Working Dog In Progress

Ariella is showing so much promise it is hard to keep up with it all. We have now had her almost one full week. Every day she shows me some new trait. I may have jumped the gun with giving her so much alone time with our two orphan lambs but it seems to be working out. On the second day she began to play with them and run them. I immediately discouraged her from doing that. It has not taken many scoldings for her to stop from doing it. I have yet to catch her in the act ever since. I have given her other things to do besides want to "play" with her mates. At first I gave her an old knotted up sock to play with. Then today I gave her a raw beef bone to chew on.

Since day two of Ariella being here I have taken her with me to do my chores. She rides in the truck next to me. Kelli calls her my "side kick".

Today she went to town with me to pick up sweet corn for our farm stand. She met many people and I got the opportunity to educate curious folks as to what exactly a Livestock Guardian Dog is. And "what kind of dog is she"? People thought I was saying "Congo" instead of Kangal. So I found that if I told them she was a "Turkish Kangal"rather than just Kangal, they understood better what I said. One lady who was from Chicago new her name Ariella was Hebrew. I thought that was interesting.

Every day I take Arie out to see the main flock. 18 sheep in all. At least once a day, depending either how busy I am or whether or not Arie is up to it. She is still quite young and she gets tired out easily.

In the picture just below an adult sheep charged the fence and you can see that Arie made and evasive maneuver. She is very alert and on her toes. By seeing the way the adult sheep act towards her I believe that predators make frequent visits to the movable pen trying to figure out a way in.

I'm beginning to think that the biggest challenge to introducing Ariella to the main flock will be their aggression toward her. I believe that predators are numerous and that they are always looking for a way to get an easy meal as proven by the big loss we had in poultry last year. So these sheep are wary of four legged critters with sharp teeth. They see Arie as a predator right now.


I think that my main challenge in the months to come will be to convince these sheep that Arie is part of the flock.

In the posts to come I plan to show how Arie is already a fierce guardian. I hope to capture some video of how she is protective of her little pen and of her lambs.