My How They've Grown!

So, yesterday morning it was 10 degrees when I left the house to haul the replacement lamb to town.  This morning it's 60 degrees!  I am actually writing this post from my sunny back porch! I've got a great cup of coffee and some home made pumpkin bread. The sun actually feels hot on my black, polka dot t-shirt. I also have a 120 pound dog laying on my foot....

 

Remember these rascals? I wrote about them on "The Judge and Jury" and also here





Well now they're each 120 pounds of fun!  They really are both amazing dogs and I am very, very glad I have them.  The coyote problem here is a major one.  I'm certain that with out the dogs I would have lost more than one lamb to them.  They do an awesome job at holding them off and alerting me so I can jump on my four wheeler and chase them away! I try not to leave them to deal with a pack of coyotes alone.  Prairie Momma Trish lost a dog to coyotes and I'd hate for my pups to get torn up.

They also behave perfectly with humans.  They are leery of strangers and bark to alert me if someone shows up unexpectedly.  However, when I am there with them and tell them someone is "Ok", they completely respect it just chill out.  I have socialized these dog's a LOT more than most people socialize Livestock Guardian Dogs.  I really didn't want them to be human aggressive unless there was an obvious issue.  Judge did hold the city water man in his vehicle once, while I was gone.  But he just sat and stared as long as he didn't try to get out of his car.

 Jury has had some issues. I call her the naughty one.  For a while she was really after my chickens and killed a few.  Just when I thought I had her broke of it, she killed another one two days ago. It makes me so mad! So she's back in boot camp. She also has more of a tenancy to chase things.  I have to watch her with the alpacas and the calves.  She's usually good, but gets to running them once in awhile.  There was also the day she took after the sheep....ugh.    But for the most part I do see improvement in her behavior so I haven't given up on her.  They are just exactly a year old this month, is the puppy phase gonna be over soon?




With my kids these dogs blow my mind.  Especially Judge.  I love that dog so much! He is an absolute gentle giant.  His favorite thing is in the world is to lay down and let the kids snuggle up with him. Jury is not quite as calm with them and really wants to play all the time.  She can be a little too rambunctious but I know she would not every act aggressively towards them what-so-ever. They also adore little Miss Gwynne and even though they could almost swallow her whole, they treat her like she's the queen!

I hope you enjoyed the doggie update!

Bye for now,
PB