[Ag-eq] sheep and dogs

[Jewel]

Nella!  the aversion training as delivered by an electric shock collar is, in my opinion, the only 
way of changing the outlook of a dog that has worrying on his mind.
I had a  large dog, a cross mastiff/German Shepherd that attacked my calves and the one that he 
targetted had to be destroyed as his injuries were so horrific.
My immediate reaction was to have the vet put the dog down when he came to do the same for Buddy's 
victim, but I decided to give him a second chance, but if he blotted his copybook again, it was 
finnis for him.
I did contact a rehabilitation trainer who had reeducated an Akita with the collar.  The Akita who 
had taken to harrassing cattle is a much tougher dog than Buddy, and after a few lessons with the 
collar in the hands of an expert his mind was changed about how much fun it was to rip cattle up and 
he got to the point where he wouldn't go within koowee of them.
I explained the situation to Gary and he said that, judging from what I had said, Buddy wasn't a 
hopeless case by any means.
The long and the short of it is that Gary never turned up and Buddy paid for it with his life when, 
after several weeks of showing no furter interest in the calves, he broke into their paddock and 
ripped them up badly, but this time, although there injuries were serious, they were skin deep 
slashes, and were not fatal.
When I had the vet stitch the calves back together next day, she used 3 metres of suture thread and 
the whole job took an hour and a half.
People:  townies of course:  asked whyI didn't merely rehome the dog?  a very irresponsible question 
I thought, but then as livestock handlers we know the damage that a dog out for blood can do, and I 
was not going to put any other animal at risk.
At that point, it was only the cattle that he had attacked,but if he had got into the sheep, the 
slaughter would have been dreadful.
Buddy had shown no aggression to anything else, but I was not going to stand aside and take the 
chance that he wouldn't.

      Jewel--------------------------------------------------
From: <nfoster at extremezone.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 3:45 PM
To: "Agricultural and Equestrean Division List" <ag-eq at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [Ag-eq] sheep and dogs


How many people have dogs and live stock?

I'm asking because I'm having problems with one of my GSD chasing and attacking
my sheep.  I've had shepherds and live stock together for years and haven't had
this problem before.

I only have one sheep, who is more of a pet than anything.  I do sheer him and a
friend and I do use his wool for crafts.  I also have 5 goats, and the dog will
chase them occasionally, but he is much more interested in the sheep.  The
sheep tends to run from him and usually the goats just ignore him.

A couple of weeks ago he attacked Oliver, the sheep and Oliver was hurt pretty
bad.  He's going to be o.k. but he will have a few scars.

Today I had a dog trainer come and work with Monty, the dog, so hopefully we can
stop this problem.  Monty is an escape artist, so I'm going to have to run
another strand of electric wire to keep him in his yard.

If others have had issues with live stock and dogs I would like to know how you
managed it.

Thanks.

Nella







Quoting Jody Ianuzzi <jody at thewhitehats.com>:

> Hello Jewel,
>
> How many sheep are there now on the Blanch Ranch?  Do you sheer them for
> wool?
>
> Did you have flooding this year like you did last year?
> JODY
>
>
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