# Avery - the Making of a 'Watcher' *pics*



## HoneyDreameMomma (Jan 21, 2016)

Some of you may remember several months back when we got our newest LGD, Avery. Her Daddy was a registered Pyr and Mom was half Pyr and half Anatolian.  We went and picked her out when she was abt 6-7 weeks old and then brought her home when she was nearly 10 weeks old.  We picked her over her litter mates, because we wanted a watcher, and even at 6 weeks, she had watcher tendencies.  

She has been an absolute gem and the goats adore her! I wasn't online much the end of last year, so I thought it might be fun to post some pictures.  The collage below is a few of her 'growing up' pictures.  I think I posted a few of the younger ones already, but I made the collage as a sort of timeline.






Here's what she looks like now (after playing in the rain):




She is still a pup -a little shy of a year old, but is now bigger than our other LGDs Miller and Clyde (her Daddy was a really big Pyr).  She is exactly what we were hoping she's be.  The boys run the perimeter and she stays with the goats.  The three of them make a great team.

I do have a question for fellow LGD owners (please read story below) -- This morning I went out to feed the animals and found what I assumed was a dead possum outside the goat yard (Miller or Clyde had taken it down).  When I let Avery out of the goat yard for feeding time she immediately ran over to it and started barking incessantly.  At first I just thought she was barking, because the boys usually keep predators from even getting anywhere near the goat yard, and she hasn't had a lot of experience with the times they actually kill something so close (except for mice).  I told her, "Don't worry girl, I'll get it cleaned up."  But she kept barking until Clyde came to see it.  He sniffed and then walked away. 

I had to go inside for a minute, and she barked the entire time, looking at the house, like 'get back out here and take care of this!'  When I got back up and started to pick the possum up with a shovel, I discovered it was 'playing possum.' She could tell the darn thing was still alive! As soon as Clyde realized it, he grabbed it and ran off.   Thought it was funny she didn't take care of it herself, but called for backup instead.

Any thoughts on that?  Is this sort of thing common for a "watcher?"  I figure it was good she recognized the possum as a threat and could tell it was still alive, and it was good she sounded the alarm, but should I be concerned she didn't attempt to dispatch it herself?  She stayed with the possum the entire time until Clyde and I got a clue, so I gotta give her that!


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## Latestarter (Jan 21, 2016)

I think she was "calling out" the boys for not finishing the job!   That's too funny! Did Clyde finally take care of things? Like you said... if she doesn't have killing experience, she may not have been sure that was what was expected of her. Maybe the fact that it wasn't "threatening" her charges and was just lying there playing dead, she didn't see it as a threat worth killing? <--less probable I know... Now that she's actually witnessed Clyde taking care of business, maybe she'll be more apt to follow suit?

Clyde is bigger the Miller, and if she's bigger than Clyde, she's got to be a beast! She's a very pretty girl!


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## Southern by choice (Jan 21, 2016)

How old is she?


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## HoneyDreameMomma (Jan 21, 2016)

She's almost 10 months old - she'll will be a year old in April, and yes, she is already a very big girl! 



Latestarter said:


> I think she was "calling out" the boys for not finishing the job!


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## HoneyDreameMomma (Jan 21, 2016)

Update:  Avery went back to the possum site several times today, sniffing around and making sure the possum was in fact gone.  Hoping she has the basic idea.  Unfortunately, Clyde occasionally likes to play with his kills, which is what he did this morning when he ran off with the possum. I'm guessing that doesn't help when we're trying to train Avery how to dispatch quick and efficiently.  I ended up taking the possum away from Clyde to dispatch of it quicker.  I hope that was an appropriate thing to do.  I really dislike possums, but I don't like the idea of any animal being teased and toyed with for hours on end before they finally die.


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## Southern by choice (Jan 21, 2016)

A normal LGD kill is a quick snap of the neck on a small animal like possum. The playing with is not appropriate. It is one thing for them to want to take it and "possess" it... like it's reward. Most LGD's will eat their small kills. We like them to leave it after the kill so we know what it was.  

I think more than likely she just is not mature enough to know what to do with it. Some dogs take longer than others... not unusual and VERY NORMAL. She will get the hang of it.

Females are usually the first to the "intruder" so this is interesting. The males generally like to come finish it off.

Very cool she barked and barked... she knew it wasn't dead. 

Once ours know it's dead they could care less. 
Kinda like- yep- job's done here... everyone back to normal- nothing more to see here.


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## Poka_Doodle (Jan 21, 2016)

So cute


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