[plumseverywhere]

I had a neighbours dog grab one of my hens once - the neighbour had him off lead and he ran into the garden of our old house. The neighbour found it hilarious and just stood laughing. I managed to get the spaniel off and the hen lived to tell the tale but was very stressed for ages after. I think the breed of the dog dicates whereabout he/she grabs the chicken, we were lucky it was a spaniel!  The german shepherds that killed my sheep went for the jugular and intended to kill.

Not all young farmers are silver spoon fed but when you are struggling against a minority of any kind that find it acceptable to be antisocial and act in an abhorrant way its easy to judge them so I know why you've said that but I'm sure Shropshire lass and her friends are just the sort of people we'd all love to live near 

Interesting point SteveHants about the threat. I'd not considered it that way before. We had a poodle prance about with our sheep once and OH said "you know I could shoot your dog if it came back don;t you?" to the owner, makes me see the need to rethink what we say now.  Tell you what though, if those German shepherds got back into my stock I'd not think twice now about having them shot - never thought I'd say that but seeing the damage to our lamb made me realise how vulnerable our little smallholding is.