Chicken Doodle
Dapper’s relationship with the chickens is still unsettled. He’s very happy that they are no longer in the house. (Although he found chicken droppings to be a tasty treat.) He no longer has to be gated into just one room anymore and he doesn’t suffer fits of anxiety when a chick abandoned her brooder. Dapper is the only pet in the house again and he gets all the attention. Good or bad.
When we go to the coop, Dapper hates to be left out. At first I wasn’t sure how he’d react to eight chicks running helter-skelter around him but I couldn’t bear his whining for long.
I opened the door to let Dapper in. Immediately he ran to my side, tail wagging, and sat down. I wondered how long it would take for the chicks to notice him and what Dapper would do about it. It wasn’t long.
At times a chick would get close to the dog. Dapper would stretch out his neck to nose the chicken. Often the chick would turn to face him, nose to beak. Then she’d turn and run off.
After a little while, Dapper got brave and would take a step or two to sniff at a chick. That’s when the trouble started.
A chickens number one preoccupation is finding food. She spends most of her time eating, scratching, pecking and chasing bugs. So when Dapper stood up, his floppy, long-haired ears just looked like so many worms that the chicks couldn’t resist. They flocked him, pulling strands of hair on his ears. This surprised him and then POW! He was pecked right on the nose!
After that, Dapper was very careful to keep his face hidden behind someone’s legs. Soon, he gave up and asked to leave the coop.
I guess Dapper has a healthy understanding of what being “hen-pecked” means now.
(The picture shows Dapper’s surprised expression with his ears standing straight up after being pecked by the Leghorn.)
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