. But, they have both learned to tolerate each other quite nicely. The dogs still like to sniff and will follow the hens around until the old girls can’t take it any longer and turn, puff up, and say, “That’s enough!”. The dogs go back to doing what they were doing and the hens go back to digging in the dirt beside me.

I love being outside with my two old hens and my two young dogs. I was unable to be out in my garden as much as I wanted this fall because our “Tillie”, a breeder that we co-own with a professional, was bred in October and produced the sweetest, smartest, puppies for us to raise. Husband Don and I were kept busy inside with the six little furry bundles so it was fun when they were ready to get out and explore. One of our favorite puppies “Scooter” was the only one really interested in chickens. Maybe a little too interested and we had to put the girls in their run when the puppies were out. The puppies have all been sold and are in wonderful homes. None have chickens to play with.

See puppies here.

Tillie at 16 Weeks

I’ve not had time to sit down and write. Our new labradoodle has kept me running. We have become “guardians” of a pretty little female Australian labradoodle named “Country Matilda Lil Miss Q” or “Tillie”. She’ll grow to be about 35 pounds. She’s already a great garden companion; content to be by my side wherever I go.

Someone told me not to get a “bird dog” like a Labrador retriever or pointer as they were “just too interested in chickens for their own good”. We looked into terriers but they are “diggers” I wasn’t sure our large garden would be compatible with a Norwich, Jack Russell, or Wheaten. Then I heard about an Australian labradoodle. The medium size multigen grows to 30-40 lbs and are calm (bred to be therapy and service dogs) and non-shedding. Yes, they come from bird dog descent so we’ll just have to see how that plays out.

Tillie is Curious; Hens are Cautious

Tillie is curious, suspicious, and more than a little interested in those “squawking” hens. When I hold our tamest girls, Tillie nuzzles them trying to determine if there is something edible under the fluffy feathers. When I let her into the run she follows them around using her senses to figure out what these strange creatures are. Gentle Daisy follows Tillie, carefully removing bits of straw from her coat.

Daisy Gently Picks Straw from Tillie's Coat

I’m not so unrealistic as to think I can trust this little birddog with my hens, but I hope that Tillie’s curiousity will blossom into some kind of tolerance for these beautiful birds.

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