Kangal Dog Puppy

Kangal Dog Puppy

Friday, November 5, 2010

An on going process

Yesterday I took Ariella back to the Vet for her follow up Lyme vaccination which they had talked me into the first time we were there. And this time they tried to talk me into another type of vaccine yesterday for leptospirosis but I declined. They said that leptospirosis is a fairly rare disease but, is found in southern WI and is moving farther north to about the middle of the state. But, they highly recommended I get it for her since it comes from wild animal urine and with her living outside like that it is possible for her to come in contact with the urine say, from a raccoon or something. Well, they didn't convince me and I could tell the vet was disappointed I didn't go for it. I told them I wanted to wait and think about it longer. Especially when read in a pamphlet that the past vaccine they had for it gave a lot of dogs an allergic reaction but, this new one hasn't been doing that. No thank you I'll wait to see how the "new" one does in time first before I make that decision. Plus as far as what I understood the disease isn't even this far north yet.

If you read the post about Arie's first visit to the vet you will know I'm no fan of vaccines. If we consider every possible disease a dog could contract I doubt any could survive with all the vaccines you would need to dump into their systems. Again, I wonder how in the world anything has ever survived up to the present day without vaccines in addition to the whole host of chemicals and pharmaceuticals foisted upon both man and beast in these present times.

But, onto other news. Arie was 78 pounds on the official veterinary scale yesterday. Which was lighter than what I hand gotten on our bathroom scale a number of days ago. When I use the bathroom scale I weigh myself then pick her up and weigh the both of us but it is getting harder to do the bigger she gets. She's getting to the size where she doesn't really like getting picked up like that and it is getting harder to look over the top of her girth to read the numbers. but, what I saw was well over 80 pounds. It looked more like 84 or 85 pounds to me. I have an idea we got a light reading at the vets as well because she didn't want to get on it this time and the assistant took the reading on the fly. I still think she is over 80 pounds. And I measured her yesterday too and she was just over 25 inches at the withers. It looked like 25.5 inches actually. One inch taller than last time I checked.


Some Behavioral Observations
Earlier today I took Arie with me to remove a male lamb from the main flock. He is getting to the age where he might start mating with the ewes he is with which we wouldn't want. I had Arie tied up on a long line while I climbed over the fence to fetch him. I put a leash on him and set him on the outside of the pen. I walked the lamb towards Arie. Since he had never been on a leash before he fought it some so it wasn't like we just walked easily toward her. It was a little bit of a struggle. Well, I'm not sure why exactly but, with the lamb being outside of the pen Arie seemed to think he didn't belong. Perhaps it had something to do with the struggle against the leash. She went nuts. Barking and lunging against the line. I was surprised because she always seems friendly toward the sheep in the main pen when she is by them. I figured she'd be happy to see him and want to play, but not so. So I brought him closer for her to get a good look and to sniff him. It didn't help matters when he began to squirm. I stood there with the lamb by her but, out of her reach. I couldn't console her, she seemed to see him as something that didn't belong. After a little bit I brought him close to her again to let her sniff him. This time she bit his wool and pulled with almost a death grip. She did not like the little fellow.
It has been awhile since I actually had her in the movable pen with the main flock because it is getting too hard to lift her over. But, I figured I'd better put her in there to see how she would act without a barrier. So I took apart a fence panel which allowed her to squeeze on in. Right away an adult sheep butted her. And she turned into a completely different dog. She wanted out right away. But, I stayed in there with her and kept them from butting her. I sat down in the grass and she stayed right by my side. She was on their turf and it took the aggression right out of her. We stayed in there for about 20 minutes. Although she got somewhat comfortable being in there she never made any attempts to play or to go near any of the sheep. She was submissive the whole time.
In the mean time I had put the lamb inside a big dog crate in the pickup truck to transport him to the pen where Arie's other lambs are. After our time with the main flock we went back to the truck and Arie turned back into "Miss Aggressive". She circled the truck sniffing the air trying to find that lamb that was in the crate. The lamb is over half grown now so he's not like a baby anymore. Anyway, she acted like he was something that did not belong like a wild animal or a dog or something.
So we drove back to Arie's lambs and I put him in with them. Arie was frantic. She definitely saw him as a threat. Which would be great if he really was a threat. She was in the truck barking at him ferociously. This is some different behavior in a dog. Something I am certainly not used to. I took her to the house and tied her up outside. She could see the pen where the lambs are and she continued to bark at the new comer. But, after a little while she settled down. I will see later when I put Arie back by them whether or not she will except him in there.
I'll make a post later to tell how it goes.

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