Rosie said that I could touch her with the feather duster and she would chase the plastic bags on a stick but there was no way on this Earth that she was going any nearer to the chickens. A couple of years ago she was spooked by chickens in a run and in her fear got impaled on a stick and required veterinary treatment. This created a link that we might not understand but made perfect sense to her. When the owners of her yard decided to get some free range chickens, she was absolutely terrified. Today we used a couple of them to help us with the start of incremental desensitisation. They seemed to be very happy to be trundled about in the wheelbarrow and murmured away to themselves. We ended the session with Rosie confidently 'chasing' them.
E-mail received 29th June: "Cchicken training going well. Now able to put them on the floor in their cage and she will graze next to the cage. We have seen a definate improvement." LF
