All dogs have the natural instinct to chase prey. It’s up to the owner to train them
My bird dogs ignore everything but their target. None of them chase deer cause I break them from that
Years ago, we had somebody who shot a neighbor dog because it was chasing a deer. It turned out to be a very expensive decision for that person and rightly so
And 14 months is still considered a pup. Especially larger breeds. And a hunting dog is geared more towards chasing birds
I agree with the poster that stated it sounded like she didn’t even bother to train it and then was upset when the dog did what it naturally is supposed to do. Dogs don’t learn like we do. But they can learn
I had a labrador once that was so well trained against chasing livestock that you could take him to a city park where people were feeding ducks and he would ignore them. But my son would take him duck hunting and he would retrieve every bird
We’ve raised chickens and labradors, and only once had a problem that I fixed, and the dog never touched a chicken again but would hunt his ass off in the bird woods
I’ve always said there’s no such thing as a bad dog. It’s bad owners that are the problem
I'll disagree with your final conclusion.
There ARE bad dogs.
I had a dog named Max. Typical mountain dog - crossed between G.Shepherd and Husky.
And like such a dog is laid out, he loved battle.
A holy terror to coyotes. And any stray dog that entered onto his territory was immediately dispatched - Didn't really matter how many.
Such a dog has a preeminent value. His main job, and he did that job better than any.
But the animals within his care were also fair game.
He took out several chickens. He wouldn't stop shagging after the horses. He picked all the hair off my sister's cat. He wouldn't let up from it, no matter what.
And then one day he was gone. The old man had enough.
But that dog was an exception, not the rule. Many dogs like him have lived and died within our gates without that trouble. So it wasn't in the raising of him... But rather, a nature particular to him. He was all outlaw, and could not function within the societal bounds, where many others could.
Now, I will admit that dogs tend toward being a commodity on a ranch. They have a job, and that job puts em in harms way. So their lives are not of the same sort of ease one might find in the city, and they surely won't last as long. But their value is great - They are not summarily dispatched without reason. They are not destroyed without some final straw.
That's what this episode sounds like to me.
But at the same time, it is a more nuanced relationship than it seems. For instance a dog is likely to be able to nip at folks - even children - with far more toleration than city folks could bear. Some dgs, it's in their nature, and a kid needs to learn how to avoid it... Some dogs it's unlikely, and there's a reason why the child got a nip and it's marked off as serving the kid right, and he FAFO'd. Every redneck boy has one of them stories.
And I was sitting on the porch one time at one of my friend's places... The rooster went off on one of the yard dogs... It went on a bit, and the dog finally lost his patience and shook the rooster to death - Just that quick. He dropped the bird and looked at the old man with an 'oh, shit!' expression... The old man waived him off. Said, "Served him right... That damn rooster went after Margie (his wife) and was due to go to the pot." So it was the rooster's fault, and the dog was free to make him pay. But that dog didn't have it in him to kill chickens as a normal sequence.
Another time, down south, at one of my kin's place, the yard dogs set off nipping at all the kids... And they all went screaming and crying into the house... Well the men folk went out back to figure this out, and there's one of the dogs, laying in the yard, dang near dead, with a water moccasin, dead, not a far off. That dog recovered, and got a steak dinner out of that deal.
So it ain't so easy as you put it. It's a nuanced relationship, and farm dogs generally have a whole lot of leeway, with a whole lot of understanding wrt their nature. They know their place. They know where the lines are. If they can't abide that, it's just a matter of time.
