baymule
Sustainability Master
We have two Great Pyrenees, Paris and Trip. Paris is 10 and Trip will be 5 in November. Now is a good time to introduce and train a new puppy. I have been wanting an Anatolian. I was on a Facebook Sheep and goat group when I saw a post for a very Anatolian looking puppy. I kept going back to that post, looking at that puppy. Finally I contacted the lady.
The puppy is 4 months old. His mom is Anatolian, his dad is Great Pyrenees and Akbash. He has been raised with Sheep and goats, horses, chickens and a pig.
We drove to Kaufman, only an hour away on Wednesday and got him.
The ride home. Look at that sweet face!
Introducing a wether.
I put the puppy in a pen for the night. Next morning, he was out, still in the Sheep lot, but not in his pen. I went to work, finding his escape holes and covering them up. Much of our pens are constructed out of cow panels, they have 6” holes and the puppy can squeeze through them. I got his pen secured. He is in the barn, with Sheep on 3 sides.
The reason for penning him up, he is a puppy. When a puppy plays with littermates and the play gets too rough, the other pup will cry out, Yelp or whine. This is the signal “It hurts! Stop”. The puppy then knows to stop playing. But if a puppy is playing with a lamb and bites it, the lamb runs in terror-silently or saying BAA BAA! Since the puppy doesn’t speak terrified lamb, and the lamb doesn’t speak roughed up littermate, it is game on! The puppy then learns to chase and bite the sheep or whatever animals it is with. It takes time to teach proper behavior.
So, what to name him? He was in the lamb pen, exhibiting proper behavior. Keeping a respectful distance, alert, watching his lambs. It came to me, Sentry.
Today we introduced Sentry to Trip and Carson. Carson was all about greeting a new friend!
Trip was reserved, not antagonistic, which was a good thing. Sentry jumped up on Trip, Trip turned his head away. Sentry jumped on the other side, Trip turned his the other way. We stood outside the pasture, watching. What an affront on Trip’s dignity.
Finally Trip had enough and bit Sentry. Not hard, but a dominant bite. Trip growled and bit Sentry up and down like we eat corn on the cob. Trip nose bumped him, poking Sentry hard. Sentry submitted and rolled over.
Trip chewed on Sentry’s throat, legs, belly and growled. When Trip was satisfied that Sentry knew his place in the pack, he let the puppy up.
The puppy is 4 months old. His mom is Anatolian, his dad is Great Pyrenees and Akbash. He has been raised with Sheep and goats, horses, chickens and a pig.
We drove to Kaufman, only an hour away on Wednesday and got him.
The ride home. Look at that sweet face!
Introducing a wether.
I put the puppy in a pen for the night. Next morning, he was out, still in the Sheep lot, but not in his pen. I went to work, finding his escape holes and covering them up. Much of our pens are constructed out of cow panels, they have 6” holes and the puppy can squeeze through them. I got his pen secured. He is in the barn, with Sheep on 3 sides.
The reason for penning him up, he is a puppy. When a puppy plays with littermates and the play gets too rough, the other pup will cry out, Yelp or whine. This is the signal “It hurts! Stop”. The puppy then knows to stop playing. But if a puppy is playing with a lamb and bites it, the lamb runs in terror-silently or saying BAA BAA! Since the puppy doesn’t speak terrified lamb, and the lamb doesn’t speak roughed up littermate, it is game on! The puppy then learns to chase and bite the sheep or whatever animals it is with. It takes time to teach proper behavior.
So, what to name him? He was in the lamb pen, exhibiting proper behavior. Keeping a respectful distance, alert, watching his lambs. It came to me, Sentry.
Today we introduced Sentry to Trip and Carson. Carson was all about greeting a new friend!
Trip was reserved, not antagonistic, which was a good thing. Sentry jumped up on Trip, Trip turned his head away. Sentry jumped on the other side, Trip turned his the other way. We stood outside the pasture, watching. What an affront on Trip’s dignity.
Finally Trip had enough and bit Sentry. Not hard, but a dominant bite. Trip growled and bit Sentry up and down like we eat corn on the cob. Trip nose bumped him, poking Sentry hard. Sentry submitted and rolled over.
Sentry went a respectful distance away and laid down. He’s in the pack now.
After I fed Sentry this evening, he squeezed through a cow panel to follow me into the pen of pregnant ewes and the ram. Lady Baa Baa butted Sentry in the side, lifting him off the ground and doing a flip before he landed in a heap. She was teaching him Sheep manners.
Later, Sentry, Trip, Carson and I took a walk around the pasture, letting Sentry hang out with the Big Boys before I put him up for the night.
It was a test. Carson, you failed. 
She's getting all she needs, I know. Just that age has it's issues -- for ALL of us, animal & human alike.
