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.