Diiiiiita! Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiita!

[ChickensGoMeh]

I just read on the vicarage thread that you have chickens. Have you managed to stop Eric chasing them? I take Jasper out when I muck out, but secure his lead to the outside tap. He now sits calmly watching me instead of going mental trying to chase the birds, but I have no doubt that if I let him loose he'd be bringing me most pissed off chickens at regular intervals. What do you do? The birds are in a secure run most of the time, but they get an hour or two of free ranging daily and at the moment I have to keep Jasper in during that time. They do take the piss to be fair and sit on the back step goading him or peck at his bowl while he attempts to climb the french doors in a frenzy of bird lust.

oooo that made me feel popular. :)
I have always let them out together (never unsupervised) it only takes a couple of good pecks for the dogs to work out who is boss. I also play with them when the chooks are out so they are more interested in me, If Jasper chases them I would take him out when they are freeranging on a lead and do some training, just get him used to them being there and being of no interest, I would definatly nevr trust them alone together though. it is really funny when friends bring there dogs round as they usually go bonkers.
poor Cherry had to actually be rescued from them the other day as they had cornered her, she knows she is not allowed to touch them and they were pasting her.

distaraction definatly seems to work best, now if I could just get him to stop chasing the bloody cats we will be winning

See, I have pekin and serama bantams, so they are particularly spaniel-gob-sized. Hmm. Maybe I should work on it this week while he's still a bit dopey from the drugs