Arie and Dakota

This is the second video I mentioned in yesterdays post of Arie's behavior toward Dakota.

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Ariella has gotten way stronger in recent weeks. Just before Christmas I had her out on a long line. Our daughter had the Retrievers out and I wanted to take Arie to go see them. As we walked down the driveway Arie could smell their tracks and began pulling very hard against the lead. I was surprised at how strong she was and noted that our Husky had never pulled that hard even with a harness on. So I decided to stop and lock my feet in place on the frozen driveway. Arie then proceeded to pull me about 7 or 8 feet until she stopped. I walked a little then tried it again. She then pulled me further, probably about 10 feet. Did it one more time and soon we had to leave the driveway and go onto some ground without any snow. I was amazed that she could do that. My next goal is to make a harness for her. I still own the one I use to have for my Husky but, she is way to big for it.

A strong temperament

Here's a video of Arie being protective over a bucket of water that actually belongs to Titan one of our Shetland rams. I took another video of her behaving the same way with Dakota, our other ram but didn't get a chance to down load it. I'll probably post it here sometime in the coming week.

Arie has a very strong protective instinct. I can no longer feed her raw meat anywhere near the other animals. Even with the goats she attacks them savagely if they get too close and they are now no match for her.

I measured Ariella today and she was around 29 inches at the withers. I say "around" because when she had her head raised it appeared that she was over 30 inches but, if her head is down she was about 28 inches. It's hard to get her to remain still long enough to get a good reading. I hope to make a sliding scale to properly measure her and any other dogs we have in the future.

Arie is 7 months old. And I'm guessing she is pushing 100 pounds though I have not attempted to weigh her myself. I had hoped to get her to the vets to weigh her by now but, I've been too busy.

Later in the week I hope to get the other video posted of her behavior towards our other ram. He actually butted her while she had her head through the fence and she reacted more aggressively.

Arie has certainly been a learning experience for me. I've never had a dog with as sharp a temperament as her. I've been around dogs my whole life but, have never experienced any like her. The Rottweiler we used to have when I was a kid perhaps came close as far as having a sharp temperament but, he was highly trainable. It was amazing how well he trained to obedience. Arie has a real mind of her own and it almost depends on her mood as to whether or not she will obey any given command. I had a female Fila Brazileiro once and she was very aggressive in a way that might be compared to Ariella's but, again she too was easily trained almost like the Rottie.

As Arie gets older I feel much more at ease when I take her with me in the woods since she is constantly hunting. Her senses are on constant alert with her nose continuously sniffing and her eyes always scanning, I'm sure nothing could sneak up on us unawares. And if we were to encounter any wild thing I am very confident she would be totally about driving off and dominating whatever it might be.

I hope to get her weighed again soon and get that recorded here in the days ahead as well.

Pictures

Had Arie out with the sheep today but, on a long line so that she didn't have full access to them.




Over the past week we've had some pretty severe weather with snow storms and below zero temps. And today was the first chance I've had to do some more work with Arie and the sheep.

In the above picture you can see Arie peaking over a 4 foot, 8 inch fence. The top board is 4', 8". The top of the post is 5 feet. So, as you can see she now stands over 5 feet tall on her hind legs!

Here Arie is chewing on the remnants of some Italian cabbage we grew last summer.

Here's a nice profile shot.

This one too.

What might she be saying here? Actually, Arie was chewing on a stick in this picture.

Last week I had some good sessions with Arie and the sheep. She finally had more interest in other things like hunting cats than she was of the sheep. The interest I'm referring to that she has of the sheep is the drive to play with them, which I am working on getting her not to do.

But, two different evenings last week she spent considerable time doing other things rather than wanting to molest the sheep. I don't want her hunting our cats either but, at this point I'd rather her do anything else besides what she normally wants to do, which is to chase, jump on and chew on the sheep. Arie didn't hunt for cats the whole time either, she found some rodent hideouts too and was feverishly trying to dig them out. I guess we have a whole food chain thing going on here. Give her some cats to chew on instead of sheep, then give her some mice to eat instead of cats! I think this might work! :)

Integrating with the flock

The main flock of sheep are now moved to their winter paddock and I am in the process of integrating Arie with them. She has now completely lost any fear of being head butted and a new challenge is put before me. With all the stimulus of 15 ewes moving about and running around makes her want to play and chase and bite and jump.

During the first trial run the boss ewes constantly butted her which only added to the problem. Arie didn't mind it in the least bit which gave her the green light to think, the game was on! Oh what fun! From that moment on she got it in her brain that the sheep were her own personal chew toys. And living ones at that!

So once again we have to take a step back. Over the past week I've been doing some obedience work with her while in the sheep corral. And a few times now, when I throw down some fresh hay to the sheep I take Arie in on a leash and we sit down in the midst of them while they eat. This keeps the bossy ones busy and being less of a temptation for Arie to want to play since they are eating hay rather than paying attention to her. This seems like it is helping. Like earlier tonight. We spent about a half an hour just sitting among the ewes while they ate. I kept Arie either sitting or laying down most of the time. So far this seems to be the thing that's working best.

During the night Arie stays with the Stanky the goat. Her and him have a good working relationship going. He keeps her in line with his horns. I even saw something the other day, they appeared to display affection towards one another. Which I was pleased to see. But, as well as they are doing if Stanky comes near her while she is eating, she lays into him something fierce, with fangs bared and teeth snapping. So once she is fully integrated with the main flock, I intend to have an enclosure which only she has access to, in order for her to eat in peace.

It was really neat tonight though, while I was sitting with Arie amongst the sheep, during the moments when she was calm and peaceful and being obedient, she looked like a real livestock guardian dog watching over her flock. It was a site to behold! I am confident that once she really gets bonded with them, that nothing stands a chance of harming them, not while she's around.