Dog killed new friend's chicken. THE SHAME.

[calamityjane1]

Totally my fault, just have to get this off my chest somewhere as I am mortified with embarrassment!

We were invited around to a new friend's yesterday for children's tea. My 9.5 month old dog was having a lovely time chasing around the garden with their lurcher – I went to check where he was and he didn't recall, which is unusual. What I hadn't realised was that there were chickens in the garden...

We found him trotting around the side of the house with the lurcher, both covered in feathers, and then found one dead chicken with a bald patch. My new friend cried. It was awful. Her dog is around the chickens all the time and has never previously touched them, and I have seen ours attempt to flush a pheasant (he's a mix of retrieving breeds), so I can only assume he was the ringleader/actual killer. He has never seen chickens before and I hadn't twigged they were loose in the garden or I wouldn't have let him out without very close supervision.

I am so ashamed! Offered to replace chicken etc etc. I have only just met this nice lady, she invites us around, and then this.

The worst of it is I don't think I even asked if it was OK to bring the dog with me! I didn't let him out without her knowing – she went to shut the gate when we arrived to make sure he couldn't get up to the road, but normally I would have made a point of asking whether he was invited too or just left him at home for a couple of hours!

I am SUCH AN IDIOT.

oooh dear.

We have chickens and once they start flapping and squawking the dogs will give chase....so I'd not leave them together unattended

I think you have tried your best to make amends. So follow through with the flowers and chicken replacement if she said yes to that.

Oh poor you.
You must feel terrible.
We have chickens and our dog is accepting of them after a lot of work and input from DH. We often have my mums dog when she is away. Mums dog killed one of our chickens which had got out of the pen. It was horrific, both dogs had reacted to the loose chicken like a pack of hunting dogs. Even our dog which is used to the chicken was in a frenzy.
We have never told my mum what her dog did, she would be horrified. She is insistent that her precious dog should be allowed to meet the chickens properly as she wouldn't dream of hurting them. Little does she know!
At the end of the day dogs are prone toa pack mentality and will revert to nature in the right circumstances.
A card and offer to replace the chicken will be a nice gesture.

Thanks everyone! All this was interrupted by me going off to hospital to have a baby last week. I offered to replace the chicken straight away, but she said no. Now that I'm back home and feeling less like I was run over by a train, I really must sort out some flowers – I meant to ask DH to pop over with some last week! She knows I had a baby so hopefully won't be too :-00 about the delay.