Category: Farming

Bronte Has a House

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

doghouseI built this for our constituents, so they’ll feel happy that Bronte has a proper house. So far, she seems pretty disinterested in it, even in the rain. We’ll see if she feels like she needs it!

A few days ago, we looked out the kitchen window to see a tall man hopping over the locked gate in the pasture. I tell ya, people just seem to think they’re alone out there, and free to do whatever they want. I trotted down there, unnoticed by him, caught his attention as he was coaxing the dog (who was having nothing to do with him). I said, “excuse me, sir, would you like to tell me what you’re doing in our pasture?”

He suddenly became awkward and embarrassed. He claimed he was from the Sheriff’s office (shoot, later I wish I would have demanded to see his ID so I could have ratted him out for searching without a warrant!). He said was having dinner at a nearby restaurant when a woman talked him into checking up on the dog. She told him there was a puppy tied up in an abandoned field with no food, water or shelter.

He acknowledged that what she described was not at all what he saw, that he was picturing a tiny puppy tied on a short rope in squalid conditions. Not an 80-pound, woolly, well-fed guard dog in a 4-acre green pasture. He confirmed the dog looked healthy and not in conditions that are anywhere near what would be legally concerning. He groaned that people often call the Sheriff over supposed animal abuse cases that turn out to be false alarms, wasting their time that could be better spent on real crimes.

I offered to give him my phone number to pass on to the concerned citizen, if she wanted to talk. But he shook his head, and said he’s straighten her out. He apologized for trespassing, made his excuses and quickly skedaddled.

Duck Incubator Challenges

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

duckeggsLast year I tried incubating duck eggs twice, and my yields were extremely low. I found that most of the eggs grew to maturity, but never hatched. I concluded that the most likely cause of last year’s poor result was that I incubated in late spring and early summer, when outdoor temperatures were fluctuating wildly. Though I had the incubator in the house, the type of incubator I have is not thermostatically controlled (as far as I can tell)- it’s just controlled by a variable resistor, which you set at the beginning of the incubation period. As the house temperature rose and fell with the weather, I constantly struggled to keep the inside temperature of the incubator correct. So, this year I decided to incubate earlier in the year, when our house temperature remains more stable.

I also theorized that washing the eggs prior to incubation may have been detrimental. Large hatcheries do wash, to cut down on the risk of bacterial contamination on the egg surfaces. But, I figured I’d try mother nature’s approach this time instead. The eggs are naturally coated with a substance that prevents moisture loss, so it’s possible that it’s better to leave that on, despite the added risk of bacteria load. In the photo, you can see how dirty the eggs were. I use an egg-turning device, but this photo was taken after I removed that: the last three days before hatching, you stop turning the eggs so the ducklings can get into position for hatching.

Despite my new attempts, things still didn’t go well! I started out with about 40 eggs, withheld maybe six that didn’t appear fertile at the first candling. But I was expecting a good thirty ducklings out of this batch. What I got: five! A few hatched normally on their own on the due date or one day later. But then, nothing.

ducklinginshellHopefully this doesn’t sound too mad-scientist, but I cracked a few of them open by the third day of lateness, just to evaluate what was going on. Here is an interesting photo of a duckling in his shell, showing how folded-up they are- his foot is on top of his head! His neck and head are completely torqued around, parallel to his body.

In the upper right of the photo is his bill, and above that is where the air sac area of the egg was. So when they are ready to hatch, a small point on the end of the bill penetrates the membrane of the air cell, they starts to “pip” through the egg shell here. Then the baby will work his bill around the circumference of the shell and essentially crack open a “lid” and exit out of that “hatch” in the top of the egg shell. It’s amazing to think they can do all that maneuvering when they are this cramped in there!

What I found when I cracked these open was still-alive ducklings that had not yet completely absorbed their yolks into their abdomens. So, they were developmentally delayed. I believe this is most likely due to the incubation temperature being too low (though you can see I am using THREE thermometers in there for comparison- and all of them read a little different!).

Interestingly, one of these crack-opens survived just fine, what was left of his external yolk just dried up and scabbed over. But, the other ones, though they were wriggly and peeping for the first few minutes out of their shell, perished soon after.

