MELS. NEW ADVENTURES

[Goat Whisperer]

I gather he's been that way since he was a pup.

The entire litter is pretty chill. Great guardians, but still laid back.


B&B, this is Blue, one of Mel's brothers. Look at that face!

 

[B&B Happy goats]

He'll be a little sore for a few days and you gotta watch him to make sure that he doesn't lick or put teeth on the stitches.

I was a mean doggie momma when we had Trip neutered. I got a cone to put on him. It was $20, but I couldn't stay up all night and watch him. I felt so sorry for him and I felt really mean for putting it on him. I kept him on the porch for the night and in the house the next day. He kept trying to lick and nibble his stitches.

Trip was NOT a good boy at the vet's office. They would not even bring him to us and had a sign that read HE BITES on the kennel. I was dumbfounded. He never acts up at the vet and loves to go there. But I guess maybe not when he is there to lose his yum-yums.

Mel was so good they let him wander around the whole place..wasn't groggy and isn't licking or doing anything with his stiches....thats today...subject to change lol

 

[B&B Happy goats]

The entire litter is pretty chill. Great guardians, but still laid back.


B&B, this is Blue, one of Mel's brothers. Look at that face!
View attachment 59485

I looked at that and thought ..i didn't take that picture of Mel, lol

 

[Ridgetop]

So glad that Mel came through his surgery and is doing fine. He will be an even better guardian now since there will be no distractions for him. LOL The past few weeks were rough for him, but having a routine now, and a guarding job again will make all the difference. It sounds like he is settling in well. We took Bubba to a weekend dog show held at a walnut farm when he was 18 months old and it was so confusing for him. So many strangers and dogs around, he was not sure whether or not he should be protective or calm. Finally when exercising him I discovered the petting zoo the owners had set up with sheep and goats. His tail started wagging and you could actually see the tension ooze out. That is when I decided no more dog shows for him. He doesn't need his championship. Erick will eventually arrange to collect him and then he will join the ranks of happily neutered LGDs.

@Mike CHS It was so peaceful watching our sheep graze- something very calming about it

DH and I agree, nothing like a hot cup of coffee in the morning watching the sheep after they have been turned out on the field. The dogs escort them out, get loving from us, and take up their guardian positions. Absolute peace.

Always listen to the LGD. They always know best.
The few times I failed my dogs by not listening, I paid the price for it. The dogs always forgive me but I think it pains them too.

Another great piece of wisdom from SBC. ALWAYS listen to your dogs. Like Baymule also said - they hear and smell what we cannot see. No point in having a dog for protection if you are ignore the warnings and tell it to shut up. You will eventually learn to speak LGD. There are 3 different barks - the most frequent warning bark that says "This is my normal warning telling you predators that this is MY turf, don't even think about coming on it." Then the joyful single bark that tells you a family member is on the way home - usually only 1 bark and about 5-10 minutes before the car pulls up. Finally the really dangerous bark that raises the hairs on the back of your neck and tells you that SOMETHING really bad is out there. That bark says "I will handle this but you need to know about it". That is get the gun time. When a predator actually dares to come into the property for a handy dinner, you won't hear anything. The dogs will just kill it because they don't waste their time announcing their intent if their warnings have been disobeyed. When my dog continue to bark at night for long periods, I go outside and check with them. I usually don't see anything but I face the direction they do, and act like I know what is there. I praise them to let them know that I trust them and have their backs. This reassures them that I, as pack master, approve of their actions. Then I come back inside and leave them to deal with the problem which they are completely capable of doing.

Sometimes there is actually something there. Once, with our Pyrs, there was a fire on the adjacent hilltop. The dog were barking and running back and forth between the fire (which had to travel a mile to get to us but was visible) and our barn and house. High protection mode. Once, right after bringing Rika home, the neighbor's druggie adult son decided to crouch in the bushes next to the fence "to make friends with the dogs". Since it was 10 pm, Rika and the house dogs were extremely upset. I was actually worried that Rika was going to go over the fence when the man got pushy with DH and DS1. Obviously he was drunk and on drugs since between them they were 3-4 times his size. Dinally had to go inside ad call his parents to come home from a party to take him inside their house. The parents eventually had to get a restraining order against him when he tried to attack his father with a knife. Other people coming up our private road "just to look around" have seen the Anatolians (particularly Bubba who is NOT friendly to strangers) barking at the fence and leave. This is a good thing since we routinely have postings on our neighborhood watch site about people driving and walking up long driveways and private roads to case potential burglary sites. We have wrought iron fence with dead bolts on the gates on the road and driveway side of the property (about 100 feet) which is the only area anyone can approach us from. Everywhere else is cliff or steep brush.

So happy that Mel has found a good home with the livestock job he needs. I am not surprised to hear that he has struck up a special friendship with your DH. He was a man's dog first, and naturally gravitates to that attachment.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Thank you for sharing that information , especially about the three diffrent barks, we have only heard two of them so far....Mel is quite vocal for sure. I HOPE we never hear the third bark you speak of, but he has barked a pitbull into total fear and got him off cow neighbos pasture away from the cows....he is a great creature...i can't call him a dog, we have two good dogs and i love them....but Mel is a magnificent creature and he has the respect of all our animals.... (and us )

 

[Ridgetop]

I can't think of LGDs as dogs. They are almost a different species of their own classification! Yay Mel! for driving off the pit bull. Once the neighborhood strays and coyotes learn he is there, they will start to avoid your property. No sense tangling with Magnificent Mel when there are easier pickings down the street. Didn't you have a lot of problems with wild pigs too? He will let you know when they come around but if there are a lot of them, they can kill a lone LDG. However, he will probably warn them off and they won't try to come on the property.

