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- #821
Ridgetop
Herd Master
Went down today and weighed - Scrawny 7.7 lbs; Big guy 9.9 lbs. Huge difference in weights.
Mom and lambs doing well, others relaxing in barn with full hay baskets enjoying the good life.
Let Bubba out of kennel to which he was sentenced last night after trying to attack every living creature surrounding HIS lambs, including the ewe, and the other ewes calmly eating in their own separate jugs.
He started out well, calmly laying down next to the jug watching as the ewe cleaned her newborns. He received lots of praise for his quiet and appropriate LGD behaviour. Rika, as usual, was her perfect LGD self calmly watching the ewe and lambs. Angel, wondering why everyone was congregating in the barn come to have a look. She entered in her puppy way, causing both dogs to drive heraway from viewing the newborns. She ended up cringing on the haystack until she could make her escape past them outside where she peered around the entrance to the barn. Every now and then she was rewarded for her humble attitude with a stern grown from Rika not to enter. With several tons of our bargain alfalfa stacked in the barn the interior space, never too large, seemed dwarfed. DH and DS2F watched from the windows while DS1 and I were in the barn. As I tried vainly to get Scrawny to nurse, Bubba styed calmly laying down. However, he then got more and more excited s he tried to clean up the lambs inside the pen. Finally, he started growling. The ewe, worried about her babies with this monster acting this way, came to the side of the jug to nudge them away from him. Bubba was infuriated that this ewe was removing his small charged and snapped at her, then he turned to her companion next door and tried to drive her back in the pen. That ewe just stared at him, affronted. At frst we were able to calm Bubb don by voice commands and petting him, but as Bubba worked himself up even these methods finally lost effect. DS1 got the leash to remove Bubba so he could calm down away from the lambs.
At this point, as I stepped out of the jug, Rika decided she had had enough of this bad behavior. She went for Bubba. Wonderful, I had just stepped into the middle of 300 lbs. of infuriated snapping teeth, whirling muscular bodies, and enraged snarling filling the barn.
As they cannoned towards me, DS1 reached out and snatched me out of the way. The 2 Anatolians crashed back and forth, tufts of fur filled the air, I worried about Rika, smaller and older at 7 being able to hold her own with massive Bubba, now in his prime at 3. Never underestimate a woman, boys! Rika knocked him down. Then he was up and tried to overpower her, but she had taught him his fighting ability and whirled out of his way. Suddenly she was on top again and a combination of growls interspersed with yelps were coming from Bubba. Rika had hold of him by his cheek and ear. Relentlessly, she held him pinned until he calmed down and submitted! What a woman!
DS1 quickly leashed him and he was banished to the kennel on the field for the night! We did not intend to be woken up by any more problem behavior. Rika spent the night at the top of the barn steps. Angel spent the night at the gate to the field. Bubba spent the night in his kennel on the field far from the lambs.
Strangely after that ferocious fight no skin was even broken!
This morning we allowed him out of the kennel and he checked out the lambs much chastened and calmer. He was praised heavily for his calm attitude. We moved him in with the rams in the pen at the other end of the barn while we weighed the lambs since their crying worried him. He was fine in their pen until the second lamb really let loose with some loud bleats, then Bubba chased the 3 rams out of the barn and down the hill. Some LGDs take a lot more training - sigh . . . . Time to call Erick for advice and inspiration on training Bubba.
I think that Bubba has a very high protection drive, and a very high desire to mother babies. He loves the lambs, licking and cleaning them, and was terrific with Angel as a puppy. He still lets her jump on him and play with him - with Anatolians this means biting him and trying to drag him around by his neck. I also think that the smell of the birthing really inflames his intense protective nature. However, he is very possessive of the newborns and apparently feels that their mothers are unfit! LOL From now on, I don't think we will allow him in the barn until the next morning when the stimulation is not so high. Up to now we have been feeling that the exposure to the ewes and lambs early on would be good for him, but I have decided that as good a protector as he is, he does not have the right attitude and set of skills to be an obstetric LGD.
Off to finish up my cabinet shelves, then install molding and baseboards prior to painting the new entryway. Next weekend I will lay the new vinyl wood plank floor in the office. Good thing I did not dispose of the leftover self stick vinyl wood plank flooring from our old apartment building reno. I would have used it up but by the last 3 units I ran out of knee power and had the vinyl wood plank floors professionally laid. These strips are just the lay 'em down kind, not the click together vinyl wood plank, so they will go in easily and why spend $$$ for new materials? I have these and am putting the house on the market for our move to TEXAS! I do have to re-floor the office though since the laminate did not last and has peeled up - DH thinks from the rollers on our office chairs. The other 3 rooms I laid with the same cheap laminate have held up well. The office will just be a 1 day job since I am going to have DS1 and DH move the furniture to the other side of the room, lay down the floor and roll it, then move the furniture onto that side and lay the rest. I am not even removing the baseboards since they have base shoe that I will carefully remove and replace. This method will prevent us having to disconnect and remove all our computer paraphanalia, saving a day's work.
