Ridgetop, thank you so much for the advice! She’s a great pyr. We have about 5 acres. The whole property is fenced and then the pasture is fenced within. All no climb, about 5 feet high, I’d say, minus the dog run which is 10 feet on one side (previous owner put it in—I’m not sure why so high there, but it’s nice fencing and I’m very grateful for it!). The pup can see the goats 90% of the time as they LOVE the dog run and hang out close by. The goats come into the dog run for a couple hours a day while I play and fuss with everyone and do chores. Yesterday the goats hung out in the dog run for a while as I watched from the house window, and the pup was great! She followed them around a bit, but mostly laid down in the middle of them.
She does accompany them down to goat shed. We let her wander a little bit in the meadow, but mostly keep her close as the burrs are attracted to her long fur. After we lock up the goats we run and play with her back up the hill and then play with her until she is exhausted.
I’ve weedwhacked a ton of the pasture myself—probably 4 acres of it—over the course of the last couple weeks, trying to make it safe for her and for fire season. We are super hilly so mowing is a challenge. Foxtails go to seed again after cut, just a little shorter this time. Next year I will know, and will seed the pasture with something native and get to weedwhacking much sooner.
The past two nights, the goats have refused to go in their shed. We encourage them in with a handful of grain in a bucket, but lately they just don’t want to. One is a little weird and has been a bit skittish, and has led the herd to a bit of a bedtime rodeo. I’ve been thinking it’s the heat and the long days lately. So for the past two nights, I’ve penned them in the chicken run (which shares a fence with the dog run). Pup can see them and they are close to the house, but I don’t have to worry about her chewing on their legs or something (she never has but I’m worried she will escalate if not supervised).
I stayed up last night to reprimand her idle barking as baymule suggested, but most of her barking was sporadic and serious (not the steady arf-arf-arf-arf-arf it sometimes is). I’d march outside and look around and talk to her, but never saw anything. Come to find out, our next door neighbor had a bear hit their chicken coop last night. Their chickens were fine, thank goodness, but still very scary. Not sure if the goats are safer up by the house and dog tonight or locked in their barn away from the house. I’m sure a bear could peel open the barn like a can of sardines if it really wanted to. But I will definitely be camping out and staying up tonight.
Also, that’s great advice about rabbit pellets. She does eat grass when out in the pasture, but I always thought she was mimicking the goats (as they’ll all stand around and munch together). I’ll see if I can pick up some supplemental feed today.
www.backyardherds.com
