My New Maremma LGD

[Onyx]

So as it all worked out...

I decided on two maremma LGD puppies. The goats will be out in rotating paddocks and I want one dog with the goats, but I also need a dog to protect the house area/my Frenchton/my cats/ etc. A friend of mine in Calgary went to fetch the first pup, since I can't pick them up yet. I want to make sure she gets plenty of socialization because she will be the pup that guards the house/cats/etc. They guy that raised them socializes the pups with livestock (they were born in the sheep pen) but not with people :/ And she is already 4 months old. She will be socialized with my friend, her husband, their dog Pinta, and their two daughters for the next several weeks until we pick her (and her sister) up on our way across the country.

Couple of pictures of her "fresh" off the farm xD

Trying to think of a good Italian name for her now...

 

[babsbag]

She looks quite happy in the house. Hope you can get her to like cats.

 

[Onyx]

My friend said there were whole herds of barn cats in the area the pups were in, so seems like she actually grew up with them

 

[Latestarter]

Very cute little gal there. Very good friend to help you out the way she is! I'm sure you're anxious to get them both and get them established on your new ranchette Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Onyx]

Poor little girl, she seems very subdued, sad and frightened. She is very wary of humans so I am really glad I did not wait and sent my friend to get her! In another month I think she would have been a little wild creature. I will have to get my brother to pick up the sister on his way back at the end of the month so we can work on socializing her here, or I'll have the same thing on my hands with her, I'm sure.

At least she's had a bath now!

And my friend's dog is apparently unbending to let her sleep on the bed with her XD

Funny how she's still scared of people but she sure took to the comforts of home right away, ha ha. She had never seen anything resembling a dog bed before in her life

 

[Onyx]

Well the pups have arrived home to me safe and sound. They get very very car-sick which I will have to consult the vet about since we have a long trip ahead of us.

They are under-socialized but for whatever reason they bonded to me pretty much instantly (though they are still terrified of every other human, so far :c). I am in love with the character of these dogs. We seem to just "get" each other and I find that I can communicate with them very effectively through body language and vice versa. Very different than my relationship with Maggie, my Frenchton.

After trying for weeks to think up appropriate Italian names and failing... I gave up and named these fierce wolf-slaying working dogs "Sugar Pie"(the larger sister) and "Honey Bunch" the smaller sister (runt would be more accurate... she is half the size of her sister and thin).

For dogs that had never been inside (except for the few weeks that Honey was at my friend's before pick-up) they sure do a great imitation of house dogs.

I keep reading websites and blogs written by long-time Maremma owners who talk proudly about how their dogs refuse to set foot inside the house or how pups raised in the house instantly took to the outdoors and never wanted to come inside again!

Apparently my pups are from different stock. They took to the house like baby ducklings to a pond and largely eschew the great outdoors. I actually have to usher them outside to go to the bathroom. On the other hand, they are naturally house-trained which is pretty amazing to me after the struggles I've gone through with my last several dogs over the years. My Frenchton will still mess on the floor if she is given the opportunity to get away with it.

So far the pups like to spend the day imitating sheepskin throw-rugs at my feet.

They were raised on a working sheep farm and have spent their lives up to now living on the range with their parents and the sheep, seeing the owner only once a day at feeding time. They are about four and a half months old.

Until now I have spent the nights sleeping on the couch beside the coffee table under which they have their "den". Last night I actually climbed up to my loft bed to sleep - the pups were extremely astonished at my agility and stared at me up there for a good half hour.

I had pushed the coffee table against the couch to prevent them from getting up on the couch, since it's very small and already too crowded with me and Maggie, my Frenchton on it, so I figured it would be a good idea to discourage the pups from wanting to get up there from the start.

I woke up this morning to find the coffee table still in place, but Sugar reclining grandly on the leather couch with several bones she had brought up there to chew.

Honey had dragged my heated throw blanket down off the couch and somehow managed to tuck it up into a neat little bed, which she was curled up on.

They are doing a very good job of training me to their preferences so far...

Seriously though I am finding that in comparing these dogs in every category to the "pet breed" dogs I have owned over the years, the pet breeds do not stack up very favorably... these dogs are very intelligent and I don't feel like I am basically babysitting a fur covered toddler all day the way I do with Maggie. They do accept me as leader and listen to me, but they just have so much more common sense that I don't feel I need to watch them like a hawk every moment. They also don't need constant, repetitive correction. Sugar put her nose up on the table when I was eating the other day and I only had to give her a stern look directly in the eyes and she understood immediately that this was not acceptable behavior and went away from the table. I thought that was pretty impressive.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Congrats on your new additions!

 

[Ridgetop]

Have they been with your livestock yet?

 

[Onyx]

I don't have livestock yet. I was supposed to be bringing a trio of goats with me on our move across country but that went sideways, so I'm now minus a $200 deposit and will not be bringing goats with me. I will, however, be bringing 18 chicks - I do not have them yet though, we'll be picking them up on the way. They are, however becoming aquainted to, and hopefully bonded with, my dog and two cats and three rabbits who they are also meant to protect. There will be a lot more rabbits once we get moved. We will be living on an acre, so the dogs won't be "out" with the livestock but sort of... "in" with the livestock, I guess you could say.

 

[bonbean01]

Congratulations on your new babies!!!