Ivan
In with the oldest batch of ewes and lambs full time for the last month and doing great.
Arwyn.
No clear signs yet whether or not this litter is happening. At just three (ish) weeks we don’t really expect anything yet. In another week or two we’ll start looking for more signs. Arwyn has a more solid build than some of our other females which can contribute to difficulty determining physical changes during pregnancy. Fingers crossed!
Chiara part 2.
This lady has an unfortunate love of laying in mud puddles. This year that meant matting all along her stomach that required painstaking, careful removal with scissors. This was uncomfortable for Chiara to sit through, but she did with lots of treats on two visits (I lost the light the first time and it was too risky to continue) and she was able to feel immediate relief as the matting came off. She tolerated it like a champ for a dog raised mostly hands off. I finished off her tummy today and had turned away to grab something so I could do some work on her tail……and when I turned back she was literally running away from me.
It’s important to give the independant working dogs the opportunity to say when they are done. They don’t normally show it quite this clearly, but I definitely received the message!
Another important thing is to allow for interruptions. When grooming Ivan later the other dogs set up an alarm bark which I could tell he want to check out. I had him on a lead at the time to ensure he stayed near by while I worked on his feet, so I unclipped the lead just in time for him to lunge away at speed. And because he had the freedom to leave when he needed to, no argument or fight on the lead, he came right back after determining the all clear so we could continue.
Chiara part 1
I had a lovely blurb typed out that deleted itself. It was windy today and Chiara did not hear me coming.
Basically, don’t wake up a working guardian dog by touching them, leaning over them, or sticking your head in their house. They can come off the ground fast, sometimes in barking or snapping mode. Save yourself and your dog any accidental injury and instead call to them from a few body lengths away where they can see you fully. This gives them time and visual enough to recognize you.
Chiara is in a pen of new lambs and ewes. One of the rams apparently did no work this year. The back up ram caught the problem but it did delay this group lambing by several weeks behind the rest.
2024-Aug-4
A misty evening yesterday.
As shown we’ve had Vito and Arwyn together the last few weeks for another attempt at a final litter with this pair after Arwyn did not catch early Jan 2024. Fingers crossed! Arwyn will head back to the big sheep farm soon. We won’t be able to confirm pups are on the way until early September, with a litter hypothetically due the last weekend of September 2024.
Vito will be staying on here for now. He spent the last two years on a goat farm, however the family sold their animals and moved out of province this summer. As we are no longer planning to use Vito for further breeding we will be looking into placement options for him. Although he’s retiring from the program he still has working years left. He and Tali were a working pair for many years and have been enjoying being back together.
Everyone was a little damp from the rain, but the white fur was back on display the next morning.
Canada Day fireworks 2024.
Beware of barking!
Putting visually sensitive dogs in the path of fireworks - not recommended. Fireworks are difficult because visual guardians don’t like to let the bad thing out of sight, so they often won’t retreat into a building until completely overwhelmed. The sound alone is usually fairly quickly accepted when not accompanied by anything else.
Last year one dog hit overwhelm quickly and was trying to go under or over fences, which is why I planned my day on being available to the dogs when the fireworks hit (even had my window open so I wouldn’t miss the start if my timing was off), every pen had a shelter or barn option to retreat, and I chose to leave the electric fence on to remind any panic-influenced dog not to touch the fence. Although escape would be accidental under these circumstances, the dog would still learn how to get out and would repeat that behaviour the next time they were scared, so we want to avoid that scenario completely.
On the plus side, the fireworks only lasted 15 minutes, and by the end we were down to just one dog barking intermittently. Tali and Vito had tucked themselves right in the hut with the sheep. Sumo switched between hanging out in sight quietly or running off to bark at the fence. Enzo managed to find what he deemed the safest place to watch/bark from. Once he sat down I positioned myself between him and the fireworks and very quickly he settled to watch in silence.