So I gave the rest of the eggs more time, and one actually did hatch out five days late, but did not survive much after hatching. This seems to confirm what the books say: if they don’t hatch on time, within about 48 hours of when they’re due, forget about it. Just discard them, because whatever is left are weak and malformed birds. And hatch time can be hereditary, so you don’t want to keep and breed birds that don’t hatch on time.

fivebabyducksI also wonder if ducks aren’t harder to hatch than chickens? Their eggshells are much, much tougher; so I imagine if the hatchling is weakened at all, he just won’t make it out. And, the tiny point on the end of the duck bill meant for cracking the egg is indeed a very tiny point. Where chicken chicks are blessed with an entire pointy beak- a much better tool for tapping oneself out of an eggshell.

My other suspicion as to what is going on is humidity problems. The ducks that did hatch had trouble. Their shells stuck to them, their eyes were stuck shut, and they were just generally gummed up. We had to wash some of them with warm water to help them. This is not normal, ideally they crack out of their shells pretty cleanly, and are dry and fluffy in  few hours.

hygrometerSo, I’m going to try again. This time, I calibrated my cheap-o thermometers with our digital oven thermometer, and I do think the cheap-os are reading a little high (which explains why the last batch was late). And I purchased a hygrometer, which measures humidity in the air. I came to realize that these little doodads are inexpensive, and can be obtained at any cigar shop, made for cigar humidors. The cigar-style is just the right size and weight for using inside the incubator, and can just stick on the side.

So, I’ve got a batch of 36 eggs in there now, humming along at 99.5° at 55% humidity. I’m crossing my fingers that I’ve got it down now!

What to Feed the LGD

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

dogfoodI have not fed commercial kibble to my dogs in over a decade; I had long ago convinced myself from much reading and research that the ingredients in commercial food cannot be trusted. I enjoy making homemade food for my dogs, and my dogs seem very healthy for the effort.

So, when we got Bronte, the Livestock Guardian Dog, I was torn. How much homemade food would she eat, and how much work would it be to deliver her a fresh bowl of food every day? I decided to keep her on dog food at first, to be consistent with what she was eating before, and then ponder the question.

But, right away, I noticed she picked at her food, one kibble at a time. I always feel this is a sign that the dog’s body is complaining that the food is not right for the dog, and they are only driven to eat it when they are truly very hungry. Whereas, when you are eating things that are exactly what your body needs, generally they taste delicious. So, after a few days, I broke down and offered her a collie-style dinner. She gobbled it up.

So, now I’m compromising: I make her the same amount of raw food as the collies get, and then I back-fill with about another 5-6 cups of kibble. I’ve heard that LGDs don’t really eat that much, since they are generally lazy and have a slow metabolism. But, thus far, she is eating a lot! Hopefully it’s because she’s growing. The only saving grace is, at least she is tax deductible as a farm expense!

For the kibble, I’m trying to stick with the “better” brands. I have a lot of concerns about the massive and rapid growth stages the “giant” breeds go through, and feel that good nutrition is critical to weathering them through these stressful phases, to prevent lameness and permanent damage to their bones and joints. So, though I think it might be tempting to buy the “cheap stuff” for a dog that eats so much, I think this may be a financial disadvantage in the long run, if the dog ends up incurring a lot of health problems or has a shortened working life.

One challenge I’ve found when the dog is housed with the ram, he will eat her kibble, which is not desirable. So, I’ve found that putting it in water deters him, and renders the food still edible to the dog. If he ever learns to eat soggy kibble, I’m not sure what I’ll do.

Knowing that Bronte loves the raw food has been useful in training her to come to me as well. I have not found treats which will lure her, and she is going through a long and drawn out keepaway teenage phase. My longline idea helped some, but she keeps breaking it (or chewing it?). All she wants to do is dance and bounce around and woof at me, trying to enlist me in a game of chase and silliness. So, I give her about two minutes morning and evening to get her butt over to me and start eating her food, close enough for me to touch her. If she doesn’t, I take the food away with me, and try again later. She has skipped some meals, but I think she is getting the idea. Life is tough, but it’s imperative that she become more tame, and this is the only way I see to get that done!

Acute Alopecia in Lambs?

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

jacobewelambI’ll start by ending any suspense: the Jacob ewe lamb died last week. This in just a week after I first noticed there was a problem, and she was five weeks old. On a Saturday, I ear-tagged and weighed all the lambs.

All looked fine and healthy; albeit the Jacob lamb was still thin. She was not exhibiting as much weight gain as I’d like to see, or as the Katahdin lambs are demonstrating. She was 5lbs at birth, and was up to 9lbs 3 oz 30 days later. This, compared to #33’s triplet ewes, who all gained about the same amount of weight in just over two weeks.

