[Dannii]

Hiya,

Will FINALLY be getting my hens this week some time and am wondering the best way to introduce my dog (bichon frise) to the hens. My thoughts are him on a lead and taken into the enclosure? but do I let him go right up to them? He isn't an agressive dog although he loves to bark! I dont want him constantly barking at the enclosure! When we first had a rabbit the dog was obsessed with it and wanted to play but his 'play' was charging around the living room and putting his paw on top of it, obviously the rabbit wasn't too keen. I'm hoping this introduction will be a little easier as the hens won't be in the house (hopefully!!) any advice will be VERY gratefully received!!!

Dannii

Forgot to mention I have a HUGE cat too but I doubt he will even be bothered to lift his fat bum to walk to the garden to have a look :o)

[Oliveview]

Our dogs are more interested in eating the chicken poo than the hens themselves....... except our dearly departed Chihuahua Barney liked to chase Colin the cockerel, until Colin pecked Barney and chased him back! It was a funny sight to see
Pamela

[peggyprice]

hi Dannii,

We introduced all four of ours (one at a time!) by taking them on a lead to have a sniff round the run while the chickens were safely inside.  But we do ALWAYS keep the dogs separate from the chickens (the way our garden is laid out makes it easy to do, there's a fence and a gate between them).  

The dogs are fascinated by the chickens, spend most of their time staring through the gate and the trellis fencing at them, and occasionally letting rip when the chickens do something interesting like flap their wings - but the hens ignore them completely!  I've seen the chickens literally inches away from a barking collie dog completely unfazed and just carrying on digging for bugs