dogs

We are out in the country a little, and there are dogs, running free all over the place.   Another dog tried to get into the pen today.  He was running around the netting, when I went outside and yelled, he ran away.  I don’t want to be the crazy lady with a stack of dead dogs in her yard, but I also don’t want to be the crazy chicken lady that prepares for death of all chickens and need replacements.  Just like the chicks pecking each other and a dog hunting chickens, it’s instinct.  I am just not sure what to do about it.  Can’t prevent a dog from wanting to chase and eat our chickens, and I don’t want to put up a permanent run (that ultimately is no safer for the chickens because few things are predator proof).  I keep in the back of my mind what books and friends who have raised chickens for years, prepare for loss, whether it is a rooster, a dog or disease.