I am new to posting, but I've been hanging around for a while reading all of your wonderful advice. So I thought I might ask for ya'lls opinion on what I should do.  I live in town, but somehow it's considered rural. My neighbors have a very small yard (150sqf max) and incist on raising chickens and allow them to run free and they come into my yard. As a GSP owner you are all aware of the strong pray/bird drive these dogs have. In the last month my dog (Chase) has killed two of their chickens and maimed several that I was able to rescue from his attack. I have to keep him tied up when Im not home and had to install and electric fence (which can only be at the top since I have a 2 y/o and dont want her zapped on accident) to keep him from jumping over. I have contacted animal control and they cant do anything because it is rural and they are allowed to have the chickens. I just dont know what else to do with my dog and I dont think its fair to keep him locked up all the time. I constanly have to watch out my windows to make sure hes not digging under or pushing through the fence. I've tried my e-collar but again I have to watch him constantly in order to catch him in the act. Im just very frustrated and appreciate ya'll listening,  Andrea

Do you use the dog for hunting? If you do and are shocking him when he is after the birds when he gets shocked; he might think that the birds are causind the shocks and not want to chase any birds. Have you talked to the neighbors about penning up their birds? You should also see if you are liable for the birds if they are on your land. Just a thought. These dogs do love their birds! That's for sure.

JMO: good fences make good neighbors. I'm in the middle of a major fencing project myself, complete with almost 2yo daughter and husband and I both working full time jobs to slow the process down. FUN TIMES.

It's going to set us back some serious $$$, but we're in the middle of the country with cats and dogs and horses and deer and wild bunnies and skunks and raccoons to tempt the hounds at every turn. We're setting corner and end posts in concrete and putting in 4' of tensioned 2" x 4" square knot mesh, with a hot wire 6" or so from the bottom and a strand or 3 or hotwire at the top... so it should be 20 or 30 year investment. I'll just turn off the charger when the kid is out there while she's young. Once she's old enough to appreciate natural consequences she'll either obey my warnings or figure out what momma was prattling about the hard way.  The fence charger can sure zip but it shouldn't harm anyone.

I actually had to touch the electric wire inside a bear cage when I was a very young grade-schooler on a field trip to a local game farm. Let's just say it was a shocking revelation, but I kept my trap shut since I knew I'd get double trouble at least for being so stupid as to wriggle my hand in there.

P.S. A well-constructed kennel might be another option. If you can't pour cement, rubber horse mats or paving stones can be used as flooring to prevent a dig-out.

We are very happy with our 6 foot privacy fence. Rocky doesnot even attempt to worry what is on the other side of the fence, because he can't see and we have plenty of things ,swimming pool, balls chew toys ect to entertain Rocky.  So it is nice to open our back door and just let Rocky out without worrying about him chasing a cat or somthing else. Rocky actually prefers his back yard  and runs back into it after our walks in the open http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa168/Snickers-085/th_101_0781.jpg

Yeah, we just got our fence in our backyard and it has been a lifesaver while the heat hovers around 35 - 37 degrees Celsius the past week (feels well over 40 with the humidity).

Granted, Bo is only 5 months, but our backyard (approx. 40 feet by 30 feet)seems to be more than enough for him to burn out his engines in most cases. When he really needs to run, we take him to a local school (that has a fenced yard on 3 sides) and let him run like mad with a toy.

We do have a fence, 6ft privacy. He still tries to go over, under or through if I dont watch him. The neighbors have a terrier and it chases the chickens over into our yard or they roost on the top and fall over. Thats why its such a pain, even with a fence its a hastle. They wont keep them confined and dont seem to care if my dog kills one, they just get more. We are in the city in a track home developement but somehow its considered rural. Im hopeing animal control will tell them to get rid of some and coop up the rest. Thank you for all of your responses, its really appreciated.

