The raccoons killed most of my pigeons a couple of weeks ago. The first night they ate 3 or 4 but they killed another 7 that they didn’t even take a bite out of. A lot of people don’t think animals kill except to eat. Raccoons, weasels and just a few days ago I read where some wolves killed 17 elk and only ate a small part of 2. ‘Coons must just go into a frenzy when they get into a pigeon coop. There are dead pigeons everywhere.
Boss.
Josie.
Abby.
Since I don’t have many pigeons I started working the pups on heel, whoa and here. Most mornings it is too hot, raining or I’ve been working on my pigeon house so I haven’t worked them much.
Abby and Josie have been worked quite a bit on heel and whoa. Not so much on the here command. When I say, “whoa” most of the time they are right by my side so they think “whoa” means stand beside me. A few mornings, I have been putting them on whoa, walking well out n front of them with my hand in the air like a traffic cop. I drop my hand and say, “here”. After just a few steps I say, “whoa”.
Some of the time I stop them with a whoa command a couple of times before they get to me. Abby handles this a lot better than Josie does. Abby, when I say, “here”, comes toward me confidently. Most of the time when I “whoa” her again she stops quickly. Josie, walks very tentatively. Some of the time she doesn’t even move for a few seconds. It’s like she is rolling the command around in her head to see what to do.
This is a real stressful exercise. The commands are total opposites. Usually, after working Abby and Josie to the road in front, across the yard then back to the wet weather creek in back, I let them happy time for a bit. I take the piggin’ string off and let them run.
The best part about this exercise it teaches the dogs that they must whoa wherever they hear the command. A few times as they are happy timing I have said, “whoa” and most of time they have stopped. A few times they didn’t stop until they felt the stimulation on their flanks. But they are learning.
I started Boss on heel and whoa. He doesn’t know it yet because I’ve not even said, “heel or whoa”. When he was just a puppy I staked he and a couple others out but he hasn’t been staked out in a long while.
I got him on his house and put an e-collar around his neck and flanks. The collars aren’t even turned on. I just want him to know that when he gets the e-collars on we are going to have some fun. I put the piggin’ string around his neck and pulled him off his house. We started toward the highway in front of my house.
The base and floor of the new pigeon house.
He stayed with me pretty good until we got outside the kennel. Then a small rodeo started. He went north so I went south. He was shocked. He tried to put his feet on me and he bucked and jumped around. I just kept walking. The only place he could find that was half way comfortable was right beside me. He yelped like I was killing him and twisted around. He lunged ahead and to the side. I just kept walking. By the time we got to the road in front of my house he was walking beside me.
After the first part of the rodeo I would just stop. I would stand and he would stand. He was trying to figure this out. After he quit fighting I would walk about 15 yards and stop. I didn’t say, “heel or whoa”. I did tap him on the head when I started walking. By the time we got to the wet weather creek in back he was doing pretty well. I turned him loose to run.
We got back to the kennel and Boss wouldn’t come to me so I got on the 4-wheeler and he ran in front of it to the very back. He still wasn’t ready to come to me when we got back, so we went again. It had warmed and his tongue was hanging out a foot. The second time he was ready to come to me. I took the e-collars off and put him in his kennel.
I have 3 walls up with the nesting boxes along the back wall.
The next day I worked Boss again. I put the e-collars on him without turning them on. I heeled him out of the kennel with the piggin’ string. He threw a fit but it didn’t last long. He figured out pretty quick, if he just walked along side me, the piggin’ string didn’t bother him in the least. We went all the way to the road, crossed the yard and back to the training grounds, stopping every 15 yards or so.
The second day he really started watching me to see which way I was going. Now I will start reversing my steps and gong to the left so he will have to give me room. Turning right, left and reversing.
After working with these three then we had several days of rain and I started building a pigeon house. I need some thing to keep the raccoons out.
I ordered the floor for the pigeon house from the internet. This flooring is supposed to be good for chickens, pigs and puppies. Should work for pigeons. I put the frame for the floor on 4×4 posts and set them in the ground with the floor level.
Nesting boxes.
I had built the 2 pigeon houses I had before and remembered some of the things I had done for the others. I had two houses before that were 4’x4′. This one is going to be 4’x6′. Rather than having 8 nesting boxes this one will have 12 with room for 3 more if needed.
I went out this morning to work on the pigeon coop and it got too hot, too soon. I worked on it until about noon and said, “that’s enough for today”. It didn’t take long in the bright sunlight to decide that it was just too hot. Maybe tomorrow.
More pictures of the pigeon house.
The pigeon house.