And, if I compare her to the single ram lamb born in January: he gained fourteen lbs in a month, nearly tripling his birth weight! But, this was not unexpected, since her dam is severely underweight as well.

So, back to the problem: she looked fine that Saturday morning when I handled her. The following Monday night, she had large bald patches all over her hindquarters! Her wool was completely disadhered and peeling off! She was shivering-cold from the rain. I put a synthetic fleece jacket back on her (she wore this the first week of her life as well) and went inside to read. What could cause this?

None of my sheep books mentioned alopecia (hair loss) at all, except in the context of skin parasites. This was such a drastic change, surely it was not due to lice, keds or the like. I could see no sign of parasites, scabs or inflammation; and the rest of the flock is OK. So, I browsed the Internet looking for ideas. When you think of rapid hair loss, of course cancer chemotherapy is the first thing to come to mind, chemical toxicity is the most likely culprit. And, once I started thinking along that vein, I remember noticing her head in the mineral salt box when I was out there on Saturday. I think it is unusual for a young lamb to be interested in salt, if, ideally, she is getting everything she needs from nursing. alopecia

I found a few citations on the Web indicating that selenium (SE) toxicity can cause alopecia; though the citations were referring to sheep turned out on grass that was high in SE concentrations. We have low SE in our region, thus it is added to all sheep mineral supplements sold here, and is certainly present in mine. She could have OD’ed on the salt lick, out of a sense of desperation for minerals she was not getting in her milk. Alternatively, her dam may have OD’ed on it when she came to our place, if she did not have access to mineral supplements at Lynn’s; thus passing dangerously high concentrations of it in her milk.

This reference cites hair loss from SE toxicity. This reference cites salivation,  neurological distress, blindness, and convulsions. By Tuesday, she was foaming at the mouth, so OK, that’s symptom #2. Wednesday, she also seemed to show some “head palsy” movement, and an odd gait in the rear, so definitely some implication of neurological problems. And she was tired, she did not want to be up on her feet much.

The first Web citation suggests treating with a sulphate mixture, but this sounded too scary to me, especially since I had no way to confirm my diagnosis. The second citation says, “Treatment may be attempted, however the prognosis is guarded.”

In case you’re wondering: a vet call is usually not warranted for production animals. It sounds harsh, but these sheep are a  meat crop, with their final value being only around $200. And, to some extent, doing heroics to save weak animals is not wise: it certainly does not improve your breeding program, and usually does not result in a good meat animal. I would easily spend thousands of dollars to save my dogs, who are both farm help and treasured pets. But, the sheep must make do with whatever assistance I can offer them in facing Mother Nature’s challenges, without the benefit of hospitalization.

Since she seemed OK, other than the wool loss, I started with a homeopathic remedy for poison: Arsenicum. By Thursday, I was convinced she was on the mend, she was up and about, and though still a little palsy-ish, she seemed to be nursing, keeping up with the group and staying warm in her jacket. I stopped giving the remedy, as I’m always afraid to over-do homeopathy.

But, she must have taken a turn for the worse Saturday night in the cold rain. Sunday morning, she was flat on her side, convulsing, wet and cold. I also noticed a “weirdness” in one of her eyes: it looked like the eye of a deceased animal, cloudy and motionless. Blindness? I brought her in, warmed her in the bathtub, dried and re-jacketed her, and stuck her in a dog crate with blankets and a heating pad. I gave her a few more doses of Arsenicum, then switched to Belladonna (another homeopathic remedy) for the convulsions.

She improved slightly over several hours, the convulsions died down to subtle twitching, and she seemed more relaxed. I’d heard some rattle-ey breathing that morning, so then suspected pneumonia on top of everything else. So, I started her on penicillin, gave her a shot of vitamin B, and an oral dose of vitamin boost. She seemed to rally over the next 24 hours, but then crashed again, and ultimately died, a week after I first saw the wool loss.

So, the “prognosis guarded” warning was right. Though she seemed to fight hard, if this was a mineral overdose, it was probably too much for her kidneys, especially in her malnourished state. I’d be curious to learn if others have seen this manifestation before, or if anyone has an alternate guess as to the cause, since I couldn’t find a lot of written help on this set of bizarre symptoms.

