The latest with my chickens!

This is what a chicken in shock looks like!

Unfortunately my dog Abbey (a flat coat Retriever) shows no sign of accepting the chickens as part of the family.  Her instinct is too strong I guess.  The guy at Cal- Ranch assured me that the dogs even Retriever's will eventually get used to the chickens and leave them alone.  Well Abbey already killed one chicken awhile back and is diligently  always watching for an opportunity to get to the chickens. She does not want to eat them she just wants to hold them in her mouth and retrieve them, but then ends up mauling them to death. My poodle does not want to hurt them, but is curious about them.   

I let the chickens out of their pen a couple times a day to peck around the yard and look for bugs (Which they love to do!) and so we have to make sure Abbey is contained somewhere so someone does not accidentally open the back door without thinking and let her out while the chickens are free roaming.  

My kids took the dogs on a walk a couple of days ago and I thought it was a perfect time to let the chickens out since the dogs would be gone out of the house for a while.  When they got home Abbey was panting really hard and so with out thinking or remembering there chickens were outside I told the kids to let her out back to get a drink from her water bowl.  So I swear at least 5 min. passed and my 9 year old son happened to  notice a chicken fly through the air in front of the kitchen window and he asked me "Mom are the chickens out?"  You can imagine my panic as I ran outside fully expecting to find dead chickens all over the yard,  but luckily we had no deaths, but we had a hard time locating them all.  They were all hiding in different parts of the the yard and  this poor Chicken named "Cricket" had been a close target because there was dog slobber all over her and she was in shock for quite a while!  It was kind of fun though because she totally let us hold her and pet for quite a long time and they have not let us do that since they were little chicks.  She sat their with her eyes as wide as saucers and her beek open.  I am surprised she did not have a heart attack or something she was in such shock!  Anyway I have found it to be a true joy having chickens/hens. They have a lot more personality then I thought and in one more month and they should be old enough to start laying eggs!  I can't wait!