Afterwords everyone got a good cuddle, but I can tell from the house they are still not settled half an hour later due to all the abnormal late night traffic and town dogs barking in the distance.
Sky trying to sneak a snack.
Sky, 2024-Jun-21
The second close proximity birth yesterday.
Still making no attempt to draw Sky’s attention to births. In real life she will stumble across them, so other than getting her in the right area we try to let things unfold as they may. As she gains the ability to think through the situation we stop providing any precautionary “leave it” as she approaches and instead wait to see if she will automatically make good choices on her own.
In this case she showed some interest but opted to lay down at a distance and facing somewhat away, which got a verbal reward. Then when she looked back over at the situation, then away again, again we marked the break in concentration. Almost every time a dog is going to get themselves in trouble they will develop a hard focus or intent stare on something first. If the dog can be taught not to do that hard focus at all, but instead to do a quick scan then look away, it prevents a lot of unwanted behaviors from even getting started.
Very pleased with the growth she showed today.
Sky 2024-Jun-21
One of Sky’s close proximity births yesterday.
Sky starts off blissfully unaware, which is fine. It tells me she is not concerned about the sounds of labor and is not harassing the ewes during birth. She was actually more concerned about finding a larger patch of shade on this hot day.
Once Sky notices the lamb she definitely wanted to go investigate. She was a little too eager to approach which is why the leash slack was quickly gathered up as a precaution but she did listen to the ewe’s message to back off so no tension was actually put on the lead. The moment she first looks away she gets a verbal reward to mark the behaviour we want to see. It takes another moment to think through what she should do in this situation as she looks around, then as soon as she makes the decision to move away from the ewe and baby we give some over the top verbal praise and physical attention to help cement the right choice she made. Although treats were available Sky had decided she didn’t want what was offered so verbal and petting was all that was available. She then heads back over on her own to sit in her shady patch facing away from the pair, which again, is a great choice.
She is self rewarding here by sitting where she wants to in the shade so no reason to call her back for a reward, just reward in place with verbal praise. If I had a treat she wanted I could walk over and drop it between her feet in that case to encourage her to stay relaxed.
If you watch closely you’ll see when Sky first noticed the lamb and moved forward she checked herself twice accidentally by stepping on the lead. One of the reasons a drag line is so great in training is that most dogs learn very quickly how to walk without stepping on the line, but it does take a certain amount of brain power to be mindful of the line. If they get a little too interested in anything, they forget to mind the line and it is very common that they step on the line and pull themselves to a stop. This only
Sky on day three of lambing training.
We had a few close proximity briths today as well as numerous “just arrived and still wet” lambs to investigate. Sky is not terribly food motivated compared to some dogs, and is suspicious of new food items. One of the things she started to grasp this day was the joys of finding afterbirth. We were working both on breaking concentration by praising her for “leave it”s, as well as encouraging her to investigate as much as she wanted anything that was not a wee or lamb, in any way that she wanted. By the following day she was actively engaged with the hunt for afterbirth and seemed to have a much better grasp that the lambs, while interesting, should not be her main goal. We do want to make sure though that she is not showing resource guarding of afterbirth to nearby ewes and lambs. Thankfully she has a tendency to daintily steal the afterbirth and walk a distance away before trying to eat it.
As a side note, umbilical cords are apparently quite chewy. Did you know chewing is a great stress reliever, self calming behaviour, and is a self-reinforcing behaviour?
There was one discovered stillbirth this day. While unfortunate, for training purposes it was good to be able to let Sky investigate and see her choose to ignore that the same as any other lamb. What was more interesting was Chiara took exception to the investigation and inserted herself between Sky and the stillborn lamb, laying down next to it to ensure nothing untoward happened. It’s very cool to watch her at work.
Ivan with mums and babies - 2024-June 20
As we are working with Sky on lambing, young Ivan is getting a crash course on mums and babies. Last summer he was penned next to the bottle babies with several visits to them, as well as sharing a fence line with a few mums with lambs.
