The Quack Shack

[Jenbirdee]

The coyote story continued today:
I was embarrassing hot outside today, but i really felt i had to do something outside. For my satisfaction and with the intention to show presence.
So i started to remove the shrubs around the pond, at the edge of the heavy overgrown part of the property. Three autumn olive's in, the duck alarm went off, i turned around and looked into the eyes of five skinny coyotes. I had just cut through the main shoot of a huge shrub, so i was sitting on the ground, literally eye to eye with the coyotes. The pond to the right hand, the next thorny autumn-olive in my back, Coyotes on two sides and worried about the ducks down at the house.
Usually my old bones have problems to get me back on my feet when i'm sitting on the floor, but this time somehow i jumped up...
Electric chainsaw in my left hand, machete swinging in my right i looked at them and said: »Bring it on!« - pulling the trigger of the chainsaw and made a step forward.
Apparently Coyotes are unable to smell "dirty" underwear, they got scared, turned around and fled the scene. Fortunately not into the direction of the house and the ducks.

Nothing happened to any duck today! - And they all got rewarded with peas and meal-worms. Without their alarm, this could have ended very different.

that is amazing and scary. i think you need more than one Llama.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

(they eat straw and grass)

That's fine, i have 40acres of land, and i could have the trees timbered. As long as they don't eat ducks.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I'd actually want a mule!

Mules don't lay eggs!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

OR . A LLAMA!! View attachment 3930552View attachment 3930553

Isn't their saliva highly corrosive?
And a couple of Alpacas would produce wool…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

that is amazing and scary. i think you need more than one Llama.

Trust me, not amazing! - Terrifying!
Coyotes are the same size as German Shepherd dogs, but they don't see you as a leader, for them you're prey. Especially when its five against one.
Maybe i should start playing poker, obviously i'm good at bluffing.

 

[Canadian Wind]

 

[Supercow]

Awesome video

Some more thoughts:
- Llamas spit (not corrosive but nasty) and they also bite, especially males; although that's a herbivore bite, crushing rather than piercing
- Donkey milk is very nourishing and has high market value - https://www.mashed.com/1292564/why-donkey-milk-expensive/

 

[Supercow]

WAY ahead of you! Already bookmarked the page!

One problem that could be acute in a situation where there are only a few breeders in a country the size of Canada - narrow genetics.

Hovawarts are considered an unusually healthy breed for their size and for example in Germany where the genetic pool is really wide it is not super unusual to see some live even 17 years ( https://www.hovawart.org/zucht/unvergessen/ ) ; our Bellfast's grandmother reached that age as well. But it is critical that the parents really are solid (and that your puppy is not humongous even for the breed's standard, which our veteran was, and that you don't let the dog get fat).

So if you are seriously thinking about a Hovawart, try to dig deeper to find more breeders and also try to find out pedigree info. If you would like any more details about behavior, environment, upbringing etc that are specific for the breed shoot me a message, I can talk about that all day.

 

[Canadian Wind]

One problem that could be acute in a situation where there are only a few breeders in a country the size of Canada - narrow genetics.

Hovawarts are considered an unusually healthy breed for their size and for example in Germany where the genetic pool is really wide it is not super unusual to see some live even 17 years ( https://www.hovawart.org/zucht/unvergessen/ ) ; our Bellfast's grandmother reached that age as well. But it is critical that the parents really are solid (and that your puppy is not humongous even for the breed's standard, which our veteran was, and that you don't let the dog get fat).

So if you are seriously thinking about a Hovawart, try to dig deeper to find more breeders and also try to find out pedigree info. If you would like any more details about behavior, environment, upbringing etc that are specific for the breed shoot me a message, I can talk about that all day.

Thanks SC! Right now, just trying to keep my head above water until the Fall sale of the extra animals (as well as processing in October) and don't even know how much they go for. From the bit I've read though, the Hovawart sound like a really good breed for a small farm and would be hardy enough to withstand our winters. Plus, they are gorgeous! I like the fact that they are more on the medium side too!

 

[Supercow]

One thing about the Hovie, they are not really *livestock* guardians - they are more like a general homestead alarm. And yes, they can take low temps just fine. They really like the 0 to +5 C interval and if it's colder that's fine as well. Above +25 it becomes too hot, we always take special care of ours during summer.

Livestock guardian dogs live with the livestock, outside most of the time, they are very autonomous.

Hovies live with their people, get sad without them and don't even like to roam.

So for the purpose of protecting ducks they are so-so... would probably work out if the predator is not really hungry and can simply be warned away; but an active defence *that needs to happen immediately* would be problematic. For that you'd need one of the breeds on the original photo (Pyrenees, Maremma, Kangal, Karstian shepherd dog from Slovenia etc...).

I guess it also depends (a lot) on how far the ducks are from your house. Ours are in 2 orchards, the outer one is some 100 m away and not in direct line of sight.

There are videos on Youtube with young Maremma dogs where the human throws a ball at them for playing and they just watch it fly by like "yeah nice ball, now where are the sheep??"

We really love large dogs but as we age... It just becomes harder to be confident in handling a 50+ kg dog in an emergency (carry it, load it into the car...).

There are East-Germany strain Hovawarts (working strain, easily 50+ kg) and West-Germany strain (about a third smaller and lighter), our veteran was from the East and the young lady is from the West. But when we talk about the next puppy we're currently talking about Kelpies or Aussie cattle dogs (they are related anyway as I understand it) - smallish but energetic and very robust healthwise.