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Judy,
My Pyrs are house dogs. They can only be outside when someone is home
to listen for them and get them back in the house if they get too
noisy. Charlie came home when he was a puppy so it was easy to turn
his day around - he wakes up at sunrise and is up most of the day, at sunset he
starts watching me to go to bed. Sweetie was nine months old when she
came home with me and she follows Charlie's pattern for the most part.
Charlie goes to doggie day care twice a week and he patrols the yard and "herd"
of dogs all day. After two years, the dogs have started to ignore the
"normal" neighborhood noises of kids and other dogs (esp yappy ones) but it has
taken a lot of talking and treats. Last evening, roofers were working on a
neighbors house and Charlie told them what he thought but he listened
to me when I told him he was right to bark but it was now time to stop.
Amazingly, he did stop.
The guineas are another story - mine are not the least bit obedient.
The chicken will pay attention - sort of. At least I can distract
them with cracked corn to get them to move if I have to. The guineas
do what they do, when they want and if they want. My next door neighbor is
totally freaked out by them if they roost in my trees. On the advice of
another bird fancier, I clip the flight feathers on one wing - they can only fly
in a circle back to ground. My best compromise is to wait until late
afternoon to let the birds out of the coop to free range. Since their food
and water is in the coop, they return to it as the sun sets and do not sleep out
in the trees very often. But the loss is that the bug population is not as
well controlled as when they are out and about all day. Some of my
neighbors have asked to have my birds visit for bug control but the
guineas are not clever enough to visit one yard and not another so that
does not work well. Some of my friends and neighbors are very happy to get
fresh eggs, others are queezy about the idea of seeing the chicken who laid the
egg and then eating the egg. Supermarkets have really detached us from our
food sources. We do not eat our chickens though, I am a victim of the
detachment too.
Amy
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