Per our usual protocol with exposure, he has been calm through the fence, and stationary at the gate. He was allowed to wander on a line with Dana holding it for 10 minutes. With no concerning behaviours seen we progressed to 10 minutes of wandering with the line dragging and Dana following closely enough to step on the line if needed, then 10 minutes of wandering with the line line dragging but supervision from farther back. He did marvelous all around. Polite with mums and babies. Great greeting with Arwyn (the one in the video is the second time they met up on this visit).
So although we are following our exposure protocol, Ivan powered through a number of steps all in one setting. This is common with older dogs that have a strong basis. I still recommend going through the steps so the dog can have quick feedback if needed and so you can build confidence through watching that the dog will act appropriately in different situations.
Arwyn was contained for this visit just for safety as two dogs together is both distracting and a potential for conflict. We discovered the next day that Arwyn could care less about Ivan visiting and she was left loose for future visits.
Lambing with Sky - 2024 June 20
Wow it’s been a while, we should post something!
The comments during the video say the important parts. Due to a busy spring last year we weren’t able to dedicate time to train Sky for lambing. One surprise birthing in her pen went well. This year we had two early arrival births and saw some unwanted behaviours - guarding lambs from mom, being overly inquisitive, not wanting to share her new (really awesome tasting) friends with anyone, and in one case stealing what we believe was a stillborn lamb (early quadruplets with only one viable). We don’t blame Sky for any of these otherwise normal dog behaviours (when left to their own devices), but we do want to set her up for success going forward.
Sky was moved out of the lambing area for now. The day prior to this video she had short leash supervision with Blaine. This video is long leash supervision with Dana. You can see Sky was frustrated with the taut leash but also that she clearly picked up on the fact she showed an unwanted behaviour. We need to give dogs the opportunity to (safely) make mistakes so we can show them what we do and don’t want.
April snowman
When you forget you have livestock guardian dogs who notice anything out of place and build a snowman in the barn yard while they are not looking. This might be the shortest lived snowman of my entire life.
Part 2 of 2. Storm thief.
Reminder that you don’t get to be mad for your dog exploring (and possibly causing havoc) when unsupervised if you are the one who gave them access to the new area unsupervised. We also never punish or redirect an unwanted behaviour like chewing or thieving unless the dog is literally caught in the act. Doing so after the fact only convinces the dog their person is crazy and perhaps should not be trusted around a bucket.
I actually know Sumo is an opportunist thief. Lacking opposable thumbs, like any small child he explores the world with his mouth. He often will take empty mineral buckets for chew toys. He once nabbed and destroyed a spatula. His access to special or novelty items is usually restricted. I did do a sweep of the main barn this morning and moved several items I thought were in reach and possibly tempting. I just apparently didn’t think high enough.
The broom I think is salvageable. The bucket has a crack and is only kept and used for barn cleaning (and I’m fairly certain had a very dead mouse in it). No big losses today!
Part 1 of 2. Storm thief.
Sumo -abandoned in the chickens!
After a successful in-coop, off leash supervised visit I decided to leave Sumo “alone” with the chickens for a few minutes to see what he would do. Which was to act like he had been abandoned.
It’s very common the first few times you leave a young dog or puppy alone with new animals for them to sit at the gate or fence and wait for you to come get them - surely you left them there by accident. Right? You’ll be right back. Right?!
I do not want to jump immediately to leaving Sumo unsupervised. He’s not ready for that yet. I don’t trust him enough for that yet. The bales in the hay shed offered a lovely out of the wind spot for a few minutes observation. Sumo showed his discomfort in a number of doggy ways - staring, yawning, panting, etc. It’s important to note that while he was technically in the pen alone for these few minutes, most of it does not actually count as exposure time. His time at the fence and focused on me is, while not “bad”, not showing good interactions either. So it is neutral. If I had been timing him, I would have started the timer when he finally stood up and walked away - when he got bored enough to maybe go get himself in trouble, but didn’t. (Though he did have that moment looking into the coop where he likely startled a bird and thought about chasing it- the wagging tail - but decided against it all on his own. Perhaps because he’s so tall it’s a hassle to go in and out of the coop, but we will take the win anyway!)