As for me, I’m definitely going to think twice about taking in any poorly conditioned animals in the future! At least since this Jacob ewe was a gift, if I invest a lot of feed in re-conditioning her, she may still be worth it next fall when she’s bred again, if she can produce vigorous twins next year. But I think it’s a classic demonstration of how critical maternal nutrition is to the success of the offspring!

Two “RR” Rams!

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

scrapieI got my scrapie DNA test results back already- wow, both rams are “RR”! That’s pretty cool news. I think what I’m going to do is keep them both for this fall’s breeding cycle, and split the ewes between them, so that I have a more diverse lineage next spring.

I’m waffling over whom to keep for the longer term. Hershey is getting older, so I may sell him so someone else can get a few year’s use out of him before he’s ready for the slaughter truck. Hershey is a very good ram, big, sturdy, nice hair coat,  tough feet, and calm. The ram lamb is nice in body, but he is wooly,  and short-necked. So I should probably be picky about that in using him too much. Rams have so much influence since they end up siring so many offspring, it’s important to choose very good ones. Versus ewes, one can be more forgiving with some flaws, as long as they are good mothers and are paired with a high quality sire.

I don’t entirely mind the shedding wool, most of the year they are still nice-looking animals. But right now, while they are shedding, they look very moth-eaten, and the wool they shed is messy in the pasture. So, I think I’d like to work to breed away from that for my own personal tastes. Not to mention, it’s the preferred thing to do for the Katahdin breed improvement, as the “true” hair coat is supposed to be the goal. On the other hand, that is mostly an appearance-based evaluation of the animals. My primary focus is their production traits: do the ewes produce robust twins and are the offspring well structured in their meat traits, and fast-growing?

By the way, I can’t remember if I provided this link before. Here is a very nice explanation of the scrapie DNA subject, courtesy of the Erradicate Scrapie website. Simple enough for the layman to understand, but technical enough for the interested breeer to find useful in evaluating how DNA testing might fit into their breeding program.

City Meets Country and No-Bed Bronte

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

dogabuseA sneaky person posted this, and another similar homemade sign, out by our pasture this week. My favorite part is the one about the bed. 🙂 Seriously, it is a double-edged sword living on a well traveled road, with our pasture visible to passers-by. On one hand, we can sell as much lamb as we could ever produce, and we’ve made a lot of new friends.

On the other hand, we get a lot of interruptions from people stopping by to ask questions about the sheep, or to let us know there is a dog in our field! :-0 This can get annoying, but I try to be polite to these well-meaning folks, since they might want to buy lamb from us.

We are blessed to live in a region where there are many well-off, well-educated city folks who make it a priority to purchase meat and produce from local farms and natural or organic sources. And they are willing and able to pay top dollar. The flip side is, these people don’t always realize how farms work, even good farms, and they can stir up trouble for farmers.

The anonymous signs raise an interesting question- is the life of a livestock guardian dog abusive? Is being out in the rain and snow with no shelter detrimental to our dog’s well-being? Well, to be fair, there are meager shelters in our pasture, so she’s not quite shelter-less (but I’ll tell ya: she’s never going to get a bed!) She doesn’t choose to use the shelters, however, she seems happy to be near her sheep, and indifferent to the weather, gleefully rolling about in the mud and getting filthy.

She is a Maremma, after all, this breed has been developed for centuries to do this very job. They are equipped with a double coat, which keeps them quite warm and dry at the skin (even when they appear drenched on the exterior). They are generally a very lazy dog, Bronte sleeps most of the day, and entertains herself by digging holes and wandering about the rest of the time. She is not terribly interested in people or other dogs, other than to try to shoo them away from her territory. She enjoys hassling the llama. She likes her homemade dinners I bring ever day. When I leave the pasture, she doesn’t pine after me like a regular dog would. She seems, well, pretty happy, in her own, simple world.

And, for the record, actually she is wild- I have a hard time catching her without mechanical means or food bribery! Really, these LGDs are just not like a regular domestic pet breed of dog.

I, myself, have reflected on this subject of her welfare, because part of me considers an LGD’s life to be pathetic, compared to my perception of what a competition dog’s life can be. But, is that perception accurate? Our Border Collies live in the house and have a dog door that accesses a small potty area outside. So their environment is pretty constrained, unless we take them out for walks or to work sheep. And that’s better than most working Border Collies, who live in 8×10 kennels except at times when they are at work.

