Baymule
Herd Master
Love the snow pictures! The dogs are having a good time!
Feelin' a bit sheepish...
Kusanar
Loving the herd life
My dog hates snow.. of course he is a house dog with barely any fur. He's only happy on like 75 degree days when he can lay in the shade, the rest of the time he wants his climate controlled basement.
- Thread starter
- #443
Beekissed
Herd Master
We have started work on clearing brush off the proposed fence line in the field next door. It's mostly huge autumn olive and multiflora rose(10-15 ft tall) all tangled together and very densely grown in the first portion of the fence line. It thins out further down the line, so that's a relief but the other side of the field will be dense, thorny and heavy brush once again.
Just the little we got cleared the other day is startling to see. I've been traveling this road since I was 10 yrs old, when one could only walk back as the road was impassable, but this is the first time I remember being able to look directly into that field without brush obscuring the view. It's going to look GREAT when finished. I wish I had taken a before pic but will try to remember to do so for the rest of this field renovation.
We wouldn't really have to cut down all the autumn olive to run fence in behind it, but we would be coppicing that anyway to turn it into better feed for the sheep, so we are doing it now while it's winter. All those stumps will sprout some tender young autumn olive and multiflora rose...and my sheep will eat it like they broke into a candy store. Every time they rotate through that field they'll get the benefit of that good nutrition and roughage, which they love best. Every paddock we separate them into in that field should have some of this tender young browse for them.
We'll likely cross fence this field sometime this spring so as to make the paddock smaller and more easily grazed by rotating within the smaller sections. We also plan to make a mobile field shelter for this winter and early spring, as the sheep dearly hate rain and we'd like to be able to move the hoop shelter around the field as needed. We'd likely park it on places that really need concentrated poop and trampling, then move it when it's had enough of both.
Exciting new changes!
Lots of back breaking work but it's the kind of work where you get the see the progress every day you get to do it. I love that kind of work!
Just the little we got cleared the other day is startling to see. I've been traveling this road since I was 10 yrs old, when one could only walk back as the road was impassable, but this is the first time I remember being able to look directly into that field without brush obscuring the view. It's going to look GREAT when finished. I wish I had taken a before pic but will try to remember to do so for the rest of this field renovation.
We wouldn't really have to cut down all the autumn olive to run fence in behind it, but we would be coppicing that anyway to turn it into better feed for the sheep, so we are doing it now while it's winter. All those stumps will sprout some tender young autumn olive and multiflora rose...and my sheep will eat it like they broke into a candy store. Every time they rotate through that field they'll get the benefit of that good nutrition and roughage, which they love best. Every paddock we separate them into in that field should have some of this tender young browse for them.
We'll likely cross fence this field sometime this spring so as to make the paddock smaller and more easily grazed by rotating within the smaller sections. We also plan to make a mobile field shelter for this winter and early spring, as the sheep dearly hate rain and we'd like to be able to move the hoop shelter around the field as needed. We'd likely park it on places that really need concentrated poop and trampling, then move it when it's had enough of both.
Exciting new changes!
Lots of back breaking work but it's the kind of work where you get the see the progress every day you get to do it. I love that kind of work!
Baymule
Herd Master
Clearing out the brush will be a big help. You are right, it does make you feel accomplished when you can see the progress you made. Far too many farm duties work us all day with nothing to "show" like a before and after! LOL
- Thread starter
- #445
Beekissed
Herd Master
I saw an amazing thing today and maybe some of you have seen this already in your dogs but I'd yet to see such a thing. Lately I've been seeing Blue harassing certain sheep...usually Rose(older, lead sheep)...and it's not play behavior. He seems to be preventing her from moving where she wants to go or something. I saw him pull her tail, pull on her legs and also rear up and pounce on her with his front legs all in the same episode. This was all seen at a distance and both times I saw this, the pup was dancing around the whole thing and darting into the fray, so I was thinking she was copying Blue's behavior.
Well, Blue earned himself a shock collar and as soon as he got that collar on, he stopped that behavior...Blue is very collar wise and it only takes wearing the collar to get results. Never saw it again until today. Today, with the shock collar long dead on battery and with no further recurrence of the behavior, I removed the collar, as I'm splitting wood in their paddock and he comes to me for pets. Not long after that, I glanced up from splitting wood and saw Blue doing the same behavior to Shine(another older, lead sheep), who usually would just roll that dog if she takes a mind to. I was waiting for her to do so, but she didn't and Blue continued to put his paws on her back and then would try to grab her back leg. All the while I'm yelling a typical verbal correction at Blue and this usually very obedient dog would just look at me and go back to this behavior.
Enter Pinky Pie, at 3 mo. old, mind you, and she runs over and starts to pull at Blue's back legs. He continued to try and paw at Shine and Pinky Pie moved to his front and grabbed his jowl and braced her legs to pull. So Blue is trying to fend off the pup and Shine turns around to butt him also. The pup switched to his back leg and let Shine work the front and mild mannered Blue gave up. He walked away and the pup sat down next to her sheep and watched him go. If I had to caption the look on her face it would be, "Yeah, walk away, Big Boy....just walk away." She watched him until he was sufficiently gone and involved in something else and then she lay down with some adjacent sheep but continued to watch Blue.
Now, my mind thinks back to the times I saw him doing that to Rose and I had to rethink this pup's behavior, as I could not see it clearly at a distance. I'm thinking she was trying to stop Blue then also but lacked the strength or power to do so. Now that her legs are stronger, she's been displaying her growing power in how she plays with Blue, so I think her efforts today were more effective.
I just never dreamed that a 3 mo. old pup would try to pull an older dog off of a sheep. How does she have the confidence to do that? I'll not be applying the shock collar on Blue any longer...I'm going to see how this pup does on correcting him. She seems pretty effective now!
