Tracy,
Thanks for your good wishes!
The man who is selling me the male Anatolian said he puts a bell on
his guardian dogs. That way the sheep get to know the bell and have
some sense of comfort as the guardian dog moves around. Also, the
owner can tell what is going on during the night by the sound of the
bell. He also said he bells certain sheep with a different sounding
bell so that he can tell where the sheep are moving (a different
sound than the dog bell sound). Seems like a good plan and I will
try it too. Maybe this would help your sheep feel more comfortable
with your pyr Mary, if they had an audible way to tell where she is
after dark.
Mary
At 06:25 PM 8/17/2011, you wrote:
Good luck with your pups Mary. I have two llamas and a Pyr. None of the
guardians worked as I imagined, or hoped, but they work. The pyr has
zero socialization to people so won't come into the night yard. I should
have left her in the night yard on drag for longer. I will tranquilized
her at some point and bring her back in for two or more weeks, with the
sheep, but have to put up some hay first. Meanwhile, she is lovely with
the sheep. But that also took nearly a week in the night pen with them,
and then was awkward after letting them out on the acreage. The problem
is that (1) I have a split in my flock and she gets torn when one group
splits off. She has answered this by staying with the flock that heads
out to graze. I think she gets that the barn/night pen is safe for the
sheep, just not a place she wants to be (too close to nasty humans).
Also the llamas stay in this area. Bringing me to (2) I found the llamas
excellent guardians of the sheep, and they tried in earnest to prevent
the sheep from crossing the swamp over to the backside, but the sheep
were persistent. So the Llamas guard the sheep when they are in the area
of the barn and houses. Smart llamas I guess. Or I should have brought
home only 1 llama, might have made a difference. Part (3) Mary (the Pyr)
moves fairly quickly and this always gets the sheep a bit startled - at
first would send them running in fact. At least with the Blackbellies.
The five woollies help anchor the flock and are easier for Mary to work
with.
Anyway, been interesting to watch all this work out, and sure I made
every mistake I could. Mary is very good with the sheep and that is the
bottom line. When the cougar came to the house, the llamas had
barricaded the sheep into the barn. That was the week before acquiring
Mary. The week before the cougar, a bear came, and had the animals split
all over kingdom come.
I had stopped locking the sheep up at night, but have since resumed. So
getting to that toppic, I notice several commenting on how difficult
this is. Whether with a dog or a bucket of grain... I find the bucket of
grain I can move my sheep all over the property. I can add DE to their
grain and generally I have a compliant flock when I have my bucket. So
every night at 9pm, I call them "Ladies!" and they come running into the
night pen for their grain. Some nights they might not get grain and have
already put themselves up.
Best of luck and will be interesting if you capture some footage on the
cameras. We had a Fish and Wildlife appointed hunter supposedly coming
out, but he never showed up.
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:07:50 -0500
From: Mary Swindell <mswin...@siu.edu>
Anyhow, I have been putting up my ewes and lambs at night, into a
well-lit enclosure between the barn and the house, well away from the
perimeter fence. Like Mike Smith indicated, it is somewhat of a
hassle to gather the stock every night, but it is worth it for the
time being. And I'm doing a count every night at the gather point,
and every morning before letting them out.
Also, yesterday I brought home two Pyrenees pups, ... tomorrow I am
going to
receive an adult male Anatolian working guardian dog that is good
with lambs as well as adults. I will put him right to work in the
lamb area.
_______________________________________________
This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list
Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
_______________________________________________
This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list
Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