Our dogs can sleep on the couch and on the bed. Sleep is a common theme amongst all dogs, so no matter where they live, they usually snooze much of the day. Just as often as I see our dogs asleep on the couch, I see them asleep on the wood floor, or out in the dirt in the rain. So they don’t seem to care that much about bedding, or about rain. I think because we are bare-skinned and wimpy about rain, we assume animals are as well. But actually, animals stay pretty comfortable in most weather, if they are equipped with an outdoor coat and proper nutrition.

The Border Collies get to work sheep, and they are very enthusiastic about that. But, it’s not all fun- it’s hard work, they get yelled at when they make a mistake, they get hurt, and I often require them to do jobs that they don’t prefer. I flatter myself to think they enjoy my company in the house, but would they trade that for 24/7 freedom in a pasture? I don’t know.

I have a friend who owns a Chihuahua, and that poor dog is always being  stepped on, scooped up, manhandled, and carted around. He often looks irritated and shys away from people. Who knows, maybe if he could trade his life in a jeweled handbag for a boring life in a rainy pasture, he would.

So, I guess, to manage public perception, we’ll put a dog house down in the pasture, even though Bronte will probably not use it. It’s important to me that people who drive by perceive that our animals are well-cared-for, whatever their definition of that may be. I could live without the belligerent, anonymous handmade signs. But, we do think these are funny. We’ve taken to calling the dog “No Bed Bronte,” because definitely, I am not getting her a mattress!

Comparative Costs of DNA Testing: Livestock vs. Dogs

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

33_lambsI am so impressed with the inexpensive nature of DNA testing for livestock: the going rate for a single sheep DNA test is just over ten dollars, and multiple companies are in competition for your business. Contrast this to the dog show world, where some researchers accept public funds to do DNA research.Then they get the help and cooperation of dog lovers and owners to collect samples for their studies. Then they turn around and patent their findings and sell the patent to a single DNA test company, who can then monopolize the test for seven years until the patent runs out.

This results in DNA tests for canine breeding stock that run about $200 “on sale” at a clinic setting! This phenomenon has made it exhorbitantly expensive for dog breeders to try to do the right thing and test their breeding stock for all known hereditary diseases. Verifying a dog is “good” for breeding can cost upwards of a thousand dollars!  Contrast this to the sheep scrapie gene discovery, which is now in the public domain, multiple DNA test companies compete to offer the test, and the price is very reasonable. I don’t know if this particular tets may also be subsidized, since it’s in the public interest to reduce scrapie. But, the drastic difference in price clearly points to some level of profiteerism on the dog DNA tests! I doubt that demand is a factor- I would almost bet that more dog DNA tests are done than sheep.

I always try to encourage “dog people” to ask questions before they donate to, or participate in, reserach projects on DNA, to first verify that the researcher has pledged to publish their findings to the public domain, and not patent them. My understanding is that this is a hot ethical topic in the research community, but one that we’re little aware of as laymen.

DNA Testing for Scrapie Resistence

Posted on by fourfarmdogs

dna_sampleI decided I wanted to test two of our rams for the scrapie resistance gene. Rams that are “RR” at codon 171 are valuable in that all of their offspring with either be “RR” or “QR,” both of which are considered resistant to scrapie. Hershey is our older ram, I am interested in his status. I did not castrate #900, who was born in January, thinking I may want to keep and breed him. He was sired by Jessica’s ram, #650, so is unrelated to all the sheep I have (except his mother, of course). And, #650 is “RR” and also is a very nice ram, so capturing his genetics may be desirable. So, I’m testing those two rams before deciding on my breeding plans for this fall.

The other two ram lambs born this year I castrated- they were born late enough that they’ll probably still be around when the ewes start going back into heat around August/September. I don’t want any accidental breedings, or the necessity of having to separate them; so they’ll be dedicated as butcher lambs. I figure that if I decide not to keep #900 for breeding, I’ll either sell or butcher him before that time frame, so it was safe to keep him intact. He is a lunker, a chubby boy, his mama is feeding him well!

I shopped around a bit on the web for DNA testing companies. I found three, but sadly, one appears to have gone out of business in the last week, I assume as a result of the tough economy. Of the remaining two, Biogenetic Services, offers customers the option of using blood “cards” instead of collecting blood in a vial/tube. I didn’t want to have to call a vet out, or haul the sheep to a vet just to collect a tiny bit of blood. I figured I could probably figure out how to draw blood on my own, but would still have to get a hold of the “purple top tubes” necessary to send blood in vial form. And then you have to pay for faster shipping, to keep the blood fresh.

