The Education of Ben

And Ben is intelligent enough to know the difference between give and take.

And, finally...I get to see the fruits of my labors and my plan come to fruition today!

The reason I got Ben was to help Jake, as Jake is getting old and having spells of rheumatoid arthritis, so not sure how long he'll be with us. The reason I chose his type of dog was so he would be more territorial towards stray dogs than Jake has been...Jake just wants to be friends with all dogs.

Stray dogs are our most frequent large predator that actually comes to the coop and we've been able to shoot a few of them when they come but we'd rather not have to do that...if you do a running shot, there's always a chance you can merely wound one and my eyesight is not too good any longer. The plan was to get a breed that would keep us from having to shoot dogs. Today I got to see it work!!!

A beagle came into the yard just now and laid down under the apple trees, watching the chickens from afar....Ben started barking at it. It advanced no further, just laid there...it seemed to realize the dogs couldn't reach it and I wondered if it would just bide its time until chickens wondered into its space. I didn't wait, I reinforced Ben's warning with a shout of my own, "GETONOUTTAHE-YAH!" and the dog took off.

But...at least Ben wasn't friendly and I think he'd cross that boundary anyway if he thought the dog was a threat, he's blown through it before for lesser reasons.

I'm so very pleased to see him getting territorial!!!!! GOOD DOG!!!

Ben, shown here eating a green peach he stole from the tree...stood right up on his hind legs and neatly picked himself a peach.





Blood on his muzzle as he gets his share of the chicken butchering. He has a new friend, a white kitten we got this summer, who also shared in the feast. They are great buddies and Ben loves to chase him but doesn't mind sharing food with him.

His little kitten buddy, Flash, getting his nose in things too.

And Ben gets a carcass all his own...he loves his fresh meat.

I'm really glad we got him and he's turning out to be a fine chicken/homestead dog.

What a good boy!!

He is very very handsome.

We butchered roosters last week and our "house" dogs gobbled up the guts. The Pyrs really don't like them. They will politely take them, then walk off and drop them. Not so with the other two! It just makes sense not to waste anything, even if it's chicken guts.

Good boy Ben!!! Bee, your boy is growing up!

Bay, I can't believe your Pyrs didn't want chicken guts!!! Ben eats most of them, though he leaves the actual intestines behind...lets the chickens peck at those.

Maybe the Pyrs get a chance to eat natural foods more often than the house dogs, so it wasn't much of a novelty to them?

Nope, they are both picky. My black Lab/Great Dane eats the intestines, anything and everything. His mouth is so big that my command for anything I toss to him is "Alligator." His jaws snap shut like an alligator, hence the command. It even works for pills. We saved the gizzards, livers and hearts for ourselves, fried some tonight.

I canned the bony chicken backs for the GP's. They like their food cooked, thank you very much.

I wasn't here to see it, but I think Ben had his first real tussle with a stray dog or dogs over these chickens. I have two hens injured, two different piles of feathers and Ben has a laceration on his face....but no dead birds, so he's doing his job. The bite marks on the one chicken are not far apart and didn't go deep, so these birds were caught on the run and the predator wasn't real effective.

There's been a stray beagle hanging around that someone dropped off to fend for itself...the first time it came around Ben barked at it, but wasn't too aggressive in his warning. It kept its distance and I yelled at it, so it ran. I think it might have come back and made friendly with the dogs when we weren't home, but then got excited about the chickens...poor thing is probably starving by now.

This is the first injured birds I've had in years upon years, so I'm hoping that next time they both are more aggressive towards the dog or dogs or whatever predator it was. I'm also thankful that Ben stopped what was happening...Jake would never have done that unless it was a wild predator. He's far too friendly to other dogs.

I'm pretty proud of Ben right now and he's been very sweet to the injured chickens too....when I was examining them, he was snuffling the other end and watching everything I did. He's been hanging around them and standing over them as they stand around looking shocky...I can tell he knows something is different there and he doesn't quite know how to act.

Worth every penny spent on him!

Good job Ben! Bee, you definitely have a darn fine dog!

Beekissed said:

*snip*
There's been a stray beagle hanging around that someone dropped off to fend for itself...the first time it came around Ben barked at it, but wasn't too aggressive in his warning. It kept its distance and I yelled at it, so it ran. I think it might have come back and made friendly with the dogs when we weren't home, but then got excited about the chickens...poor thing is probably starving by now.
*snip*

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Great job Ben!! Any chance you could trap the beagle and take him to the pound? Even if he gets put down there, it's got to be better than starving to death... and who knows, maybe someone would want him for a pet, far from your chickens.