It's Never Easy To Say Good-bye
This morning around 6 a.m. my dad left for home. We all played a brave game of it and held our tears as we took our last hugs. But as the car pulled out of the driveway, that was a different story. Emery went off to work and I grabbed a bit more sleep. I got up in a house felt so empty. I had breakfast alone. I do hope he thinks about moving up here with us, even if its to his own place close by. We are all keeping that as part of our prayers.
Yesterday Pepper killed and ate a chicken. I felt heartsick about it but with so much going on I didn't really have time to think about it in depth. She goes after the goats too, not just herding them but biting at them. Now, heading out to do my chores I have to face the reality that maybe she isn't a good farm dog. We will probably always have chickens and goats and we need a dog that isn't after their blood. I just don't know what we are going to do but we have to come up with a solution. Penning up Pepper is not a solution for us. She is a dog that needs running space, it would be mean to just keep her confined. This morning I plan on doing some serious study to see how a dog can be trained to leave the chickens alone !
There are always challenges in this kind of homestead life, always something to figure out.
Time for me to get busy with my chores of the day. If you think of it, say a prayer for my dad as he travels home to Florida.
Comments
I hope you can work something out with your dog. My dad had a dog he loved very much. One day for no reason he killed and ate one of our chickens. Dad did everything in his power to train him not to do that. In the end we had to give him to a friend with a large piece of land. Dad was told once the dog has a taste for chicken blood it never goes away. But, that was years ago.
Rebecca
http://www.anatoliandog.org/poultry.htm
I have two sisters that live in the Boston area.
If you end up looking for a herding dog let me know. We have a 14 week old puppy that we are going to have to give away. She would be a great herding dog - 1/2 Australian shepherd 1/2 Border Collie. We just don't have the room for her to run like she really needs. She is a very loving, active puppy.
Richelle
richelle_robinson@hotmail.com
We tried the same thing with another dog we had, but with less success. I think it just depends on the dog.
I hope your training goes well. Our dog Sampson (a Malamute) killed a couple of gophers and birds, but now he leaves them all alone. So much so that we finally bought an "owl" with motion sensors to scare the birds out of his food dish. So it may just be a puppy thing and with some love and training she'll be broken of it.
I pray your dad's trip home is safe.