First, when we were gone to the Wisconsin alpaca show, Spot ran away twice! I feel so bad for our farm sitters, who ran all over the woods, down the road, and to a lake a ways away, to chase Spot down. And the thing about Spot is that in the pasture, he is oh so loving and will be right on top of you getting any attention he can. But if he's loose, he thinks it's grand fun to see you, and run faster and further away. He can be so naughty. It seems he has discovered he can slip under our hay shelter tent. I know what a pain it is to chase my own dog down, I can only imagine the pain of chasing someone else's dog.
Then this past weekend (Sunday evening), when I turned my back for a bit, Spot ate the entire tub of Sand Clear!!! I was scared to death it was going to kill him. We worried the fiber would bind up in his intestines and cause a blockage. Or, it would give him some serious intestinal pains/issues. I was relieved to read some where on-line (some horse message board) that their vet claims you can't over dose on sand clear. I was praying that information was true. Thankfully, it's now been a few days, and Spot is fine. Though I can't say if he had intestinal problems or not, he never showed any problems, and I haven't found anything in the pasture to indicate any problems. *phew*
On Tuesday I came home from work to find a huge crater in our backyard. Spot dug the biggest hole I've ever seen. I think I could fit one of my children in it. It seem Spot is bored. We need some more excitement for him. We are adding on a new pasture and as soon as that is fenced in, he will be able to run out there. He needs it!
It's times like these when I think, do we really need a farm dog? He's a great guard, a wonderful dog (other than the naughty behavior, he is very loving to our family, we all love him to pieces) and I do like having him. We live back in the woods and I know we'd have stray dogs wander by (we did before he came here), which are the biggest threat to alpacas (most injuries to alpacas are caused by dogs that are wandering, often neighbor dogs that get bored). I also think we'd have deer come closer to the pasture, and I don't want that being that deer carry parasites that are easily transmitted to alpacas. I'd rather they stay a bit away from our pastures so no parasites are transmitted. Spot barks by the fence line, which I think keeps the deer further away (we see them from time to time, but never that close to the pasture). We sometimes hear of other wildlife nearby, that I know Spot would protect our alpacas from (like last year there was a mountain lion spotted nearby, there are sightings of coyotes and a few years back there was a bear on our private drive, wildlife is all around). Spot has killed an opossum and a mole (I found the remains in the pasture). I also feel better knowing he's there in case a stranger stops by. He won't let us load up the alpacas to take them somewhere, he surely would give a stranger a hard time. I wonder if 2 guardian dogs would be better or worse? I've heard it's better, but then I worry I'd just have 2 bored dogs.
No comments:
Post a Comment