Training Your Dog to Be With Your Guinea Fowl – UPDATE
On September 22, 2009 I posted the conclusion to an 8-part blog series entitled “Training Your Dog to Be With Your Guinea Fowl.” Formal training of our two dogs, a 115# pound male German Shepherd dog named Buddy and an 85# female Akita named Bella, ended a full week before that.
Since formal training ended, I have been continually working with both dogs to improve their respective relationships with our flock of 30 pearl grey Guinea fowl. This is actually a dog training process, but it is much less formal and demanding than the preceding lessons the dogs learned. I think of it as honing their training, or polishing their learned skills. If I teach a dog to heel, once it has learned the basics, I hone its training to include such things as where the dog’s head is (in relationship to my knee) while we walk, and where it is when we stop.
In case you didn’t read “Training Your Dog to Be With Your Guinea Fowl,” Bella is a highly aggressive dog with heightened instincts for attacking and killing animals. She has caught and killed all manner of animals to include raccoons, skunks, coyotes, and badgers. Buddy is from a working line and has excellent herding instincts which have been developed for moving cattle – and bulls. Buddy is also aggressive, but only with non-domesticated animals.
At this writing, both dogs are doing extremely well with the Guinea fowl. Both dogs watch over the birds, and the birds completely accept the presence of either or both dogs.
Bella no longer makes false charges towards the Guinea fowl, and she now accepts all of their rowdy, noisy behaviors. She even allows the Guinea fowl to surround her.
Buddy has become proficient at herding the Guinea fowl. He will even, on command, herd the flock back to the coop. He does this for us almost every evening. Unlike Bella, Buddy enjoys interacting with the Guinea fowl. He will spend a couple of hours every day just being around the free ranging Guinea fowl. He’ll slowly walk among them, often sniffing at them – his nose all but touching their feathers. The Guinea fowl have become very inclined to follow him around, which he knows they are doing.
If you have 20 or more Guinea fowl, you know how hard it can be to count them. We have 30 birds and it’s almost impossible to count them accurately. As a flock, they simply won’t stay in the same places long enough to accurately count heads. Frankly, the most efficient way we’ve found to count them is to take a picture of the flock in the morning, when they are all at the gate waiting to be let out to free range. Then count the birds in the picture.
We try to count the Guinea fowl every night when they are put into the coop yard. We want to make sure all of them are safe for the night. Our counts end up being between 25-35 birds each time – sometimes we even get lucky and hit 30! We figure if the count is 25 or over, we have all the birds. Thus far, this has proven to be true.
Last evening Buddy demonstrated an uncanny ability to count the Guinea fowl. I was absolutely stunned and amazed. Here’s what happened…
Yesterday at about 4 PM, as per usual, I told Buddy to put the birds into the coop. I opened the coop yard gate and walked away as Buddy was running full out to where the Guinea fowl were foraging. When the dog got about 25 yards from the Guinea fowl, he slowed to a walk and changed his direction so that the Guinea fowl would end up between himself and the coop yard. He then deftly herded the Guinea fowl up to the coop, and into their yard.
Once the Guinea fowl are in their coop yard, Buddy always sits in the gate and watches them until I arrive. When I arrive I give the Guinea fowl some millet as a reward, and then close and lock the gate behind me. I then give Buddy a piece of freeze dried liver as his reward. Last night, however, Buddy did not wait for his favorite treat. Instead, he took off running around the coop yard – nose to the ground, yelping and whining. His behavior instantly attracted Bella, who joined right in to his ritual – no doubt thinking there might be a rabbit to be had.
After Buddy had circled the coop yard a couple of times, with Bella in tow, he sped off down the path he’d herded the Guinea fowl on just minutes before. His nose was still to the ground and his sounds made it clear he was not happy. He went to where the Guinea fowl had been when he started to bring them back to the coop and ran around frantically sniffing and yelp/barking. Bella – like me – had no idea what was going on, but Buddy’s unusual behavior had her keyed and excited.
I watched for a few more minutes as Buddy left the first area and started to rapidly move around the property. Bella, realizing there was no enemy at hand, lost interest and joined me in closing down the shed.