I continue to be amazed at this puppy and also puzzled by what Blue is trying to do. I checked over Rose after the last time he was doing that and he doesn't break skin. He doesn't seem to be doing this with any intensity, but he seems to be trying to prevent the sheep from moving from one place to another. Ordinarily if he wants them to move, he'll just gently walk around them until they start to move and then he'll follow behind them. So, I'm thinking he's wanting these sheep to stop moving. Not sure why, but Pinky sure doesn't like his methods.
That Blue is the sweetest dog and came to me a couple of times while I was splitting wood to get petted and ear massages...he'll close his eyes and just lean into the pleasure of it all. He's so polite and respectful when he approaches and moves around humans and he is usually so around the sheep, so it surprises me to see him using his mouth and paws on these two sheep. Not sure what's going on in his head.
Anybody else see such behavior from their LGDs?
Well, Blue earned himself a shock collar and as soon as he got that collar on, he stopped that behavior...Blue is very collar wise and it only takes wearing the collar to get results. Never saw it again until today. Today, with the shock collar long dead on battery and with no further recurrence of the behavior, I removed the collar, as I'm splitting wood in their paddock and he comes to me for pets. Not long after that, I glanced up from splitting wood and saw Blue doing the same behavior to Shine(another older, lead sheep), who usually would just roll that dog if she takes a mind to. I was waiting for her to do so, but she didn't and Blue continued to put his paws on her back and then would try to grab her back leg. All the while I'm yelling a typical verbal correction at Blue and this usually very obedient dog would just look at me and go back to this behavior.
Enter Pinky Pie, at 3 mo. old, mind you, and she runs over and starts to pull at Blue's back legs. He continued to try and paw at Shine and Pinky Pie moved to his front and grabbed his jowl and braced her legs to pull. So Blue is trying to fend off the pup and Shine turns around to butt him also. The pup switched to his back leg and let Shine work the front and mild mannered Blue gave up. He walked away and the pup sat down next to her sheep and watched him go. If I had to caption the look on her face it would be, "Yeah, walk away, Big Boy....just walk away." She watched him until he was sufficiently gone and involved in something else and then she lay down with some adjacent sheep but continued to watch Blue.
Now, my mind thinks back to the times I saw him doing that to Rose and I had to rethink this pup's behavior, as I could not see it clearly at a distance. I'm thinking she was trying to stop Blue then also but lacked the strength or power to do so. Now that her legs are stronger, she's been displaying her growing power in how she plays with Blue, so I think her efforts today were more effective.
I just never dreamed that a 3 mo. old pup would try to pull an older dog off of a sheep. How does she have the confidence to do that? I'll not be applying the shock collar on Blue any longer...I'm going to see how this pup does on correcting him. She seems pretty effective now!
I continue to be amazed at this puppy and also puzzled by what Blue is trying to do. I checked over Rose after the last time he was doing that and he doesn't break skin. He doesn't seem to be doing this with any intensity, but he seems to be trying to prevent the sheep from moving from one place to another. Ordinarily if he wants them to move, he'll just gently walk around them until they start to move and then he'll follow behind them. So, I'm thinking he's wanting these sheep to stop moving. Not sure why, but Pinky sure doesn't like his methods.
That Blue is the sweetest dog and came to me a couple of times while I was splitting wood to get petted and ear massages...he'll close his eyes and just lean into the pleasure of it all. He's so polite and respectful when he approaches and moves around humans and he is usually so around the sheep, so it surprises me to see him using his mouth and paws on these two sheep. Not sure what's going on in his head.
Anybody else see such behavior from their LGDs?
Kusanar
Loving the herd life
I wonder if he's somehow trying to assert his dominance on the sheep in some sort of weird hybrid dog and sheep behavior. I'm thinking sheep behavior based on the movement control aspect, dog because of the grabbing and pulling. And it seems dominance based if he is only really going after the top sheep in the herd.
Weird none the less and glad the baby girl is putting him in his place! Those are HER sheep and he's not allowed to chew on them!
Weird none the less and glad the baby girl is putting him in his place! Those are HER sheep and he's not allowed to chew on them!
Baymule
Herd Master
This is a new one on me. First thing that went through my mind, are the ewe in heat? Estrus is estrus and the smell may be making him misbehave.
A guy that we used to get hay from had cattle. he got a jack donkey to protect the calves. Wrong. When the cows came in heat, the jack attacked the bull for trying to breed them. He chased the cows, biting and kicking them. Needless to say, that jack got hauled to auction.
A guy that we used to get hay from had cattle. he got a jack donkey to protect the calves. Wrong. When the cows came in heat, the jack attacked the bull for trying to breed them. He chased the cows, biting and kicking them. Needless to say, that jack got hauled to auction.
- Thread starter
- #448
Beekissed
Herd Master
Nah, they are all bred but maybe pregnancy hormones? Both of these older ewes may put off more hormones as the ram seems interested in their urine more than he is in the others. He even tries to mount Rose now and again, but all these gals are preggers and well along the way.
Baymule
Herd Master
Could be. Maybe a dominance issue, but why now? Pinkie will straighten him out. Her, and the collar. LOL LOL
- Thread starter
- #450
Beekissed
Herd Master
He's only worn that collar a couple of times and only been shocked one of those times, a long while back. The second time it was a vibration only. Just from those two incidents that happened many months ago, he's wise to that collar and he also seemed to figure out just what behavior he had been doing that earned him the collar, as he stopped doing it without my having to give a correction....and started right back doing the behavior about 5 min. after I removed the Ecollar. Smart dog,huh?
These Anatolians seem incredibly sensitive to pain or discomfort. Do you find the same thing with yours?
