Dog Day Afternoon
July 3, 2010 at 7:26 am 9 comments
Life in the slow lane. We take a short romp, pick berries — and Marcella and Audie teach Chuckie to leave the peeps alone.
Entry filed under: dog training, dogs. Tags: chickens, just another day in the life.
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1.
H. Houlahan | July 3, 2010 at 11:31 am
That blocking looks like his Mama, when Mel used to get too excited/conflicted about the itty bitty foster kitties.
Logan The Lab recently learned the hard way not to LOOK AT the turkey poults.
2.
SmartDogs | July 3, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Did you notice how annoyed he looked? It struck me very much as the attitude of a big brother deeply annoyed by his little brother’s bonehead shenanigans.
3.
H. Houlahan | July 4, 2010 at 4:46 pm
For all that, Chuckie is not being a very bad boy. Mostly curious, a little bit predatory, and showing nice impulse control.
Marcella really is pretty hyper. I think you are right — the kids are driving her crazy.
I’ve got to get some video of Evil DOH and her 13 gorgeous peeps.
They are the cutest damned chicks I’ve ever seen, and EDOH is the fiercest and most feral broody.
Buffy II hatched nine eggs Friday and Saturday. Buffy III isn’t looking too promising; I may get some chicks at the fair for her this week, or see if the feed store is getting in any.
4.
DVincent | July 6, 2010 at 9:23 am
2 thought on watching this, besides what fun it is;
1) Is Audie protecting the cheeps from Charlie, or Charlie from Marcella?
2) Marcella seems less worried about Audie then Charlie, suggesting more grey matter on her part then we think of with chickens. I suspect she reads their body language, something I would bet the hybrid meat birds we used to raise (referred to as stupid white boys) could not do. They would look up when a hawk flew over while the older breed laying hens we keep run for cover. Anyone get a bit of a shiver thinking about the grocery store products and the phrase, “you are what you eat”?
5.
SmartDogs | July 6, 2010 at 9:48 am
1) Knowing Audie, a little of both I suspect. And based on where his gaze was during the first approach he made I think that Charlie was as interested in the chick feed as in the chicks themselves.
2) While they are really really small – chicken brains are remarkably similar to mammal brains. So much so that chickens are used a lot of studies on brain anatomy and development. As neuroanatomist Dr. Charles Watson put it “they have very, very clever brains in a very, very small space”.
As to the stupid white boys – they may be big and meaty but I’d prefer to eat something smarter and prettier and so hope to raise some meat birds here next year. We’ll just have to see if the smarter prettier part rubs off on me 😉
6.
H. Houlahan | July 6, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Ah, the Stupid White Boys — we call them Cartmans — are not so bad. They are actually rather pleasant when kept in moderate numbers on pasture and allowed to be semi-real chickens. A lot of the stoopid is naivete — I mean, how wise can you get when you are off to freezer camp at eight weeks?
Anyway, I eat carrots and potatoes and stuff, so I guess I can’t slag on the intellect that used to power my meat. And I don’t wanna eat Flipper!
Chickens absolutely read the dogs accurately. They also know the individual dogs and what to expect of each of them. The pandemonium in barnyard whenever a WRONG DOG appears is a stark contrast to our normal free-range dog ‘n’ poultry arrangement.
7.
Viatecio | July 6, 2010 at 5:43 pm
That was an awesome video.
I’m constantly amazed that some people will say to “Oh just correct him” without considering the communication and learning that can happen without our influence. Marcella certainly seems like she’s been around the block a few times with a few dogs with this lesson…mine would certainly benefit from such an encounter! (I really don’t want her learning the hard way to not eat things that make interesting noises, especially bees.)
OTOH, I’m amazed that she and Audie didn’t redirect him with a treat and clicker either.
Great day for all, it appears. Those peeps are KYOOT.
And I remember watching some kind of documentary on the chicken and how they’re researching it’s intelligence and brain. I was actually pretty impressed!
8.
SmartDogs | July 6, 2010 at 6:00 pm
No clickers needed. This is a textbook example of clucker training.
9.
Rob McMillin | July 7, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Ow …