Yeah That's too bad that they don't make them be penned up. Maybe if you complained about them being in YOUR yard? An electric fencer works good here for me. I had to put one up when my female got into heat last year. It was after the fact though. My male got out of his harness, went through the chain link kennel, got on the roof of her kennel and chewed/ dug through the roof to get with her. I wasn't happy with him but I figured after his houdini act he deserved it eh? Any how i got a small fencer and ran one wire about 6 inches off the ground and another at the top 6ft. He does not try it anymore. Not even when she's in heat. Thank God!

In most places once someone else's animals are on YOUR property they're fair game. I say make a big ol' chicken barbeque (keep in mind I'm Pure Evil©).

I have the same beef with people's cats wandering into our place. I've met a few individual cats I liked but I'm not really a cat person and my husband is terribly allergic to them. I have GSPs instead, which because of their athletic abilitiy and highly preditory nature I contain behind my house in kennels surrounded by a permimeter fence. It's a free country. Everyone makes choices and lives with them, right?

But we've had the neighbor's feral/barn cats over here, even having kittens once (I had to rescue the survivors), and picking off the native birds that we've attempted to help by letting the bulk of our 3 acres grow wild. Fortunately those neighbors moved and I think the strays finally got picked off, but in the meantime our dogs go INSANE every time one skulks around the fence. And if they're ever out in the open together.... kitty, you may have just blown 9 lives in one afternoon.

At least the birds will thank us in that case. I had some nit tell me once that her cat killing native birds wherever it happened to wander was just 'the circle of life'. I told her that circle could be rapidly completed if said cat wandered in with my dogs. Funny how most cat owners never look at that end of 'the circle of life' the same way!

...He calls Animal Control about my dogs killing his birds and the Animal Control guy was trying to keep a straight face while the neighbor was complaining. The officer told the guy to make sure his pens were secure and stop complaining. I swear this guy has taught his birds to come over and poop all over my fence,pooldeck and patio area.

I swear, some people must be drinking or smoking some good stuff, lol...

When I was growing up there was a family up the road that raised their own rabbits and goats (they had 8 kids so they did anything to help the grocery bill). One house closer to us had a husky and another had a really nice lab, but both dogs were always out running around at all hours of the day and night.

So one night the husky and the lab decided to kill a goat up the hill together. The man of the house came out and shot at the dogs, and the lab was severely wounded... I think it made it back home and they had a vet try to save him, but there wasn't a chance.

The owners of the lab had the nerve to SUE THE GOAT OWNERS FOR DAMAGES!!! The goat owners wouldn't have gotten the law involved otherwise, but as a result they filed a counter-suit. Needless to say the judge dropped the hammer on the dog owner and made HIM pay for the goat (an adult purebred milking doe so it wasn't cheap).

My dad made a point of outlining this for us kids most likely because he felt it was a keen lesson in personal responsibility as well as how animal law works.

Fences are good. (ETA: not always sufficient when some other nit's animal is clambering over, but at least then the law and common sense is most likely to fall squarely in your court).

I agree completely with Meg. If they come over to my yard, its BBQ time. I had a similar problem to this when I was up and my relatives and the far away next door neighbor raised quail. They got out of there pen (not sure if he let them out or they escaped) and they came into there acreage. Well they had a GSP puppy at the time, and I was running mine with the pup down around the property and mine seen the quail and locked up but the pup caught a couple. Bad training pen raised quail I might ad. LOL! So he called animal control 45 min out into the country to see that his quail got "attacked" on his neighbors yard. How he knew that he was missing 2 or 3 is beyond me... When the old sheriff/animal control told him to take a nap im sure he wasn't to happy... Long story short. People like to have something to complain about. Your yard is your yard. Killing chickens isn't illegal, at least where i live.

If I heard right. There is a local lady here trying to sue a Target because she hit there cart return and mauled 3 carts.

Congrats on the victory!  I think it's funny when the ones complaining get it instead. If they had just kept their birds on their property ; none of this would have happened. Not much sport for a GSP to point and hunt chickens though! Ha Ha