After about 5 months on the farm, our livestock guard dogs – Kili and Denali – are officially standing guard over our animals.
They’ve been outdoor dogs since they arrived here. We set them up with a cozy space in our pole barn. They spend their days snuggled up somewhere around the house, but each evening, they head back to the barn and spend the whole night roaming the property and barking at predators in the distance.
What were once floppy little clouds of fluff are now floppy giant clouds of fluffy with a job to do. It may sound like it would be a bit annoying to hear them through the night – but it’s actually a very reassuring sound that we mostly sleep through.
They’ve done an incredible job too. We regularly see them go on-guard around dusk – warning and protecting the chickens as they grab their last bites before heading into the coop. We haven’t had any predator problems with the birds since the dogs arrived and that’s really saying something given just how many we lost and how quickly earlier in the Spring.
With the goats now free-ranging, the pups have been getting more familiar with them as well. They haven’t quite worked out the full relationship there – but they have made several attempts to herd the goats and even push them back into their pen now and then. Granted – they do this in the middle of the day when the goats should otherwise be allowed out – but it’s incredibly that they very naturally understand their role and place in the farm.