No Margin for Error

For the most part things have been smooth around here. Every day has its random, unexpected event, but for the most part we haven’t had any major blow-ups. Except for one. It took me a bit to write about it because I don’t really like writing about when crappy stuff happens. There’s enough of that in the world, you don’t need to hear it from us too. But when something happens that other people could learn from I do want to share it. 

Literally the day we moved to the farm my sister met us at the house. We don’t see each other too frequently so it was great to have her here for a special time. Part of her reason for coming down was to bring her cat. She’s moving and going through some life changes at the moment and her cat, Billy Goat (a female), needed a new home. Billy Goat was born on a farm, but had since been transitioned to an indoor life. We decided to adopt BG and eventually transition her to a “barn cat”.
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Getting Started With the Goats and Dogs on Pasture


Happy goats in a fresh paddock. Dogs go explore, goats find nearest rose bush and devour it

Over the past week we finally worked it out to where the goats can be out on pasture nearly 100% of the time. Day and night, night and day. Goats like to graze and browse at night and we want them to be able to. We've read that they can spend up to 6 hours per night grazing. Talk about party animals. I guess when you nap and chew cud throughout the day you don't need a sound night of sleep. Besides, it's a lot cooler at night and the dogs are awake then too. Who can sleep with all that barking?

That wasn't the situation for the first few weeks though. When we originally started with the goats we only had Sophie, and while she has proven to be a great guard dog at a young age (at least so far), we couldn't trust only one dog (and a puppy at that) to defend the goats. She wouldn't stand a chance against a pack of dogs or coyotes. So we had to wait for the big girls before we could leave the goats far away from home all day and all night. Once we got the big girls, however, we needed to acquaint them with the goats and our farm. We didn't want to put them out alone with the goats in the middle of the field right away. We couldn't trust them yet and they weren't accustomed to us and their new home. So we had to wait longer. 

 

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Livestock Guardian Team Assembled


Izzy and Sophie, getting muddy and getting their "mark" on

Last Saturday I picked up a couple adult livestock guardian dogs (LGDs). They are 3 and 4 yrs old and are full sisters from different litters. Izzy and Sheba are their names. They are 1/8th Anatolian Sheperd and 7/8ths Great Pyrennes. We just refer to them as Great Pyrs, but they do have some Anatolian traits, including some darker hair around the shoulder blades. Around here the new LGDs are known as “the big girls”, becuase, well, they’re freakin’ huge! We thought Sophie was getting to be a big girl. She looks like a little peck compared to her new friends.

 
Why Get Livestock Guardian Dogs?

 

We are using LGDs because we’re in an area that has coyotes, packs of wild dogs, and other predators (potentially including a bear, although that’s yet to be substantiated). Our goats are vulnerable to predation when they’e out on pasture, especially when they have little goat kids running around with them. It's the dogs responsibility to help protect them. It's our responsibility to facilitate the dog's success as a guardian and keep them happy and healthy.

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