Off to the shelves and then to filling them!
Mom and lambs doing well, others relaxing in barn with full hay baskets enjoying the good life.
Let Bubba out of kennel to which he was sentenced last night after trying to attack every living creature surrounding HIS lambs, including the ewe, and the other ewes calmly eating in their own separate jugs.
He started out well, calmly laying down next to the jug watching as the ewe cleaned her newborns. He received lots of praise for his quiet and appropriate LGD behaviour. Rika, as usual, was her perfect LGD self calmly watching the ewe and lambs. Angel, wondering why everyone was congregating in the barn come to have a look. She entered in her puppy way, causing both dogs to drive heraway from viewing the newborns. She ended up cringing on the haystack until she could make her escape past them outside where she peered around the entrance to the barn. Every now and then she was rewarded for her humble attitude with a stern grown from Rika not to enter. With several tons of our bargain alfalfa stacked in the barn the interior space, never too large, seemed dwarfed. DH and DS2F watched from the windows while DS1 and I were in the barn. As I tried vainly to get Scrawny to nurse, Bubba styed calmly laying down. However, he then got more and more excited s he tried to clean up the lambs inside the pen. Finally, he started growling. The ewe, worried about her babies with this monster acting this way, came to the side of the jug to nudge them away from him. Bubba was infuriated that this ewe was removing his small charged and snapped at her, then he turned to her companion next door and tried to drive her back in the pen. That ewe just stared at him, affronted. At frst we were able to calm Bubb don by voice commands and petting him, but as Bubba worked himself up even these methods finally lost effect. DS1 got the leash to remove Bubba so he could calm down away from the lambs.
At this point, as I stepped out of the jug, Rika decided she had had enough of this bad behavior. She went for Bubba. Wonderful, I had just stepped into the middle of 300 lbs. of infuriated snapping teeth, whirling muscular bodies, and enraged snarling filling the barn.
As they cannoned towards me, DS1 reached out and snatched me out of the way. The 2 Anatolians crashed back and forth, tufts of fur filled the air, I worried about Rika, smaller and older at 7 being able to hold her own with massive Bubba, now in his prime at 3. Never underestimate a woman, boys! Rika knocked him down. Then he was up and tried to overpower her, but she had taught him his fighting ability and whirled out of his way. Suddenly she was on top again and a combination of growls interspersed with yelps were coming from Bubba. Rika had hold of him by his cheek and ear. Relentlessly, she held him pinned until he calmed down and submitted! What a woman!
DS1 quickly leashed him and he was banished to the kennel on the field for the night! We did not intend to be woken up by any more problem behavior. Rika spent the night at the top of the barn steps. Angel spent the night at the gate to the field. Bubba spent the night in his kennel on the field far from the lambs.
Strangely after that ferocious fight no skin was even broken!This morning we allowed him out of the kennel and he checked out the lambs much chastened and calmer. He was praised heavily for his calm attitude. We moved him in with the rams in the pen at the other end of the barn while we weighed the lambs since their crying worried him. He was fine in their pen until the second lamb really let loose with some loud bleats, then Bubba chased the 3 rams out of the barn and down the hill.
Some LGDs take a lot more training - sigh . . . . Time to call Erick for advice and inspiration on training Bubba.I think that Bubba has a very high protection drive, and a very high desire to mother babies. He loves the lambs, licking and cleaning them, and was terrific with Angel as a puppy. He still lets her jump on him and play with him - with Anatolians this means biting him and trying to drag him around by his neck. I also think that the smell of the birthing really inflames his intense protective nature. However, he is very possessive of the newborns and apparently feels that their mothers are unfit! LOL From now on, I don't think we will allow him in the barn until the next morning when the stimulation is not so high. Up to now we have been feeling that the exposure to the ewes and lambs early on would be good for him, but I have decided that as good a protector as he is, he does not have the right attitude and set of skills to be an obstetric LGD.
Off to finish up my cabinet shelves, then install molding and baseboards prior to painting the new entryway. Next weekend I will lay the new vinyl wood plank floor in the office. Good thing I did not dispose of the leftover self stick vinyl wood plank flooring from our old apartment building reno. I would have used it up but by the last 3 units I ran out of knee power and had the vinyl wood plank floors professionally laid. These strips are just the lay 'em down kind, not the click together vinyl wood plank, so they will go in easily and why spend $$$ for new materials? I have these and am putting the house on the market for our move to TEXAS! I do have to re-floor the office though since the laminate did not last and has peeled up - DH thinks from the rollers on our office chairs. The other 3 rooms I laid with the same cheap laminate have held up well. The office will just be a 1 day job since I am going to have DS1 and DH move the furniture to the other side of the room, lay down the floor and roll it, then move the furniture onto that side and lay the rest. I am not even removing the baseboards since they have base shoe that I will carefully remove and replace. This method will prevent us having to disconnect and remove all our computer paraphanalia, saving a day's work.
Off to the shelves and then to filling them!
Poor guy, obviously he has a lot of love for lambs and wants to protect them from even their moms. Rika did a good job on him, Good Rika!