You will be sleeping easier at night with him on guard once you are sure he will not go over the fence. If you are worried, you can add extension posts and a layer of wire above it, or just run a couple strands of hot wire which would be cheaper. Our dogs come into the house at night too, but they don't want to stay in all night. After several hours of family time (consisting of getting love, a treat, and stretching out in front of the TV) they ask to go out and do their night guarding duties. They are still on duty inside but are so quiet in the house that we tend to forget they are there. Let me tell you that having 2 large Anatolians suddenly spring to their feet barking is shocking. No need of an EKG with them around. We have to have strong hearts! LOL

 

[B&B Happy goats]

I can't think of LGDs as dogs. They are almost a different species of their own classification! Yay Mel! for driving off the pit bull. Once the neighborhood strays and coyotes learn he is there, they will start to avoid your property. No sense tangling with Magnificent Mel when there are easier pickings down the street. Didn't you have a lot of problems with wild pigs too? He will let you know when they come around but if there are a lot of them, they can kill a lone LDG. However, he will probably warn them off and they won't try to come on the property.

You will be sleeping easier at night with him on guard once you are sure he will not go over the fence. If you are worried, you can add extension posts and a layer of wire above it, or just run a couple strands of hot wire which would be cheaper. Our dogs come into the house at night too, but they don't want to stay in all night. After several hours of family time (consisting of getting love, a treat, and stretching out in front of the TV) they ask to go out and do their night guarding duties. They are still on duty inside but are so quiet in the house that we tend to forget they are there. Let me tell you that having 2 large Anatolians suddenly spring to their feet barking is shocking. No need of an EKG with them around. We have to have strong hearts! LOL

How true on the strong hearts when he barks inside yikes ! The pigs are not wild...they belong to a redneck down the street, but they do try to get into our pump house as they have found the discharge pipe that sends the water out when it cycles...Mel will scare them away. I finally feel completly safe now with Mel, the guns are still loaded, still have security system, but Mel I pity the fool that would try anything now at our place.

 

[Baymule]

Another great piece of wisdom from SBC. ALWAYS listen to your dogs. Like Baymule also said - they hear and smell what we cannot see. No point in having a dog for protection if you are ignore the warnings and tell it to shut up. You will eventually learn to speak LGD. There are 3 different barks - the most frequent warning bark that says "This is my normal warning telling you predators that this is MY turf, don't even think about coming on it." Then the joyful single bark that tells you a family member is on the way home - usually only 1 bark and about 5-10 minutes before the car pulls up. Finally the really dangerous bark that raises the hairs on the back of your neck and tells you that SOMETHING really bad is out there. That bark says "I will handle this but you need to know about it". That is get the gun time. When a predator actually dares to come into the property for a handy dinner, you won't hear anything. The dogs will just kill it because they don't waste their time announcing their intent if their warnings have been disobeyed. When my dog continue to bark at night for long periods, I go outside and check with them. I usually don't see anything but I face the direction they do, and act like I know what is there. I praise them to let them know that I trust them and have their backs. This reassures them that I, as pack master, approve of their actions. Then I come back inside and leave them to deal with the problem which they are completely capable of doing.

.

Agreed. It is very important to let your dogs know that you are there, you approve and have their back. Sometimes when the dogs are barking crazy, just a pat, quiet word and letting them know that I know they are on the job is all it takes. They then calm down. If it is a bad predator, then we can act accordingly. The only time we have had to intervene was one night when Paris cornered up a copperhead and a curious lamb was trying to stick her nose in it to see what it was. I called DH, he came running with a rake and killed the copperhead. Then we watched Paris stalk it and kill it again and again. She shook it to pieces and killed each piece over and over. She sure hates snakes. I have found a dead possum and a dead cat that dared to trespass on her territory. Never heard a thing-just found them dead the next morning.

 

[Ridgetop]

I wonder if it is an LGD thing about snakes. Our Anatolians want to kill them too. they found a small gopher snake and were taking turns shaking it to death when I intervened. The grandkids were trying to crowd closer to see the snake and the dogs were getting more and more frantic about it. We like the gopher and king snakes because they kill the rats and ground squirrels. I put it under the shed, hoping it would survive. I did a little kid training too about backing away when the dogs were killing snakes since I think they were trying to protect the grandkids from the snake. I have heard other instances of LGDs going berserk over snakes, even toy ones. I wonder if that was why Rika used to chew up the hoses she she was young.

We don't have any poisonous ones on our property thanks to the chicken rancher that owned all this area 100 years ago. He had a deathly fear of rattlers (like any sensible person) and bought 1000 king snakes to turn loose on the acreage. N rattlers here, but cross the boulevard and in the wash they are everywhere!

Are copperheads and cottonmouths common in east Texas as well as rattlers? I may have to invest in some king snakes of my own.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

I don't know about Texas, but they sure like it here where we live....