Dogs

When the dogs chase the sheep I put a dangle stick on them for a few minutes.  Tessa being a super smart dog realized if she holds the dangle stick in her mouth she can run as fast as she wants.  When Luca was bad and needed the dangle stick Tessa tried to help him.  We only needed to do this a few times with each dog and they have stopped chasing the sheep (mostly).

Tessa is a sweet, beautiful, gentle dog who is also very skittish at times.  She spent weeks running through the electric fence that holds the cattle in but one wet afternoon she got zapped and ran off.  We finished doing our chores and then went looking for her.  She was hiding behind rocks at the top of the property.  I gave her love and worked 30 minutes to get her to come about 100 feet down the property, for some reason she was fine walking with me along the fence but leaving the top of the property was terrifying.  Slowly we got her to walk back towards the house and the other dogs running around her trying to get her to play helped her get over her fear. 

The Livestock Guardian Dogs love to play with the house idiot, Dakota.  Every morning we let Dakota out for 15 minutes before we let the sheep out, then again at dusk after the sheep are put away Dakota is out running and playing with the LGD’s for about an hour.  One night as we were walking I noticed a large animal near the fence.  Tessa and Luca took off after the animal with Dakota chasing them.  Dakota out weighs Tessa by a good 10 pounds, but Tessa looked back and saw Dakota following the LGD’s and chased Dakota back to me where he would be safe.  Then she joined Luca chasing the coyote or dog away.  It is amazing to watch the Livestock Guardian Dogs work.  

We have worked socializing the dogs with friends who come over.  They have been fine with our neighbors dogs but they had not been around a small dog since we got Tessa and we were worried how they all would act.  Christmas morning my brother brought his Boston Terrior over and Tessa acted like the babysitter all day.  She never let him wander towards the sheep but she enjoyed playing tag with him.