I'm sure he is, maybe a non breakable mirror hug in his pen would help till you can get to the farm. My gander loved to look at himself.
Well maybe that one wasn't meant for you anyway. 13th will be here before we know it.
We have seven dogs. Oldest is a Pomeranian with hip dysplasia and a serious underbite problem. Then there is Bela, our Sheltie that was born with a deformed front right leg and foot. Next would be Mikey who we found at 10 wks old in the middle of a busy street covered in fleas and with really bad worms...he is Greyhound/Lab. Then there is Red our German Shorthaired Pointer who we found as a pup abandoned in the parking lot of a WalMart store. Next are the sisters, B.T. and Sara who are an accident between a Pit Bull and a Boxer/Mastiff mix. They were rescued in the parking lot of the animal shelter before the people could take them in and leave them there. And finaly (and my favorite though I love them all) is Duke our Anatolian who weighs in at 120 pounds. He is pure white and the true protector of our farm. Duke was dumped out in the country and our Vet had him. He spent his first year in a pen with weekends at one vet tech or another. I got him when he was about a year old, I was sitting at the vet waiting for an appt with another of our dogs when they brought him out to "say hello". He looked at me, raised up on his hind legs and put his front legs on my sholder and gave me a big kiss. Well, that was that, and no I don't think the vet did it on purpose.
We have seven dogs. Oldest is a Pomeranian with hip dysplasia and a serious underbite problem. Then there is Bela, our Sheltie that was born with a deformed front right leg and foot. Next would be Mikey who we found at 10 wks old in the middle of a busy street covered in fleas and with really bad worms...he is Greyhound/Lab. Then there is Red our German Shorthaired Pointer who we found as a pup abandoned in the parking lot of a WalMart store. Next are the sisters, B.T. and Sara who are an accident between a Pit Bull and a Boxer/Mastiff mix. They were rescued in the parking lot of the animal shelter before the people could take them in and leave them there. And finaly (and my favorite though I love them all) is Duke our Anatolian who weighs in at 120 pounds. He is pure white and the true protector of our farm. Duke was dumped out in the country and our Vet had him. He spent his first year in a pen with weekends at one vet tech or another. I got him when he was about a year old, I was sitting at the vet waiting for an appt with another of our dogs when they brought him out to "say hello". He looked at me, raised up on his hind legs and put his front legs on my sholder and gave me a big kiss. Well, that was that, and no I don't think the vet did it on purpose.
So, yes, we do have dogs and they do protect everyone including our chickens, ducks and geese. But they were adults before we got the birds. We have a 5 foot fence between the birds and our back yard and the dogs do not go into the bird pen. But they do lay along the fence line, watch the birds and react if anything, walking or flying, comes around.
Duke has stopped a couple of Raccoons and Sara and B.T. stopped a Copperhead from going into the bird area. They protect but I don't think they know they are doing it. Just that the birds are a part of their farm and no one messes with their farm.
I am sure that Little Pear can be a great guard as well as a pet. Just be patient and move along everything and everyone slowly. To begin with Little Pear is going to want to be a puppy and Kiwi is not going to know what to do with that and could actually hurt Little Pear badly. This would imprint Kiwi as an enemy to Little Pear. So, use your instincts and train everyone involved to respect and protect. You may find that you need to keep a fence between the birds and the dogs like we do but that does not mean that the dogs will not go ballistic if anything comes around. Ours are all inside dogs and in the evening they may hear, smell or sense something outside. Usually it is Frito our Pom who starts the alert (and she is 13) and everyone else joins in. We open the door and out they go. I pity anything that happened to think they could venture around and do something nefarious.
small dogs are the best guard dogs!
All the more reason for a name that seems out of place. Big giant goofy dog named Little Pear...I like that.
Perfectly normal. Remember, these are birds that, for all intents and purposes, mate for life. Yes, the male will wander, but still once they pair off they tend to stay paired. So, for just dumb animals, they are really pretty sophisticated in their relationships. Imagine what it would be like to lose the one person you had bonded to for what you believed would be the rest of your life. That is, to a degree, what Kiwi is feeling. I know that every time we have lost one of our dogs the others mourn for a long time afterwards. Mourning is a process and it takes time to heal to the point you can move on and that is made easier with the love and help of a friend. That is your job with Kiwi and, perhaps it is Kiwi's job with you.
