Our New Dog is AWESOME!!!

[Nanno]

Can I please repeat that!?!

Our new dog Daisy is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure there are enough exclamation points after that phrase, by the way.

We started letting the goats out during the daytime with Daisy on Christmas day. Before that, we were keeping everybody penned up all the time because I wasn't sure Daisy would stay home, not knowing this new place or her new herd (which has had a hard time accepting her). But Christmas morning I decided it was time to let them all out to roam for a few hours unsupervised. It went really well. Daisy stayed with the goats except for a few brief forays into the surrounding oak brush to sniff out whatever stuff dogs like to sniff out. She likes to lay down about 20 feet from them, often on a hillock overlooking the area where the goats are grazing.

Until today, I had not heard this dog bark even once. Not even when we had company over on Christmas Eve. I was beginning to wonder if we had a dud dog. But I could not be more wrong!!! I let the goats out of their pen around 8:00 this morning and left them puttering around the house as they used to do before we got a dog. We almost never see predators during the day, so I've felt relatively safe letting everyone roam while the sun is up. Phil and I were in the office when we heard barking around 9:30 this morning. Daisy was in front of the house barking her head off, hackles raised in a giant puff-ball on her back. There were two coyotes in the front horse pasture. All the goats were behind the house, huddled against the porch railings. Daisy stayed out front and barked and charged viciously until the coyotes ran off with their tails between their legs. As soon as they were gone, she immediately ran around back to check on the goats.

I could not be more proud of this dog and I just had to share!

[Taffy]

That is fabulous! Sounds like you have a winner in Daisy and that she has the perfect new home guarding her goat herd.

[nebs]

Way to go! I am happy for you guys. Sounds like Daisy did her job well.

[IdahoNancy]

I wonder if the goats knew what Dasiy was doing or if they thought she had lost her mind and could never be trusted. That must be such a load off your mind to know she can and will protect. She looked like a love muffin of a dog.

[Huckleberry]

That's great to hear! Wait to go Daisy

[Nanno]

I wonder if the goats knew what Dasiy was doing or if they thought she had lost her mind and could never be trusted.

HA! The goats already think Daisy can't be trusted, so she can't possibly lose any reputation points there! However, I'm hoping that as she hangs out near them without chasing, nipping, playing rough, or intentionally startling them they'll stop fearing her. And as she continues to chase away coyotes and stray dogs, I'm hoping they'll come to actually see her for what she is--their protector.

She looked like a love muffin of a dog.

Yeah, she does. And she has been so quiet and so submissive toward the goats (running from Cuzco with her tail between her legs and rolling on her back when Lilly butts her) that I was afraid she would cower under the truck if she ever saw anything more vicious than her charges! Thank goodness that's not the case. Daisy's fear of the goats has lessened but she's still submissive when one comes after her, and I think it's her way of disarming them. The only goat I had that would attack a dog laying on its back was Nibbles. The others take her posture as a sign that she's given over the fight and they turn away.

Cuzco has recently taken the position that "if you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone and we'll all be happy." It seems to be working. Nubbin is still terrified of Daisy, but that's quite understandable. It was, after all, her mother that was killed by coyotes, and I'm sure she thinks I'm crazy enclosing her with anything of the canine species. She's stuck like glue to Cuzco (as if he would protect her!), and the funny thing is that Cuzco has sort of been letting Nubbin hang around. Although, last night I saw Nubbin reach up under Cuzco's flank as if to nurse and that did not go over well. I'm not sure Nubbin has made the wisest choice of "friend" and I worry a little that she's going to be injured if she's not careful. Cuzco is cranky but usually not dangerous. However, everyone's nerves have been on edge for the last week, and Cuzco sometimes uses more force than necessary to drive home his point when he's in a bad mood. Hopefully Nubbin won't do anything too stupid in the name of protecting herself from Daisy!

Last night I heard coyotes howling down at the bottom of our horse pasture again. All the dogs on all the properties for a mile around us were barking their heads off, but Daisy was quiet. I went out to check and make sure everything was ok. The goats were fine but I couldn't see Daisy. I walked around the pen with a flashlight and called her, but she didn't come. I finally found her crouching silently in the scrub oak at the highest spot in the pen near the back fence. It has a commanding view of the lower fence line, which is the side facing where the coyotes were howling. She was not barking, but she was alert and watching intently. She was too busy concentrating on that fence line to pay any attention to me and my flashlight, and she looked at me like I was interfering in her work. I'm happy to say that I think this dog really knows her stuff.

[Nanno]

Daisy really has turned out to be a wonderful asset to our little goat farm. She chased coyotes away once more after that first incident and I haven't seen or even heard them howling nearby ever since. My neighbors recently re-acquired goats along with several LGD's, and their dogs came over to our house a couple of times when they were first scoping out their new territory, and Daisy sent them packing right back home. Everyone--Daisy and the neighbor's dogs--knows their territory now and stays where they belong.

It's times like now that I'm particularly thankful to have Daisy on guard. I've had to leave the electric fence off for the last several nights because of snow load. I used to worry on such occasions, but now I can sleep well knowing that Daisy isn't going to let anything come inside that fence, and she'll let us know if anything tries.

[Casdog1]

LGDs are in a class by themselves, aren't they? My alpha bitch Astrid got after a hawk that had LANDED NEXT TO MY CHICKENS the other day. She streaked across the field like a lightning bolt when she heard the rooster raising a ruckus. That dude barely got airborne in time, she leaped 6 FEET into the air trying to catch him! And all my birds were safe. I never have to worry about my goatie boys with my dogs on duty 24/7!

[Nanno]

Not sure where to put this story, so I guess I'll put it here...

Daisy has this goofy habit of waiting to eat her breakfast until all the goats are done with theirs. I think it's her way of showing how tough she is. I pour food for everyone, but Daisy just slinks around her bowl and won't eat until the first goat finishes her breakfast and comes over to curiously investigate Daisy's dish. At that point, Daisy springs over to her bowl with a snarl and a sideways snap at the offending goat, dives her head in and begins to chow down, all the while throwing malevolent glares at the goats and showing them her fangs. It's like she's eating her food at the goats, as if to show them... what exactly? None of them even like dog food!

But this morning Daisy's insistence on eating her food for a caprine audience backfired. It was pretty windy this morning, but the bowl stayed grounded until just about the time the first goat came out from breakfast. Daisy ran over to her bowl and had just begun to sample its contents with a vicious snarl at Nubbin, who was casually passing by, when a blast of wind came up and blew the bowl over, scattering its contents all over the driveway. Daisy had to carefully pick the pieces out from the gravel one by one. The goats filed past without regard--Daisy was too busy finding and consuming her breakfast before it blew away or got trampled to scold anyone for looking at her meal. I guess she also knew that no one would be jealous of food that had to be picked up out of the dirt!

[Taffy]

Silly Daisy. Wonder if she learned her lesson?!