Good Morning! in 2018

[baronrenfrew]

[windwalkingwolf]

What did you do to teach Penny her job? I am sure my two are deterring predators by being their goofy dog-smelly selves, but they could learn more advanced skills if I knew what/how to teach them. They also try to keep the road safe from bicyclists, unfortunately, the way the cats protect us from any infestation of pens or Kleenex.

I did exactly what @baronrenfrew said in the post below, I took her out a couple times a day, on a leash, for months, and just walked the property lines and in and around the barn. It's worth knowing I know next to nothing about dog training, but this seemed to be an intuitive step to take and it seems to have paid off. Tellem is my old dog, and was enforcer to Askems nose/eyes/ears... when I had both those little dogs, Askem would "find" the coon/fox/mink/whatever, and Tellem would kill it. Since we lost Askem, Tellem would just sit dejectedly in the front yard. He didn't care anymore, about much of anything, for months. When I got Penny, he started taking an interest again, would come with us on our perimeter walks, and even chase frogs and squirrels a little. If he "found" something, I'd let Penny off her leash so she could go learn from him. It seemed to work She's half Great Pyr and half coonhound, but inherited mostly coonhound looks, so I was worried about her prey drive around my birds...but didn't much need to be. I raised her side by side with young birds in the house (with constant supervision), and after one day, she no longer saw them as food. After three days, she was treating them as littermates and I've never worried about her being alone with them again. She will happily try to cuddle and lick a chick. So there was some training involved, but temperament played a big part too.
My biggest issue with Penny is that she has those big, floppy coonhound ears, and CANNOT tell very well from which direction sound is coming from. If coyotes are somewhere yipping and playing, and the sound is echoing off the house, she will run towards the house at first. Recall is a big problem...if she's focused on chasing something, she will not hear me, and when she DOES finally hear me, she has no idea where to run back to. If I didn't think ear cropping is ridiculous and potentially cruel, I might have hers done so she maybe could hear better, but one day (all being well), she'll be an old dog unable to 'hunt', and sound won't matter so much.
Oh, she also mercilessly harasses rats, which may be the best thing of all. When we moved in here, the barn and silo were riddled with rat holes and warrens. Sometimes we'd see the stacked 3 high like a cheerleeders' pyramid, peering around a corner at us. It was nothing to shoot a dozen a day, and still there were hundreds. We poisoned and saw none for a while, then they came back. But Penny harrasses them so badly that it's rare to see even one. I this dog.

[windwalkingwolf]

Oh...I also, um, voided my bladder at intervals around my property. It's what territorial pack canids do to establish territory, so I wanted that reinforcement of boundaries for Penny. It seemed to have worked everywhere but where I didn't, erm, "go", which is at the front line of my property bordering the road. She will dash out into the road without a thought, so I tried putting an "invisible fence" there. It mostly works, but if she sees a coyote, or even a dog walking by, she's through it like a bull.

[baronrenfrew]

Nothing better than a well behaved (educated) dog, and nothing worse than one that’s not. A dog has a brain and with a little guidance they can use that force for good.

Best story I heard, at a sheep dog trial in Scotland, the dogs were to round up the sheep, over the hill and out of sight, and bring them back over the hill to the handler. After calling and calling, the dog didn’t come over the hill: instead the dog was heard barking. The dog was therefore disqualified for not performing the task. When the handler went over the hill, he saw that a sheep was stuck in the fence. The dog sat at a distance and barked to call the “handler” to him.

The dog should have won for being smart and doing the right thing.

[windwalkingwolf]

Hmmm...I wonder if PTO should have a dog/dog training thread? @WLLady ? @poultry_admin ?

[windwalkingwolf]

Sorry to hear about your garden WLL, that must be so frustrating. I am dreading long dry spells because I am on a cistern and depend on rainwater for everything. I can order a tanker of city water (bleagh!!) but I am afraid the chlorine etc would kill my spoiled plants. I am going to try to put eavestroughs and rainbarrels on the outbuildings. My only saving grace is mulch, and lots of it, and mixing in massive quantities of compost. I use raised beds so I can keep the organic matter concentrated.
And as the grass in the lawn dries and dies, I gleefully plan to overseed with clover which stays green through drought. Chickens and bees love clover, and you don't have to mow.
My asparagus came in finally and is now bolted. The season was so short, I missed it! I have to plant some rhubarb. I wonder if it's too late or I have to wait until fall.

No no, plant the rhubarb! It's a fast growing 'crop' and can be planted just about anytime. And harvested just about anytime too, even as little stems from seed, and will still grow back like a weed. In my experience, anyway. But then again, my experience tends to differ from most, since I've had several people tell me not to harvest rhubarb after it flowers, because it will be bitter, but I've found that to be bollocks. I've never had bitter old rhubarb. More sour, yes, but bitter no. I LIKE a sour jam, crumble or pie, so if growing longer makes them more sour, I'm all for it!. I planted rhubarb in July last year and was eating it raw in September. Maybe don't try this at home, I'm a little strange and I have an iron stomach lol...my sister ended up in the ER taking an emetic for a nasty stomacheache from doing the same thing :) Apparently, too much oxalic acid is bad for you, who knew?

[poultry_admin]

Hmmm...I wonder if PTO should have a dog/dog training thread? @WLLady ? @poultry_admin ?

If it's just a topic you are looking for, start one here: Furred Friends
Unless you want it organized one level up, then we can make one.

[Killerbunny]

SO can I split my rhubarb anytime?
Last year I harvested until September and it was great.

[poultry_admin]

So we had a huge scare on Wednesday night. Those were two sheds, a chicken tractor (without chickens) and a greenhouse. Thanks to the fire department we were able to stop it from spreading to the barn with all the livestock and the house. Soooo lucky that there were no critters or people hurt. And the damage is relatively small, too. Flames were impressive though. I have never felt such a hot fire before. And the neighbours were able to see the flames shoot above the trees. We had a very strong south wind that fueled it on pretty crazy but also pushed it away from the barn and the house.
So, now we have a bit of cleanup to do. Garbage bin is sitting in the driveway and tractor is calling my name.... Off to cleanup

[Killerbunny]

Oh crap, sorry about that.