06/03/2026
My daughters puppy, Milo, is 4 months old and not raised around poultry. He kept thinking chasing my porch pullets around was a fun game. I had to teach him, we don't act like that at grandma's house!😆
[Milo is still looking for his forever home too. My daughter's husband decided he's not the right fit for their family and I can't keep him here. He's up to date on all his vaccines and worming.]
After a couple days of me watching him, look at him now. It's not easy to train a puppy and it takes 100% consistently with supervision. I never left him alone outside. When he was outside, I was able to correct any interaction with the birds. Puppies are allowed to sniff birds to understand their scents and satisfy their curiosity. But never interact with them by playing, chasing, or engaging too long. A quick sniff walking by, but then they better keep moving or I correct. Correction can be a loud verbal noice like, "ahhh." Or it can be I'm snatching your butt up and putting you on your back for a few minutes. I know, I'm a weirdo for still believing in the old school methods of showing a dog who's the alpha around here. But watch how a mom corrects a puppy. Or watch how another dog corrects a puppy. I'm the pack leader so I'm a firm believer in teaching the pups the correct behavior. Those that take puppies home, let them be unsupervised, aren't there to correct immediately, end up with none listening rebellious teenagers. It really ruins a puppy especially those being trained to be poultry safe. Remember these large puppies are puppies until they're 2 years old. Those first 2 years they need LOTS of supervision and consistent training. If you have more than 1 puppy, it's important to do individual training. Like here, I'm not letting Butter's older 4 puppies run around my yard unsupervised and having a free for all. No way! They are in puppy training kennels until its their 1 on 1 day with me training in the yard around the livestock in the yard. (Calves, goats, ducks, chickens,) One on One is best because otherwise, they will team up together and act crazy! They'll start chasing and harassing poultry and it takes even more training to fix that. If it doesn't ruin them first. So I always recommend, one on one training first. Then do your team together. That way you'll end up with a perfect guardian team. And yes, I've had puppy clients buy siblings before and have great success before doing this method. Sisters and brothers. I've raised NovA and Remi together for 5 years as a sister team! I'm raising Butter's 2 daughters as a team. I'm raising Butter's 2 sons as a team. Separated kennel areas. Individual training sessions. Team training season's. They're actually at the part in their training they can stay out unsupervised overnight with the house pack amd only out with the calves at night. During the day though when the poultry are free ranging, I do have to go out there and check on them. They're actually super easy to train and doing so well!
