I look at that as the same as when a widower/widow jumps right back into a relationship. I think of it as a tribute. It means they were so happy being married, they like that feeling and are looking for it again right away. Think of it as a tribute to the part your dog played in your family.
Thanks. We learned a LOT with Scrappy. He was our first dog. Getting your feet wet with your first dog with a Rottweiler is not for the faint of heart. LOL We had 1 child and one on the way when we got him. He was 4 weeks old. Very very young. We got him from a really crummy home. Mom looked mangy and skinny and so did all their animals. We paid $300 for the runt of the litter- more than he was 'worth' but we knew he was meant to be a part of our family. We paid it gladly. He honestly after 9 sweet years- full of ups and downs I am so happy that his last 18 months he got to live in the country and run around on 2-4 acres (he had about 1/8 of an acre in our previous home) and eat duck poop, chase rabbits, chase the cars going down the dirt road, bark and no annoy neighbors- just be a dog in every sense of the word. We have learned what we did right, what we did wrong and the experience was invaluable and we were blessed to have him in our family for as long as we did. He was our Giving Tree- always giving and he never asked anything of us. Just our company was enough. I appreciate that. He also protected us and the kids- we knew if he was running around annoying our kids he was also playing double as nanny- he made sure they were safe. I feel a void already.
Your dog is also a worker and will be protecting you and your animals. Have you looked into Live Stock Guardian Dogs? Those are probably very expensive too. I have heard that Boarder Collies are good with animals.
I read a post about losing chickens that relates. The person was comparing City kids with 4-H and FFA kids. The City kids were upset for a long time when a chicken died. The Country kids were upset but were quickly thinking "what breed can I replace the dead one with-we have room now".
I guess practical is the word.
I am very sorry about your loss. I am glad to hear the EEs are helping. The feathers and pattern are called Duck Wing, so yes they do look a bit like ducks.
This is something I am learning to love and hate about country life. I appreciate that we can love deeply and grieve in a healthy way. And yet you still struggle with the guilt for not being more devastated. I feel like someone took away a good friend and no new dog will directly replace him. And I'm not actually trying to replace him. He played an important 'position' in our family and now a spot has opened up and it needs to be filled. Yet...I feel bad for feeling that way??? I am having a hard time walking by his bag of food and his water bowl and his spot on the front porch without wanting to cry. I imagine it's going to be weird for weeks.
We would only have a couple hundred $200 tops right now to spend on adopting a dog right now. I am looking at nearby shelters but most of the dogs are smaller mutts and older. I need a good guard dog, a trainable dog and I need to start young so I can train him to not eat the livestock, attack our cats, my mil's little dogs or my kids. Scrappy was amazing. He had NEVER ever been around any other animals except our cats and yet not one time did he go after ANY of birds- not ducks, geese or chickens and he would walk among them all the time. He was 8 when he met his first duckling. We didn't need to do anything- he just left them a lone. I find that amazing. He was such a smart animal.
We have our work cut out for us. I am also scouring CL. Might take weeks or months to find the right dog.
Your dog is also a worker and will be protecting you and your animals. Have you looked into Live Stock Guardian Dogs? Those are probably very expensive too. I have heard that Boarder Collies are good with animals.
Okay, I LOVED your unintentional faux pas. It's Border Collie, as in "developed in the border country between England and Scotland". But I have to say, I frequently think of my three more as non-rent paying boarders. My youngest, Ceilidh as a puppy.
Anyway, I personally would not trust any one of my three alone with my chickens. With work of course, you can train them to leave them alone. They are the smartest dog breed and learn amazingly quickly, both things you train them and things they figure out themselves, whether you want them to or not. But they are highly prey driven. Herding is basically using their pack hunting instinct and directing it in a way that you are controlling them in their control of the movement of their prey. I'm not saying there aren't border collies that wouldn't dream of harming the tiniest chick, but I know mine spend every waking moment they are outside giving my birds what I call......."the border collie stare".
Livestock Guardian Dogs are another issue. We had an Akbash that was initially raised with our sheep. We lavished too much attention on her and she ended up prefering the company of her humans. She was a sweetheart with lambs, people or any other creature she considered under her care. That did not include our other dogs. The breeder we purchased her from told us there would not be another stray dog within miles, other than your own. She was always climbing our fences (or digging under), but she always came back. They consider a very wide area to be their territory to patrol. Neighbors don't particularily like having their yards patrolled by your 150# dog, even if they are generally friendly to people (not always). They also are generally barkers (part of their protection process). Neighbors also don't like that at night. They will bark at anything they think needs their attention. Our LGD ended up barking so much at night, she had to sleep indoors, didn't do much for protecting our flock from nighttime predators. We ended up having to place her with a retired policewoman. She was going to be a companion, only dog and doted on housedog.
Amy, good luck in your search for a new furry family member.
