Farm Fresh Blog

Ginny wrote yesterday to tell me that she has a "doggie-crush" on Briar.  I was delighted.  Other Half almost puked.  He is not one of Briar's biggest fans.  She is big. She is often wet. . . and she jumps on him. It's not a recipe for endearment.   While I see a sincere giant puppy, he sees a gigantic muddy dog who was supposed to spend her life locked in the pasture with no human contact. (Yeah right!  Like THAT'S gonna happen around here!)

I have the ability to make a pet out of anything with fur, but I don't believe that has diminished her effectiveness as a Livestock Guardian Dog.  Because the sheep are kept close to the barn, Briar only has about 9 acres that she's accountable for, and even then, it's only at night.  During the day, while the grass is plentiful, the sheep are with the horses, thus, Briar is off-duty.  Since she is more valuable to me than any one sheep, I cannot take the chance that Montoya the Missile will stomp Briar into the ground. 

"Who me?"       

Thus, Briar not only guards the sheep, but the goats, the chickens, the house, and the entire barnyard.  As a bonus, she is gentle with family and friends.  (except that she is a giant, wet, friendly dog . . . imagine Clifford the Big Red Dog in a different color.)

Briar is adapting into a routine of guarding my mother's chickens at night.

  In the evening Mom locks up her hens and opens the back gate.  Briar hustles over to Mom's for an egg. She is officially On-Duty.  She lays on Mom's deck where she has discovered that she can survey her entire kingdom.  Yesterday I noted that she even brought her own entertainment.

 Canine IPOD   

Cee Cee asked for an update on Roanie . . .

I took this shot this morning.  Roanie is fat and happy.  She is amazingly friendly for a sheep who was given injections daily and endured terribly painful medical treatments for her dog attack. Although she is not what I wanted to breed, we made the decision to keep her for breeding because she is the kind of survivor that you want to reproduce.  Her right rear leg is ever-so slightly shorter, giving her a tiny limp, but not really enough to notice unless you're looking for it.

She and Briar remain good friends.  Roanie understands that Briar is here to protect her from others who are a bit more predatory in nature.

 "HEY!  I was never convicted of that charge! There were no witnesses, and no DNA samples were collected! In fact, if you need a good lawyer, I can highly recommend one!"