Post by catherine on Jan 12, 2009 13:38:12 GMT -5
Hey folks...
I would love to learn from whoever on this board has Gr. Pyrs and Anatolians. We have a dear friend who has a goat dairy, and raises these two breeds, and she thinks the combo makes for the best LGDs possible. She has too many mouths to feed, at the moment, and would like to help us both out by passing a very sweet pair of 2+ year old trained bitches on to us. Her other concern is that their farm is right on a fairly busy road, and these two girls have become car chasers, in part because of a neighbor boy who loves riding his bike back and forth in front of the dogs, throwing rocks at them, and taunting them to chase him! Our place is at the end of a pretty quite road, and we're a LOT further back away from it.
I love dogs, but I have never taken on adult dogs, nor have I ever taken on LGDs. We've been Dachsie people until recently! lol. I know that our human family will have to kindly project our alpha status to these newcomers. We're planning on them living in our feed room down at the cow barn, in the middle of our pasture. How long should we try to keep them penned up before they come to see our farm as their new home? I'm proposing to take them for fence line walks with their "birth family" the first time, and then daily with just us, thereafter, in order to help them get a sense of "their" territory. Is there anything else I should do to help them shift their loyalties over to us, and to our farm? I've been doing some research and it looks like it should be possible to desensitize the girls to road traffic by teaching them sit, no, etc, if they don't already know those things, and then controlling them while having my DH drive by, etc.. I'm just wondering if anyone has any other good ideas to contribute? I'm wondering how they might respond to electric fencing, etc.? These girls currently live with their goats, ignore chickens, and apparently give a wide berth of mutual respect to horses and pigs. Their introduction to our cows and pigs should be interesting.
P.S. The Anatolian bitch has a beautiful litter of 3-4 week old pups, by the way. They are absolutely darling, and my friend is selling them for $150 each. Five pups are already "gone", even though they can't leave their mom until they are weaned. They are apparently from excellent working lines! There are 4 dogs and a bitch left, if anyone in the Houston area is interested. I'll post photos of them on the Auction Barn, when I get some. Please, buy these puppies before my DD has lost her heart to them completely!?!?!
Thanks!
I would love to learn from whoever on this board has Gr. Pyrs and Anatolians. We have a dear friend who has a goat dairy, and raises these two breeds, and she thinks the combo makes for the best LGDs possible. She has too many mouths to feed, at the moment, and would like to help us both out by passing a very sweet pair of 2+ year old trained bitches on to us. Her other concern is that their farm is right on a fairly busy road, and these two girls have become car chasers, in part because of a neighbor boy who loves riding his bike back and forth in front of the dogs, throwing rocks at them, and taunting them to chase him! Our place is at the end of a pretty quite road, and we're a LOT further back away from it.
I love dogs, but I have never taken on adult dogs, nor have I ever taken on LGDs. We've been Dachsie people until recently! lol. I know that our human family will have to kindly project our alpha status to these newcomers. We're planning on them living in our feed room down at the cow barn, in the middle of our pasture. How long should we try to keep them penned up before they come to see our farm as their new home? I'm proposing to take them for fence line walks with their "birth family" the first time, and then daily with just us, thereafter, in order to help them get a sense of "their" territory. Is there anything else I should do to help them shift their loyalties over to us, and to our farm? I've been doing some research and it looks like it should be possible to desensitize the girls to road traffic by teaching them sit, no, etc, if they don't already know those things, and then controlling them while having my DH drive by, etc.. I'm just wondering if anyone has any other good ideas to contribute? I'm wondering how they might respond to electric fencing, etc.? These girls currently live with their goats, ignore chickens, and apparently give a wide berth of mutual respect to horses and pigs. Their introduction to our cows and pigs should be interesting.
P.S. The Anatolian bitch has a beautiful litter of 3-4 week old pups, by the way. They are absolutely darling, and my friend is selling them for $150 each. Five pups are already "gone", even though they can't leave their mom until they are weaned. They are apparently from excellent working lines! There are 4 dogs and a bitch left, if anyone in the Houston area is interested. I'll post photos of them on the Auction Barn, when I get some. Please, buy these puppies before my DD has lost her heart to them completely!?!?!
Thanks!