Guest dog: Sadie the house dog, who was sure I was wasting my time sitting in the hay barn when we could be doing anything else. While the camera is focused usually on just one dog, often there is multiple dogs getting feedback behind the camera. Here I was trying to get her to practice the standing to laying down motion, which is smoother than the sit to laying down motion. Sadie is the unfortunate recipient of an online training course Dana is working through this year.
Winter exposure and dog names.
There are good parts and bad parts about trying to train guardian dogs and puppies in the winter. On the one hand, the livestock are often in smaller pens and close to the house so it’s easier to get focused exposure time where the dog can quickly be tempted to get in trouble (and be redirected) or show they have it figured out. It’s easier to leave the dog or pup out for short periods and run and check on them.
The flip side is we are all busy with work and snow removal, and exposure time usually means we are working in the dark and out in the cold. When you get to the point of supervising from outside the pen but still needing to be present for longer periods, it gets almost painfully cold. — if it’s never occurred to you, remember one winter training hack is to park your vehicle next to the pen so you can sit in it and/or turn the heat on if needed.
With this break in the extreme cold Dana was working with Sumo in the chickens for the first time in weeks. That’s okay. This time of year we don’t need anybody in with the birds. It is still good bonding time for person and dog, and a good time to focus on the basics for cues like “leave it”. It does make it easier to work on close proximity exposure and respecting the birds food.
And yes, we do have too many roosters (anyone want to eat one?), and yes, the bleeding chicken shown is now having some “me time” in the barn.
In other news, we’ve been thinking of changing Sumo’s name. The other young dog in training right now is Enzo and we’re finding the closeness in names is causing lots of confusion for both dogs. Any name ideas? Preferably not ending in the letter ‘o’. Not Samson.
Switchback Ranch Sumo
This post is at least a month overdue, but it’s been a little challenging this fall with some family health concerns, Cisco leaving us, and some weird weather choices.
In October, 6 month old Sumo from Switchback Ranch joined our team. As part of their recent cross country move from BC to Quebec, they were able to meet Blaine in southern Manitoba for the handoff. Being a growing puppy and being on the limited food that comes with car trips the poor fellow was ravenous the first several days. Sumo is both touch and food motivated so it was extremely easy to make friends with this gentle giant. I say giant because even at six months old Sumo was taller than all our other dogs, and now at closer to 8 months there is a clear height difference of several inches when he stands next to the other dogs. His size means it’s very important to remind ourselves he is a puppy still and needs the grace and care all puppies deserve. Like not giving him a bone to chew on to keep his teeth clean when all the other dogs get one, because he was actively teething and those particular teeth were still coming in!
Sumo spent some time alone, then on supervised visits, then day visits, and is now 24/7 with the goats, still with supervised time with the sheep and chickens. It took him several weeks to really settle in and stop being very cautious around the new animals, which is normal for his age. He’s now figured out the daily schedule and what is normal for us and seems quite content. During the day he often has Enzo with him to help use up that puppy energy.
Sumo may become part of our breeding team in the future as a partner for Sky. So far he shows great personality and promise, so we look forward to seeing how he develops.
This video is one of the first times Sumo (the taller and slightly scruffier one at 7 months) and Enzo (longer, sleeker looking hair/tail at 11 months) were allowed to play together. We waited until everyone was friends through the fence and able to wa
Enzo and Mishka Sept 29/23
Enzo and Mishka playing with their wonderful treasure find. Mishka stole it from Enzo and was trying to entice him to play again but he was done already looks like.
Rose on the chickens this afternoon.
