Kangal Dog-Sarah-7/4/19

I had to put down Sarah today.  She got lame in her hind end and could no longer get up.  I think she was 2 years old or so when I got her back in 2012.  So that would make her 9 or 10.  

I'm not sure if it was hip dysplasia or what.  Whatever it was she was completely lame.  It's been coming on for awhile, probably the last couple years.  It's been getting harder and harder for her to get up from a laying down position.  

Last week she got stuck behind some pallets that were leaning up against the barn wall, and couldn't get herself out.  I had to remove the pallets and help her stand up.  Then 2 days ago she got down and I couldn't get her on her feet.  After 2 days of that I made the decision today that it was time.  She was in bad shape so that helped my decision.  

Sarah was by far my best Kangal Dog.  

I still have Lokum and he is doing well but does not live with the sheep.  He visits them frequently but I have never trusted him being unsupervised as even now he still gets very rambunctious.  Now that Sarah is gone I will probably work harder at integrating him with the flock, but I don't expect too much, however he does seem to know them pretty well.  

Lokum sure liked Sarah. Many times I put them together and they bonded well.  Sarah never liked him being around the sheep and would act aggressively toward him when he got too close.  But anytime I took Lokum to Sarah he would whine a high pitched whine in excitement.  It was sad today when I took him too her paddock after I buried her and he was looking all over for her.  

Sarah always was kind of a stiff legged dog, not real agile, but she made a fine guardian dog for the sheep as she was territorial and definitely made her presence known.  

She will be missed. She already is.    

Lokum 5-5-18

Video of a dog almost becoming a meal for wolves.

I came across this video of some Italian wolves trying to catch a dog.  This dog makes a narrow escape unlike some others I've seen on video who do not survive their encounters with these fearsome predators. 

There's a number of these kinds of recordings of wolves going after dogs and I wanted to share some here because it's a good reminder of the precautions those of us who live in wolf country need to take in order to keep our animals safe.  

I guess what I wanted to convey here was the lethality of wolves.  They are killing machines.  They make their living by killing and eating other animals. And it seems dogs are a special treat.

Recently this past winter a lady we know got some pictures of a half dozen or so wolves out on her frozen lake.  That's just over a mile from where we live.   

We've never had a problem here at our place with wolves, but they are all around and we sometimes find tracks on our land.

I'd like to think that having our 2 Kangal Dogs perhaps influences the wolves to look elsewhere for a meal rather than to try and find ways to get at our livestock.  

A cool video

Rottweiler's were my first love as far as dogs go.  This is my favorite Rottweiler video to date.  I like how this guys dogs are so well behaved and stable in their temperaments.  I watched the whole video and only heard one snarl between them, the man gave a verbal reprimand and the slight dispute quickly ended.  Which I think is remarkable given all these dogs running together.  They all got along great and were well mannered and obedient. 

 

I had one Rotty in my life and will never forget him, I called him Ben but the name on his papers was Ambrose VonBrader.  I was in my late teens and bought him from a breeder in Brookfield IL named Frank Brader.  Frank was a animal trainer at the Brookfield Zoo and he also did dog obedience classes specializing in Rottweiler's.  I enrolled in one of Franks classes, I don't remember exactly how many weeks it ran, perhaps 6 or 8 weeks.  But it laid a great foundation for me in training all the dogs I would own from then on for the rest of my life. 

 

Ben was a joy to own and up to that point I never had a dog that was so easy to train.  I used to take him for long walks around town and regularly did obedience training in our back yard. 

 

Ben got sick after a couple years, his pancreas went bad. We (my parents and I) kept him going with expensive medication and a enzyme to put on his food that was supposed to predigest it. 

 

We did this for about a year, but he never seemed the same. The dogs personality changed and it seemed like he didn't feel good.  We finally made the decision to have him put down. 

 

I will never forget that dog. 

 

Since then I have had many dogs, many of which were given to me.  I've had German Shepherds, a Doberman, Fila Brasileiro, Australian Cattle Dog, Siberian Huskies, which were all mine in particular and our family dogs which belonged to our kids and my wife Kelli, Golden Retrievers, Canaan Dog, mixed breeds and Kelli's dog a Bichon Frise which lived for over 17 years before he died.  And in recent years we've had these Livestock Guardian Dogs, Kangal's. 

 

But like I said Rottweiler's were always my first love as far as dogs go.  I never had another one after Ben, maybe some day I think, but I never felt I had the time to devote to proper training that those dogs need. 

 

The time and effort I've put into Lokum is the same as any Rotty would require so I know I could do it if I ever really want to get one again, but I don't know.  I will probably just keep admiring them from a far and look back with fond memories of the one I did have for a time.  Ben was an amazing animal and the experience I got from taking Frank Braders class was worth it's weight in gold.  The things I learned from him were something I carried with me the rest of my life. 

     

Kangal Dog-Lokum 3-18-18

Recent Video of Lokum, ealier today

Lokum is always happy to see me!

Recent video of Lokum about a month ago.