[jason g]

a couple of local cats have just noticed my chickens (i have 4 POL at the moment),the thing is should i be worried ,it seems like the chickens are.the cats climb on the fence next to the coop and run looking to pounce in .three chickens jumped out well  flew over the run wall which is 3 feet high.trouble is i have a jack russell who whould love to play with them too .i will be totally caging in the run but this cant  happen for about 4 weeks .

[Junie]

Amy chance of trusting your JRT with the chickens - Our =Badger looks after the chickens like they are his, he even whines to let them out in the morning , and he will chase anything away that upsets the chooks.  The JRT could perhaps keep the cats at bay!

[tesni]

hopefully as your birds get a bit more confident they will sort out the cats    our three cats (quite good hunters) are totally at the bottom of the pecking order - to such an extent that if a chicken is on the back step the cats stay in the garden until they are 'allowed' in   

[sneezer]

I used to have at least 8 cats regulary in the garden  But now my girls free range I don't see any cats 

[jamima]

We've just started having a cat come in the garden but the call ducks make that much noise think it frieghtened away

[jason g]

thanks for the replies ,opened the coop door door this morning and within 20 seconds the chickens went beserk ,so i went to check on them and the was a ginger cat in the run and had to shoo it off with  a 2lt water bottle  ???i am going to introduce them to my jrt when they are more confident to see how she gets on with them ,i cant 100% trust her yet.

[pigeonpie]

Our girls chase any cats that dare to even think about coming in to the garden.  One of them even managed to get herself over the fence in to next door to continue chasing a cat that had thought of disturbing them.  The neighbour said she was wondering why one of the local cats started following her around the garden until there was a flurry of feathers and the escapee ran full pelt at the cat.  The cat didn't stick around and the chicken made herself at home as the new guard chicken!

[ma baker]

if you introduce your jrt slowly a bit at a time and hold a chook and let him sniff them thus taking ownership  of the chicken (according to cesar the dog whisperer) we let ours see them for a week through the covered run and only let him out with them when we were there. they now see him as part of the flock and he sees them as part of his pack ! now they line up behind him when he chases one of many mogs out of their garden as if they are back up! you know your dog and are best able to judge his body language. good luck with the intros.