Marshall Meets the Chickens
Henpecked
Jack Russell’s and chickens don’t often mix and when they do it’s usually disastrous for the chickens. The exceptions are the Jacks that have encountered ‘barn chickens and roosters.’ They quickly learn not to mess with th
em.
Since Marshall can’t run as fast as the chickens can run/fly I wanted to see what he would do when encountering a species
that, genetically, he should be wired to want to chase and kill. This is all part of learning how to be a dog, and I knew it wouldn’t be much risk to the chickens as long as Sharkey was kept in the house. Charm has great respect for chickens having dealt with the ‘barn’ variety.
At first Marshall circled way round them, then looked at all three as if to say, “It’s three to one, the odds aren’t in my favor.” Next he decided perhaps he should sniff them in the same fashion as he would another dog. This just yielded a clucking, flapping chicken that scared him to death.
So he finally got up the courage to meet the chickens face to face. He approached the biggest one and they looked each other in the eye. It appeared as if a truce may have been negotiated when all of the sudden the chicken pecked him on the nose and flapped her wings. This is the same chicken that pecks Sharkey on the nose through the pen and makes Sharkey so mad she loses all control and tries desperately to dig her
way into that pen.
Well, Marshall scooted away as fast as he could right into the other two chickens that, in turn, flapped their wings and squawked at the upset. Marshall ran as fast as he could behind a tree and stayed there for about ten minutes. The chickens went along their merry way.
When he finally crept out from behind the tree he made a wide berth around those ferocious feathered fiends. Perhaps the next time he might get up the nerve to try and chase one. I’d let Sharkey teach him, but we’d be minus a chicken or two in the process!
Read or make comments for this article
The look the chicken has says "Bring IT ON, dog breath".