Hey Guys!, I know many of you are mainly into eggs for raising chicks but our 4 hens eggs are only for our consumption! Our year old Australorp has been laying for many months but yesterday and today we've discovered a smaller egg next to the larger eggs!
Our 3 White Leghorns are only 20 weeks old this weekend and it's obvious that one of them has started to lay! Is it too early for them to lay and is that why the eggs are so small? I've never tried to add a picture here but I'm gonna try so you can see what I'm talking about! Any thought's???..
Okay, I LOVED your unintentional faux pas. It's Border Collie, as in "developed in the border country between England and Scotland". But I have to say, I frequently think of my three more as non-rent paying boarders. My youngest, Ceilidh as a puppy.
Anyway, I personally would not trust any one of my three alone with my chickens. With work of course, you can train them to leave them alone. They are the smartest dog breed and learn amazingly quickly, both things you train them and things they figure out themselves, whether you want them to or not. But they are highly prey driven. Herding is basically using their pack hunting instinct and directing it in a way that you are controlling them in their control of the movement of their prey. I'm not saying there aren't border collies that wouldn't dream of harming the tiniest chick, but I know mine spend every waking moment they are outside giving my birds what I call......."the border collie stare".
Livestock Guardian Dogs are another issue. We had an Akbash that was initially raised with our sheep. We lavished too much attention on her and she ended up prefering the company of her humans. She was a sweetheart with lambs, people or any other creature she considered under her care. That did not include our other dogs. The breeder we purchased her from told us there would not be another stray dog within miles, other than your own. She was always climbing our fences (or digging under), but she always came back. They consider a very wide area to be their territory to patrol. Neighbors don't particularily like having their yards patrolled by your 150# dog, even if they are generally friendly to people (not always). They also are generally barkers (part of their protection process). Neighbors also don't like that at night. They will bark at anything they think needs their attention. Our LGD ended up barking so much at night, she had to sleep indoors, didn't do much for protecting our flock from nighttime predators. We ended up having to place her with a retired policewoman. She was going to be a companion, only dog and doted on housedog.
Amy, good luck in your search for a new furry family member.
Thank you for the information. I think 150 pound dog might be out of our doggy food budget. lol! Scrappy was about 100-115 at various times of the year. He was a good eater lol. I am sure we want a large dog but not extra large. I think Scrappy was considered 'large'. Dobes usually are a little leaner than that even. Short hair is ideal. We have foxtails, stickers etc- can't be spending oodles of time brushing and grooming and detangling. The dog would come in at night. He wouldn't need to protect the flock per se- not like a sheep dog would. Just not eat 'our' animals, kids or mils tiny dogs. But his primary 'job' would be a guardian to our family.
Waiting and looking is the hard part. Finding a new friend that will fit our environment. Thank you so much for the encouragement!
Hey Guys!, I know many of you are mainly into eggs for raising chicks but our 4 hens eggs are only for our consumption! Our year old Australorp has been laying for many months but yesterday and today we've discovered a smaller egg next to the larger eggs!
Our 3 White Leghorns are only 20 weeks old this weekend and it's obvious that one of them has started to lay! Is it too early for them to lay and is that why the eggs are so small? I've never tried to add a picture here but I'm gonna try so you can see what I'm talking about! Any thought's???..
Hey Guys!, I know many of you are mainly into eggs for raising chicks but our 4 hens eggs are only for our consumption! Our year old Australorp has been laying for many months but yesterday and today we've discovered a smaller egg next to the larger eggs!
Our 3 White Leghorns are only 20 weeks old this weekend and it's obvious that one of them has started to lay! Is it too early for them to lay and is that why the eggs are so small? I've never tried to add a picture here but I'm gonna try so you can see what I'm talking about! Any thought's???..
Sometimes their egg factory gets kind of off and don't Leghorns lay white eggs, so I don't think it's from your Leghorns? Here's a picture of an egg I found from one of a group of 1 1/2 old hens. This day I got a tiny egg, up to a huge egg!
and our White leghorns are the only other chickens we have! We've JUST found another (3rd) egg out in our garden and unless our Australope is laying 2 eggs a day it HAS to be one of our White Leghorns!
We bought the 4 chicks from a local Farm supply and one turned out to be Rooster so we traded him for the year old Australorp from my 20 year old Grand daughters boyfriend's Mother! (Are you confused now?
.. because I am!...lol. The Australorp lays one BROWN egg every day but NOW there's a small BROWN egg with the larger one! It HAS to be one of our "GIANT WHITE LEGHORNS"
.....lolol. I say "Giant" because they are only 20 weeks and they are a full third larger than the year old Australorp!
...lol. We admit that we're just re-learning all this but I don't remember young chiickens laying small eggs at this age! I DO know that the Australorp isn't laying 2 a day!..
~David (former Californian from Tracy) and Wendy (my Aussie wifey from Sydney) in Washington State!
