Our New Dog is AWESOME!!!

[Charlie Horse]

Its sure a strange behavior. Its as if she's showing a side effect of whatever mental processes that we bred into that kind of dog to change them from a wolf to a protector.

[Nanno]

Daisy continues to thrill me with her concern for our goats. A few days ago when I took Snickers and Sputnik to get wethered, Daisy apparently got very upset. Phil says she started howling (usually she just barks), and she kept up such a racket that the neighbor's livestock guardian dogs came up the hill to see what was wrong and provide reinforcement. Phil went out on the porch and told the other dogs to go home and told Daisy to be quiet. Everyone obeyed, but Daisy was overjoyed when I came home and delivered the bucklings safely back to her. Every time I bring a back goat home she sniffs them from nose to tail to make sure they're ok. She's such a good caretaker!

Daisy has been having to sleep outside of the goat pens ever since two weeks ago when I moved them some distance from each other. This bothered her at first and she would whine to be let in, but she's gotten used to it and now she's content just to be let in the pen to see her girls (especially Lilly) once or twice a day. She doesn't usually want to visit the boys' pen. They're not always very nice to Daisy and she'll probably always be somewhat afraid of Cuzco (with good reason!).

[Nanno]

Livestock guardian dogs are amazing creatures. We've heard coyotes howling in the empty land across the road from our property recently and Daisy has been on the alert. Lately she's been working with my neighbor's two LGD's to patrol a much bigger area than she can patrol by herself. When they start barking in certain areas close to our fence line, Daisy has recently started going down to offer assistance. And there have been several times lately when we've heard Daisy barking in the scrub oak close to our goat pens and a short time later one or two extra dogs show up to help her. It's really cool how they play tag-team like that. They all know their own territories, but they're happy to help one another out and protect the other's goats.

[michael]

That's just awesome!!! I hope our pup turns out to be as quality as Daisy.

[hihobaron]

Hello All
LGD and the new class LGH (Live Stock Guard Horse)
The" Jet" Welch Cob horse has new meaning to the people across the road, He Guards the goats as well as their Great Pyneries LGD's
The Goats love to "Gather" around him. (Jet)
Dog's Bark, and Jet comes fast with 700 pounds of power if needed.
I got "Gruffled" at this AM when I checked for new kids from one of the LGD's but they know me so no bark to call in the backup.
A pair of billy's. All white
That makes 4 on what is a milking operation. No Doe-lings
Happy Trails
hihobaron

[Nanno]

I want to write down this funny little story about our LGD's before I forget about it. Last Sunday when we came home from the goat show in Greeley we were greeted by two unexpected things: One was Pluto with his face and mouth full of porcupine quills, which I was able to remove with a bit of patience and a pair of pliers (hopefully he learned a valuable lesson!). The other was a pure white dove. I saw it hanging around on the hillside behind our house and when I approached it, it only walked away just out of reach. It was clearly domestic but I was surprised my dogs had allowed it to hang around. Pluto is notorious for chasing crows and magpies and has even killed a few of them. When I tried to catch the bird it flew up to the roof of our house, but an hour later it was back down in our backyard. Every time I went outside the bird was there and one or both of the dogs was guarding it.

The bird was still there the next day and the dogs were still standing guard so I went out with a bed sheet and caught it. I was afraid it wasn't getting enough to eat or drink on that barren slope so I put it on our back patio and gave it grain and water. It ate and drank before going back out into the yard where it hung out near Pluto. We had a hellacious wind on Monday night and I was sure the bird would be gone by next morning, but it was still there. It was not until we had five cars full of noisy homeschoolers over to our house later Tuesday morning that the bird finally disappeared along with Pluto, who hightailed it to an undisclosed location the second those rowdy kids stepped out of their vehicles. Pluto eventually came back an hour or so after the crowds left, but the white dove hasn't returned. Some folks have told me it was probably released at a memorial service. I have not ceased to be amazed at the instincts of these amazing dogs. How do they know that a creature is domesticated and needs to be protected? They would not have allowed a wild bird to hang around like that, and they certainly wouldn't have guarded it.

[blackie's maiden]

I would trade our three pretty worthless English Shepherds for another LGD like our half akbash half Pyrenees, Paws. He is pretty old now, not sure how much longer he can keep up "the good fight." "Awesome" is the word!

LGD's and goats seem to cross any language barriers. Ours calls the goats up from the end of the pasture just by barking when he sees potential trouble.

[Nanno]

I saw the sweetest example of livestock guardianship today. I let all the goats out to graze for a couple of hours even though the weather was threatening. Then at noon the rain moved in quite suddenly and it started pouring down. I could see from the window that none of the goats were in their houses. I ran downstairs to find all the little kidlets huddled under the eaves next to our house. It was dry for the moment but I knew it would not be for long! I scooped up Petunia's kids and ran them to the pen just in time for Petunia to come bolting from the woods to meet them. I set them down and their mom called them and they all ran to shelter.

Next I grabbed little Snowball. Tigerlily is kind an on-again, off-again mama who isn't quite sure how to care for a baby so I had to bring that one all the way out to the pen and plunk her in a shelter. The pelting rain suddenly turned to hail as I turned back toward the house to fetch TinCup's babies. TinCup had run in from the storm and was calling them, but they were scared to leave their spot. Mocha and Yeti were in a more sheltered area behind the gates to our patio, but poor little Thor was on the other side of the gate where it was more exposed. That's when Pluto appeared out of nowhere and curled up around the shivering wet baby, using his body to shield Thor from the wind and hail. As soon as I scooped up Thor and ran him to the pen, Pluto high-tailed it to the doghouse. It was so sweet to see him protecting that little cold baby until I could get him under shelter.

[Charlie Horse]

My dog thinks her job is to hassle horses. No sign of nobility.