English Shepherd as Poultry Guardian

[fisherlady]

This is the sire of my new girl. I can honestly say he was one of the nicest dogs I have ever met. I transferred him to a new home a couple hours north of St Louis last month. He is still intact if you are looking for a match. I can help with making contacts if you are interested.

His daughter, my new girl, Jenibelle...

 

[centrarchid]

Like you I have no immediate plans with breeding but want to evaluate Flo and Pup Pup for health issues. Pup Pup shows clear herding drive while Flo is highly biddable general farm dog. We are still recovering from last year and may not be as far along in that process as I thought.

 

[centrarchid]

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.

 

[centrarchid]

Pup is really getting on with the adults now. Pup Pup and Honey appear to be his best buds.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

Bandit male welped October 13, 2021. Not my photograph. Current age about 13 weeks.
View attachment 2948975

How could anyone not love those colors? Beautiful pup.
Is that an undesirable color for the breed?

 

[centrarchid]

How could anyone not love those colors? Beautiful pup.
Is that an undesirable color for the breed?

From conversations with several breeders, color is a major issue with those looking for a pup and many of those prefer the tricolored look. The pup represents that look.

 

[centrarchid]

Honey, and possibly Pup Pup, has resumed taking bones and other edibles up to barn and placing them next to pen holding Bandit. They are provisioning him like Honey did for her pups after they were weaned. All the dogs now want to have pup out so they can interact with him. I will snatch a dead squirrel off road and lay it by chicken pens near house to see if it magically appears in barn later. Pup Pup and Flo learned how to grab for such prizes with their feet in a manner they still use to steal eggs laid on ground from game hen pens.

 

[centrarchid]

Neighbor's dogs visiting again but hugging fence line. Honey, Pup Pup and Flo ran her out hard. Later neighbor could be heard soothing his dog saying "those bad people over there are just messing round". The dog was interested in something close to pond but too dark for me to see.

 

[centrarchid]

Neighbors dogs cam in this morning about down and tried to get a sheep. Some drama with that. My dogs did what they could when not penned. Flo is showing real guardian mentality,

 

[centrarchid]

The pup is really calming down around the chickens. Working with one pup is so much easier! The pup really gets into it with prolonged battles against Honey and Pup Pup. He is getting better at defending himself too. He still barks at sheep and goat. He already knows when time to return to pen. He does not know whether to follow Pup Pup interested in internal pack issues or Flo interested in external issues like patrolling territory and hunting.