I was in the house at about 5:10 PM when I heard Buddy giving me his ‘dad, I really want you to come to me’ barks. It’s a deep, throaty, loud bark that commands attention. I responded by going outside to the source of the barking: the Guinea fowl coop yard. Buddy had found a bird that had gotten separated from the flock, and herded it back to the coop yard. I opened the gate to the coop and let the lone Guinea fowl inside – and then gave all of the birds some extra millet. Finally, Buddy got his treat.
Clearly, since Buddy did not know where the missing bird was located, but rather had to find it – he was able to count all of the Guinea fowl in the coop yard and determine that one was missing. Honestly, I find this utterly astonishing.
Getting Guinea Fowl Out Of Trees
For their own safety, we put all 30 of our pearl grey Guinea fowl back into the coop every night. We have a number of night hunting predators around here, but the ones that concern us the most are the owls. Guinea fowl roost at night, and they prefer the higher roosts, even in the coop.
If our Guinea fowl roost high in the pine trees, they’ll be safe from some predators such as fox. If the Guinea fowl get to the ‘right’ high branch, they will also deter predators such as raccoons. But no matter how high the birds roost, the owls will be able to get them.
Guinea fowl are no match for our area’s owls. The owl of greatest concern around here is the great horned owl, which inhabit this region year around. The great horned owl is 18-25″ tall and weighs between 2-5½ pounds. The great horned owl is a highly skilled, carnivorous nocturnal hunter. As such, the great horned owl is exceptionally well adapted for locating and killing animals after dark.
Our Guinea fowl do not do well after dark. At least not in terms of being able to cope with or evade a flying predator, such as the great horned owl. When dusk hits, our Guinea fowl stay wherever they are located. If they are on a roost, they will stay on it – and not move. We once mistakenly left them in the coop yard past dusk, and we had to individually pick them up and transport them to the lighted coop. They would not move even when gently prodded with a walking stick.
We usually call our Guinea fowl into the coop yard a couple of hours before dusk. Just before dark, we call all the Guinea fowl into the coop and close the door. A 25 watt red light is provided for the birds, to ensure that they don’t injure themselves while flying.
Recently, for reasons unknown to us, one Guinea fowl did not return to the coop yard when called in. Instead, the lone bird had roosted about 25′ up in a pine tree. We tried everything we know to coax it out of the tree. But the Guinea fowl would not budge. It was almost as if it was afraid to fly down.
The pine tree the Guinea fowl was roosting in was an old one, with lots of branches. A spry young fella could have easily climbed the tree and motivated the Guinea fowl to leave the roost. I am a) not young and b) not spry. So I had to resort to an alternative means.
I had read about two ways to get Guinea fowl down from high branches, without climbing the tree: 1) Use a small foam football and 2) use a Frisbee. We had both items on hand the day the Guinea fowl started free ranging.
I liked the idea of using the foam football as it seemed like it would be nicer for the bird. It’s very soft. As it turns out, I should not have been so worried about the softness of the ball. I threw the ball into the tree – aiming for the Guinea fowl – and missed it by several feet. My throw was mostly low. This first attempt revealed three things: 1-the Guinea fowl was unmoved by the toss, and barely seemed to even notice it. 2-my NFL hopes are utterly dashed now. 3-small foam footballs get caught in pine branches very easily.
Since the ball was firmly stuck in the pine trees branches, I went and got the Frisbee. The first throw was too low. The second throw hit the branch the Guinea fowl was roosting on, but the bird did not even flinch. The third throw went a couple of feet over the head of the Guinea fowl, and it instantly jumped off the roost and glided to the ground – near the coop yard.
I must assume that the Frisbee being over the head of the Guinea fowl concerned it – the same way the flock gets concerned when large birds fly overhead. When the flock is free ranging and sees a large bird in the sky, they all make quite a noise and rush for their large juniper or the coop yard for safety.
The foam ball did get blown out of the pine tree, but the dogs got to it before I did. They turned it into about 100 small foam pieces. None of which would be useful for getting Guinea fowl out of trees.
Concerned that this scenario may play again, and that I might get the Frisbee stuck in the tree while attempting to get the Guinea fowl out, I purchased a second Frisbee to have on hand, should it be needed.