By comparison, collecting a few drops of blood to put on a paper card is much easier to collect, and mail. Biogenetic Services sells the cards in batches of 15, for a dollar each, plus a few bucks S&H. I purchased a small box of lancets intended for diabetic use, so that I could be sure that each blood sample was clean. The instructions say you can also use the same piercing instrument and clean it with alcohol between animals, but there is risk of contamination. We are talking about such small quantities of blood here, that if you just get the tiniest bit of somebody else’s blood mixed in, it will invalidate the sample.

I spoke with the veterinarian on staff at Biogenetics, and he warned that even animals housed together in close quarters (like a feedlot) can often have each other’s blood on them. He recommended collecting from the ear, which I did. I found that piercing the tip of the ear produced the best blood drop, which I carefully squeezed from lower on the ear, to keep my hands away from the sample. I tried to make sure that I handled the card from the edges, and that the only thing that touched the target area of the card was the blood drop.

Then all that was left to do was label the cards, and send them off in the mail in a regular envelope! I’m anxious to learn the results!

The Patty Ruzzo Sneaky Dog Long Line

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bronteandhershey2First of all, we finally agreed on a name for our Maremma: “Bronte” (spelled without the umlaut- because who wants to spell a dog’s name with an umlaut?). Here is a photo of her with the ram, taken by our neighbor Marla. She and the ram get on pretty well. If she tries to tug at his ears too much and gets on his nerves, he pushes her down and hurts her. So, they have their relationship sorted out! 🙂

You’ll note the long-line she’s wearing. This is a  great secret I learned long ago from Patty Ruzzo in a seminar. Patty is now passed on, but she was a well-known dog trainer who was highly successful in Obedience competition, and I learned many valuable things from her and think of her often.

We all know that puppies usually go through a “keep-away” age, where they start to learn they can run faster than we can, and that being caught is not fun. But, traditional store-bought dog long-lines used for controlling keep-away dogs are heavy and cumbersome. If you are training a dog to jump or herd, regular long-lines can get dangerously tangled on things. So this was Patty’s solution: grosgrain ribbon. This is a special kind of ribbed ribbon you can buy at a fabric store- it is quite strong, and inexpensive. Tie 10 yards of it to a brass clip, and you have a fabulous, lightweight long-line that “floats” along as the dog runs. It’s slippery so it rarely tangles with solid objects. And, if a dog really hits it hard, it breaks, saving their neck from serious injury.

This long-line is so lightweight the dog forgets he is wearing it. And, the best part is that you can step on it when you are calling him, and then just stand their casually like you haven’t done anything at all. He has no idea what has just occurred, and he starts to develop a superstitious belief that you are God-like, and can stop him in his tracks when you call him. Much better than stooping to pick up a heavy long-line, so the dog figures out “oh, if I run fast enough to get that long-line out of your reach, I’m home-free!” Instead, with this long-line, the dog starts to believe that when you call, there is no choice but to come.

So, this is what Bronte is wearing most of the time. She is still at a very silly age, and is easily intimidated by us, so when we are out in the pasture, she bounces around and woofs, trying to initiate the keepaway game, half afraid of being snagged. When she does this, I ingore it, and now and then, step on the long-line, catch her, pet and praise her then let her go.  The long-line is reasonably safe for her to wear in the pasture- there is not much for it to get stuck on. She has broken (or chewed?) it a couple of times, but I just re-tie it while she’s enjoying eating her dinner, and she is rarely the wiser. Her dinner is my best puppet string: she must eat it while I pet her if she wants to eat.

I used a line like this for many months on my “remedial” Border Collie, Gene. Gene was horrible about keepaway, for much of the first year of her life! Especially in a pasture with sheep. And, when Gene is frightened or upset, she flees, unlike most dogs who seek comfort from their owners when scared. I attribute this brilliant and simple invention to me eventually getting Gene under voice control, and now she has very good call-offs when she is working livestock, and will even reluctantly come to me when she is hurt or panicked.

So, I’m hoping, if it worked for Gene, it’ll work for Bronte! So far it seems to be doing the trick! Training an LGD is very different for me, as I only have a few minutes per day of interaction with her, as compared to a competition and house dog that gets many hours of intensive interaction per day. So, I have to make the most of every minute I’m in the pasture, to teach her the things she needs to know!