English Shepherd as Poultry Guardian

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Today we acquired a male English Shepherd pup to aid with guarding free-range and confined poultry on our 18+ acre patch. He will supplement our adult female German Pointer and he replaces the adult 4.5 year-old male German Pointer recently lost. The male pointer was very versatile, smart and fast. Every effort will be made to get this new guy into a similar mindset. The female Pointer (Lucy) will have her job description broadened to train this pup. We are still in the introduction phase waiting for Lucy to show him who is boss. Pup trying to find his position in the pack as a whole. My 3.5 year old son has bested pup already but 2 year old daughter and pup have yet to work things out. Pup bit daughter twice so far and daughter tried to reciprocate. Daughter is very aggressive and terror for even adult cats. Pup need to imprint on home area before we start learning property boundaries and electric fences. Pup has been named Ben. Daughter will be nicknamed Taz.

Pup seems to be bonding very well with son although Lucy needs to be more involved.

 

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My dear wife passed at 2259 (10:59 PM) yesterday. Her passing was sandwiched between my birthday on the 16th and our sons today (18th) making the remembrance of it easier without my son in particular having a bad pairing. My sister in law was very concerned about that in the end as the weight of things lifted.

 

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Dogs just did there bit today. A Husky came in and tried to get at chickens penned in front yard. Honey and Lucy went after Husky quick briefly getting it down even though it was larger than either Honey or Lucy. Ben would not commit to fight. I called females off and they switched over to barking as they escorted the Husky off. Then I saw a much larger dog that looked like a Rottweiler crossed with a large hound. We started moving towards it causing it to retreat. Pups were released and they formed up with their mother getting the interlopers to move out even faster.

 

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Fencing still needs to be tightened up. Flo is like a hog finding places that can be forced. The dogs already know how to get between any points inside and outside fence by running back through gate.

 

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It's a mess although everyone seems in good spirits.

 

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Actual pictures.

 

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Honey and Pup Pup digging for voles. Dominique hens looking for greens and bugs. Buck brush goat has not found yet. She pounds that stuff down.

 

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I'm having a blast watching my sheep and goat eat. Both very different from each other and the hogs, cattle and horses I'm far more familiar with. They also have some habits not unlike chickens when it comes to dealing with cold and wind. The goat in particular has locations it returns to when not feeding. The sheep seem to move around a lot more. The last two days the chickens quit getting close to paddock where they can access spilt grain and hay. Chickens are for short-term tightening their ranging habits until they acclimate to cold and get hungry enough.

 

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I thought I lost one of my favorite pet hens. Could not find her on roost she had been using for better part of a year. Could not find her in a tree or other locations hens use based around house. This morning I looked over the entire yard and even went down into the woods expecting to see kill sign like left by a Coyote or Bobcat even though dogs keeping them out very well as far as can be determined. I just about gave and then saw something move around inside the cab of my truck. Door was left open for about and hour during day yesterday. Will have to make certain she is not trying to locate a nest there. She did crap in daughters booster seat.

 

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Do they know their mom is going to die?

Yes. Final realization of it occurred at Denver Airport while on lay over. That was last time they got to see their mother through any means. They did Face Time with her. They could tell she did not recognize them and they could see something was very wrong. There was a lot of crying shortly after that. Not even an hour later she became unresponsive and hospice was initiated. Last time to that she held a conversation with them was two days prior. Since we took her in the last time, she stopped calling home to talk with them, or me. She also ceased picking up the phone which really started the weekend before she went back into hospital. She lost track of who I was on Wednesday.