Getting the Guinea Fowl Ready for Winter
The temperatures at night are now dropping into the 40s. That means winter is not far behind. Guinea fowl are somewhat sensitive to colder temperatures, so we’re making some preparations to help them make it through the cold months ahead.
Guinea fowl come to us from Africa. I admit to not knowing much about the African climate, but I tend to believe that Guinea fowl are better suited to warmer climates. I’ve never read anything about how to help your Guinea fowl make it through hot summer days, but the internet is overflowing with advice on how to help Guinea fowl cope with cold weather.
The first thing we did for our Guinea fowl is to lay in a good supply of 3rd cutting alfalfa. Vegetation is an important part of the Guinea fowl’s diet, and winters here strip the landscape of all things green – save for pine trees. We purchased and stored 6 square bales of alfalfa, which should be more than enough for our flock of 30 pearl grey Guinea fowl during the winter months.
We’re at 3,000 feet above sea level, and temperatures here will go sub-zero for quite some time. Last year, we saw the temperature drop to -45°F on several occasions. -10°F is common for two months. Guinea fowl just can’t cope with these extremely cold temperatures.
We converted a pull-behind camper into a coop for our Guinea fowl. Campers are not known for their insulation, so we’ve added to it. One of the most noteworthy steps we took to insulate the Guinea fowl’s coop is to place bales of straw around the outside of the camper. This will not only stop the fierce, icy winter winds from getting underneath the coop, but also add substantial insulation quality to the sides and back of the coop.
Keeping Guinea fowl in frigid climates creates several dilemmas. Guinea fowl require good ventilation for health, but ventilation means allowing cold air to pass through the coop – which is to be kept as warm as possible. We obliged physics – hot air rises, cold air descends – and opted to allow ventilation along the floor of the coop, but not the top of the coop. The Guinea fowl will likely spend most of their time on the elevated roosts – where it’s warmer, so their sensitive feet should not be adversely affected by the modest flow of the colder air.
The presence of 30 pearl grey Guinea fowl in the confines of the coop will add some heat. We believe we will augment that heat with two devices: a 250 radiant heater and a 100 watt light bulb with a reflector. If the Guinea fowl get cold, they will be able to huddle underneath the heat sources for warmth, the way they did when they were keets. (Keets are young Guinea fowl.)
Guinea fowl also need constant access to fresh water. To ensure that their water doesn’t freeze (hopefully) we have ordered a 100 watt heat mat that will sit directly underneath the waterer. We hope this will be adequate to ensure the Guinea fowl’s water doesn’t freeze, but if this system fails to accomplish the objective, we’ll investigate more potent alternatives. We’re trying to make sure the Guinea fowl are safe and comfortable, and at the same time we want to use the minimum amount power.
We’ve also purchased an extra bag of pine chips for the floor of the Guinea fowl coop. The deeper floor covering will allow the Guinea fowl to easily make small, warm nests on the floor of the coop.
We’re still working on ways to keep the Guinea fowl comfy through the icy winter months. I’ll be sure to mention any additional steps we take to ensure that all of our 30 pearl grey Guinea fowl are healthy and ready to take on next year’s insect population.
Free Ranging Guinea Fowl Update
The Guinea fowl have now been out free ranging for several weeks. They’re doing great, and loving the freedom of life outside their coop and coop yard. We’ve made and posted a couple of videos on YouTube that show the Guinea fowl out and about – including one that shows them enjoying their very first natural roosting – in a large pine tree. Links to the videos follow, just scroll down the page to the right episode number and click play:
Video, Episode 15: The flock of Guinea fowl has been free ranging for two weeks now. Today they found a Pine Tree – and enjoyed their first natural roosting experience.
As I mentioned in the blog previously, when we first started to let the Guinea fowl out to free range, they were reluctant to move very far from their familiar and safe coop and coop yard. Gradually, every day, they would extend their treks out further and further. Now, the Guinea fowl are moving up to 150 yards from the coop. this range encompasses the garden, so we’re very happy.
