Hyper and agile dogs

Living in a rural/ farming community, I am so worried as my dogs have expanded their territories and runs loose through fields, bushes and roads, and the worst is they start chasing cars (especially Baloo and Louie is learning it too).  It seems that the 130 acres behind our house isn’t enough for them.  And our house is situated close to the main road and right next to the rural side road.  During the summer it gets very busy in this area.  The dogs start bringing strange objects:  cat tail, coconut, antlers, feathers, bones, etc.  So they have roaming problems.  They are fine as long as we are outdoors with them doing chores.  I mean it’s their nature to run loose but we need to be responsible dog owners.  I’m afraid that they will go to the nearby farm and attack their livestock or worst people.  And Baloo one time came home with a bleeding wound the size of a dollar.  We have a 10' x 10' pen where we leave them when we have to be away for the day.  But it doesn’t seem to be the best solution.  Louie managed to bend cage wall near the door.  I know you're wondering why did we get dogs?  So far, the only good thing I noticed is that there are no longer raccoons or any predators of any kind near the house that were there before.  And it helps discipline ourselves not to leave our mess (like purses, clothes, etc.) on the floor or the sofa or the dogs will chew them.  So it forces us to put away things where they belong.  That's about it.  We leave them outside during the day (except during the times we know the mail box delivery is expected) and they only get inside the house strictly during bedtime and they are both so behaved and dog-tired (yay!).  Anyway I'm digressing here...

So we are considering investing in invisible fence – either wireless or in-ground.  I just don’t know what would be the best brand or whether we should go for wireless or in-ground.  Based on online reviews I’ve read, wireless fence can be unreliable and less responsive if there are obstacles such as trees, metal roofing (like what we have) or air (yes that’s what the online reviewer said).  The good thing about going wireless is the easy set-up and there is no need of digging the ground for laying the wire.  However, in-ground are more reliable and accurate in transmitting the signals to ‘electrocute’ the dogs once they hit the boundary.  I really don’t know enough about either system.  I have never owned a dog before but have heard that it depends a lot upon the breed of dog.  We have 2 young dogs:  Baloo is a 6-month old male Hound/Great Dane mix (pictured on the left below) and Louie is a 5-month old female Australian Shepherd cattle dog (pictured right below).  So I hope we can decide soon on what invisible fence system we should use.

First egg and a poor bleeding chick

Our hen laid its first egg.  Ironically enough, I thought it was the rooster who laid the egg (just kidding) as he’s the one who’s always on the nesting area.  He’s so afraid to go outside in the run because the 7 hens are beating him up.  We need a separate coop for the rooster I think or else he may not survive.  His comb is slightly bleeding today.

Anyway, as I was driving on the highway alone yesterday, I’ve been hearing chicks chirping.  I guess I’ve been hearing it all day at home so even when I’m not home, I still hear the chirping.  This is weird, isn’t it?

On a sad note, one of our chicks (from the second batch) left shoulder is bleeding.  I don’t know how it started.  I just see the other chicks are picking on him.  Chicks are attracted to anything red so it’s very hard to stop them from picking on him.  I put peroxide on the bleeding wound.  We ended up putting this bird in a separate cage and he is terrified to be alone.

 

Anyway, had a very solemn Passover & Foot Washing service this evening.  A great time to reflect the price paid for our sins by Jesus Christ our Saviour.

3rd Batch of Chicks (5 of them)

These are 1-week old chicks my husband picked up last week.  I will make sure this is the last batch of chicks since we now have a total of 20 chicks.  And in addition to that we have 7 hens and 1 rooster (given to us free) recently but that’s a different story.

Now back to the last 5 chicks, here are their pictures.  The first two looks like penguins.

 

Chick #1 (side view)

 Chick #1 (front view)

 

 Chick #2 (this one has lighter beak and back fur than chick #1)

 

Chick #3 (I believe it's a Cochin)

 Chick #3 (Has fur on its legs -- Cochin)

 

Chick #4 (Brahma)

 Chick #4 (Brahma view from top) 

 Chick #4 (Brahma - another view to show fur on its leg)

Chick #5

 Chick #5 (unique marking on its wing)

 Chick #5 (black spot on its head)

 

Before and Now for Chick #5 (from first batch of 8)

This is one of the 1^st batch of chicks (8 of them) who is now 3 weeks old.  He/she loves to be held on my hands.  Very stubborn sometimes and wants to escape the cage and just stay on top outside the cage.  I think we need to put some roosts inside the cage.  They want to be high up as they grow so quickly.  The feathers are filling in so fast too. 

This is how this specific chick looks like now at 3 weeks (the next 4 pictures).  I call him/her as chick #5 of the 1^st batch of 8 chicks.

 

This is how the chick looked like at 1 week old

Good dog (that's the first)

Just when we almost gave up… I heard my husband yelling  “Baloo” outside.  And I’m like ‘omg what now?’  But it turned out to be a happy story.  The white chicken is now finally back in the coop.  And guess who helped catch the hen?  Our dog Baloo.  After chasing the chicken out of the bush, he pinned the chicken with his snout mouth closed.  So my husband just went over and picked up the hen.  Baloo pinned down the hen on its butt without harming it.  It’s a miracle.  Now I can relax!

How do you catch a chicken?

I think I’m gonna cry.  One of the 7 free hens that we got is very hard to capture back to the coop.  She has been out since Sunday and I’m very happy she’s still alive.  It’s very hard to catch a chicken.  Today is freezing as if winter has come back (it snowed in our area).  I’ve been worried this chicken is going to be food for other animals.  And I’ve been letting Baloo (our dog) loose outside our house so he can do his business since yesterday because I’ve given up hope that we will ever find the white chicken again.  And guess what today, I saw Baloo was chasing the poor white chicken.  Imagine how terrorized the chicken at this point.  I’ve been trying to lure this chicken back but have no luck at all.  I was almost close but she escaped again.  Any ideas how to catch chicken?  I really hope she will still survive another day loose and we will try again tomorrow.

The reason this white chicken is out is because my husband (to my disappointment) has been given a free rooster.  Yes you heard it right.  And we really have a very small coop that makes them all cramped in there.  My husband made a mistake again of letting the rooster and the hens have a free run without even thinking of putting our dog Baloo on leash.  It’s been crazy trying to think about it.

I will keep trying…

Free Laying Hens Given To Us

My husband found an ad on Craigslist for 7 free laying hens and picked it up last night in Brampton.  They are 9 months old.  We feel so lucky to have them and didn't really expect we're gonna have laying hens this soon.  The coop that I got is too small for 7 hens at the moment but we let them loose during the day for a couple of hours.  They don't seem to wander too far.  They are actually at our front yard.  We will move the coop at the back once the snow all melted. 

I don't know the breeds yet.  I will get to that once I have time this weekend.  The guy who gave them away are moving so they need to give away the chickens.  At first we were very hesitant to take them.  But once they were here, they are very easy to handle.  Very docile chicken and loves to forage.

Here's one of the pictures I took today.