Facebook page.As a new member to the forum I wanted to say hi so ... "Hi"
My wife and I are city folks who bought an 80-85 acre of land about 15 years ago as retirement property and have been slowly cleaning it up. Details on that one is a long story for around the campfire, not here. For now just know I have hauled MANY loads of trash off my place and continue to do so. Due to the Covid my wife and I were both able to get full time work remote approvals on our jobs so we sold everything in the big city and moved out here full time a couple years ago, another story for around the campfire
I have had a few dogs grace me throughout the past but currently I do not have a dog. My most current two were Twitch (rescue that best guess was border collie / pointer mix) and Zoey (pure BC). While gnats made attention spans look long Twitch was my boy. We tried all kinds of things and he did well in all but failed in everything. Agility? You pick any two and he nailed it - pick 3? not so much. SAR? He loved cadaver, a bit too much so we never made it to a real search. Mountain biking? He ran at least two miles for every one of mine. I miss him. Zoey was another story. She taught me MANY things about hard minded working dogs. I had not encountered a personality like that before and I will admit that I could have done better by her had she not been my first herding dog. for 14 years she was a good girl who loved to follow me everywhere on the homestead and she knew many tricks, mainly she knew "the look" that was a rather intimating stare for folks who did not know her. Her mind never stopped thinking.
Currently I have five pure blood KuneKune pigs, about 60 chickens, six guinea fowl, three outside mousers cats and three indoor only cats. We are planning on goats and *maybe* cattle in a couple years. I am slowly looking at some form of a LGD (pyer, Anatolian or a mix of the two) that will be outside full time with the livestock. To go along with that I also know myself. I will bond with a new dog and the LGD needs to bond with the pigs/birds instead of me. So, I also want a dog to be by my side, inside and out. I was looking at working line GSD and my daughter asked why not a DS? I was not familiar with them so started researching a few weeks back and have been liking where these DS came from with generally better health and slightly longer life span. And I know, every dog is unique so my mileage may vary
Basically I want a dog I can have at my side 7x24, off leash as I have under 20 people who live within five miles of me. A dog that can be trained to work around my place
- Be smart enough to train in multiple areas
Not eat my other animals
Watch my back while I am working (two and four legged trespassers)
Be social with my friends (and their three dogs)
Stay close while walking / roaming
Easy recall (wild dogs did attacked neighbors cattle a few weeks back - that pack is taken care of)
Not shy from gunshots
Backup the LGD as required
Chill with me inside during work hours (yes potty and lunch hour are outside)
Travel well as required (not cause issues in a hotel for example)
Have fun with!
Take care and thanks for listening,
erick..