Guinea fowl will roam and forage up to ¼ of a mile from their home – and in some cases even further. We’re prepared for them to do this, but we also know that the more time they spend outside the fenced acreage – which is under the watchful and protective eyes of our dogs – the more likely they are to have problems with predators. There’s really nothing we can do about this, short of clipping their wings – which we will not do.
To help with some of the coming predator problems, we are taking our dogs outside the fenced acreage every day and letting them roam around the fenced portion of the property. We can’t leave the dogs out there unattended as they are too aggressive, and they will travel the 1/2 mile to our neighbors and cause havoc with their animals.
The dogs’ daily treks around the property will help protect the Guinea fowl in a couple of ways. First, if a predator is out there, the dogs will find it and eliminate it. Second, our male leaves his mark all over the place. This will scare many predators, including fox, away from the area.
Since our Guinea fowl come back to the coop every night, we don’t have to worry about night predators. And since the dogs clear the area every morning, we’re pretty confident that no ground hunting predators will get them. This leaves us primarily concerned with flying predators. We have hawks, eagles and falcons here. There’s not really much we can do about these flying predators. We just hope that the Guinea fowl will know to come back to the safety of the fenced acreage, and the dogs. Our dogs will charge any low flying birds, except for the Guinea fowl, which they consider part of their pack.
Another wonderful benefit of allowing the Guinea fowl to free range is feed. Since letting the Guinea fowl out to free range, we have substantially reduced the amount of feed we give them. They are out all day eating grasshoppers and seeds, and thus are just not as hungry when they arrive back at their coop. The reduction of our feed bill is welcomed indeed. Of course, come winter, the birds will again require more feed.
Buddy, our German Shepherd dog, is now fully trained for herding the Guinea fowl. On command, he will go out and gently herd the Guinea fowl back to their coop yard. Bella, our Akita female, is also starting to assist Buddy – something we never thought would happen. This is great – and saves us lots of time and walking.
Watch a short video of our pearl grey Guinea fowl free ranging.
Training Your Dog to Be With Your Guinea Fowl – Conclusion
The final training exercise…
It was time to give Bella time alone with the Guinea fowl. Of course, I needed to observe and be ready to interact, should Bella attack the birds. I was quite confident, based on Bella’s behaviors over the two weeks of training, that there would be no problems.
Both dogs were called into the house and the Guinea fowl were released to free range. I waited until the Guinea fowl were in a place where I could see them from a house window and then let the dogs outside. Whenever the dogs have been inside the house, upon release outside, they will immediately and quickly run their territory – no doubt looking for evil-doers, trespassers and so forth. So I knew the dogs would find the free ranging Guinea fowl moments after their release from the house. And they did.
The dogs did a hard run to where the Guinea fowl were foraging. I held my breath as the two dogs charged over and down the hill. But once the dogs saw that those were ‘their’ Guinea fowl, they immediately ceased the charge. Then both dogs walked up close to the flock – as if to check and make sure they were all there, and no ‘spies’ were among them – and then Bella left for her favorite spot on the front of the big hill. Buddy stayed with the flock. As they moved around to forage new spots, he followed – occasionally urging stragglers to tighten up the flock.
It’s been a couple of weeks since I completed Bella’s Guinea fowl training, and there have been no unpleasant incidents at all. Sometimes she will position herself close to the flock, as she was trained to do. But she only watches over them, utterly unconcerned about anything they do. I would summarize her behavior as ‘protective.’
I have been working with Buddy on his herding skills – honing his instincts and making his efforts more rewarding for me. He has become extremely proficient – and useful – when the Guinea fowl need to be moved or put away. Bella sometimes joins him in his herding activities. I think she sees and likes all the positive attention he gets – and she wants some. She does not have his instincts or skills, but she is certainly more help than hindrance.
When you are training your dog to be with your Guinea fowl, remember that reassurance and praise are effective tools. Sometimes dogs need rigid discipline. I am not of the school that one should only use praise and positive reinforcement. Not at all. I do believe it is the responsibility of the trainer to closely monitor the dog’s behavior during training, and use praise and discipline as best suits the objective – which is to train the dog. Sometimes, using a disciplinary tone at the wrong moment will do great harm to the process. So be careful, and pay very close attention to your dog and his actions. If discipline is required, temper it to match the offense and the level of the offense. The same is true of praise.
