This is not the picture I want.

Despite the mounting evidence that Deo may be more German Shepherd than not, I still hope to train him as a calm Livestock Guardian Dog. Deo’s destiny is to be a protective force of good against the many chicken-predators – I’ve written it on the internet so it must be true.

But at the moment, I’m not sure who needs the most protection. I’m worried for our little hero.

The Problem

Deo thinks Spacey and Lacy are his playmates; he crouches and pounces and barks. His tail wags like a slithering snake. The hens do not reciprocate with joyful rambunctiousness. They continue to eat, warily. They turn their backs and try to ignore him.

But when Deo gets too close, they believe in attack first, think later. They spread their wings, they shake their plumage out and beef up their body’s with air. They lunge beak first, sending Deo skittering away.

This is why I worry:

1. one day Deo will get too close and the chickens will lunge too far and Deo will loose an eye.
2. one day Deo will be a lot larger than he is now and it will be the chickens who run away. When this happens I’m pretty sure the hens wont fare as well as his squeaky-toy-sheep.

There are moments of peace:

And moments of pre-attack possessiveness:

But overall, I don’t trust either party.

I think with time we’ll get more control over Deo and he’ll get more control over himself, but for now all interactions are closely supervised.

The good news, the silver lining – Deo likes to pee and poop around the chicken enclosure, sending out a clear message to all nighttime predators:

Bugger Off.