Bella was about as difficult a dog to train to be with the Guinea fowl as one could have. If you lookup Akita you’ll find that owners should be warned that the breed does not take well to other animals – at all. But because of a well regimented and carried out training program, Bella has become a model Guinea fowl dog. She may never become proficient at herding the Guinea fowl, but she will protect them from the predators that roam our neck of the woods, and never cause them any harm.
Good luck with training your dog to be with your Guinea fowl!
Training Your Dog to Be With Your Guinea Fowl – Part 7
People often wonder why their dogs do not always obey them, despite having been trained. It’s simple, really. Most training situations are controlled and confined. The dog sits because you want him to, and he has nothing else distracting him. When you go to show your neighbor how you’ve trained your dog to sit, the dog refuses to obey. The neighbor is there, and the dog has other things on his mind. Stressing the dog during training will ensure compliance under varying circumstances.
Over the next few days of training, I introduced different stresses into the training…
Stress #1 – I introduced Buddy, our German Shepherd dog, into the training equation. While Bella was compelled to sit with me at the edge of the flock of Guinea fowl, Buddy walked freely among them. The Guinea fowl like Buddy, and he likes them. Bella did not like Buddy getting this extra privilege, which is the desired effect. Also, Buddy is the Alpha – when I am removed from the equation – and Bella takes her leads from him. He is very calm and gentle around the Guinea fowl, even when they run at him with their wings wide open. Bella got to observe this, which is very good.
Stress #2 – Our Guinea fowl LOVE millet! We call it ‘Guinea fowl heroine.’ We have trained the Guinea fowl to come to a specific call and/or the sound of a cowbell to get their millet. This makes getting them back to the coop much easier every night. So as Bella and I sat next to the flock, I gave them their call and sprinkled millet all around us. The birds came in fiercely, and attacked their taste treat with vigor – all the while making their ‘happy calls.’ I made Bella remain all but motionless (by using reassuring and praising remarks – not disciplinary remarks) as the Guinea fowl pecked the ground to grab the millet – which was sometimes under her overhanging fur. Bella quickly got the point and did not mind at all that the birds were that close to her – despite their hyperactive state of gorging on their treats.
Stress #3 – The Guinea fowl have a ‘safe place’ where they go when they feel threatened. It is a very old, large, dense juniper tree – with a diameter of about 20′. They go there whenever they see a bird of prey, or are otherwise threatened. They absolutely do not like anything or anyone getting close to the base of the juniper tree when they are ‘hiding’ inside of it. The Guinea fowl will take turns running out from under the tree to aggress anything that gets too close. So I waited until the birds were in their safe place under the tree, and then walked Bella right to the edge of the lower branches – which are merely inches off the ground. It took no time at all for the Guinea fowl ritual of protection to begin. Two birds, in full aggression display, ran right at us. Bella squared off on the birds, but did not move towards them – I clamed her, and then praised her. She repeated her response as the next bird came out in attack mode, and I repeated my behavior. When the third attack came, which was three Guinea fowl, Bella was not at all concerned. We stayed there and let the Guinea fowl keep coming out to make us leave for about 5 more minutes – during which time there were probably 15 attack scenarios. Bella plopped down on the ground and watched the antics of the frantic birds. We left the area and the birds quickly calmed down.
Stress #4 – The more confined an animal is, the more protective and/or aggressive they become. I took Bella into the 400+ square foot Guinea fowl coop yard before the birds were released from the confines of their coop. Bella and I stood in the back of the yard and mom released the birds from the coop and into the yard – but did not open the gate for free ranging. As always, the birds came out with a fury of activity. Bella stood to watch, but she was obviously only concerned with seeing better – not being aggressive. I lavishly praised her as she and I watched the birds zipping around the coop yard, flying to the roost directly in front of us – and screaming out their calls. The birds would run by us at full speed, only inches from our feet – an activity which obviously intrigued Miss Bella. After about 5 minutes, I walked Bella through the rowdy birds and out of the gate – leaving the gate open behind me so the birds could exit and free range. When we were a mere 5′ from the coop gate, the Guinea fowl started flying out – right over our heads. Bella glanced up, but was uninterested.
