It may do me in, finding a new home for our precious, giant baby, smart, protective Thora. It isn’t that she is a bad dog (or that I think we are bad owners..). It is that she is food dominant. Despite being protective of my children, her first concern is food/resources.
She has pounces at the chickens through their run when we give them treats, runs cows off from their food, and chases the ducks over food. This hasn’t stopped with correction. So we tried putting her on a long runner when feeding the ducks, letting the chickens free range, etc. but she soon caught on to that and would run off from us when we needed to put her on it. Neither of us want a dog that lives on a chain; that isn’t happiness for her, and certainly isn’t what we want for her.
She needs a home with room to run, but also no farm animals. Just someone she can love and protect, preferably with no children since she has snapped at our daughter over resources (a stick, more specifically).
Honestly, we are torn between putting her down for the aggression and rehoming her. But I 100% believe in the right environment she will be a wonderful companion for someone. But our farm with young kids and young animals just isn’t the right setting for her to learn and succeed. It is just a matter of finding that home in a timely manner.
Thora is protective of our home and children; she patrols all night. When we are outside, I can trust that my children are safe, because Thora takes every single step they do. She watches them when they are near the creek and pond; lays in the yard and patrols while they swing on their tree swing. She knows the boundaries of our property and has never run off as Great Pyrenees tend to do. Overall, she is really just a great dog- it kills me to find her a new home. For a dog like her, we are looking at people who have large homes as she’ll need the space and hopefully get to be in a house where she can be loved just like she was here.
We do, however, need a dog for the farm, that is more bonded to animals than people. And not food dominant. So, we will see where we end up there.
We are also planning out the garden for this year. J.Tom wants to add in a berry garden (yay!), and plant lots of beans and peas this year. Last year I was pregnant and he was traveling so much in spring, we didn’t quite get everything planted that we wanted. hopefully this year we can get lots planted for a big harvest!
We also added a compost box to the garden; we had a compost pile going (and still do) but the cows tend to stomp it down so this will act as a compost pile for our scraps, trimmings, and cow and chicken poop that we muck. Hopefully it will make good, rich compost for our garden.
It seems spring is creeping up fast! We need to get the cows managed, complete some work on the fireplace, I REALLY need to get to work finishing the basement and cleaning up my sewing room. I have a lot of projects lined out for the girls’ some dresses, and want to make Mister some more pajamas (at his request). Plus I desperately need to get some cabbage fermenting for krout and kemchi. Things just seem to be piling up fast than I can get through the day!
I will be thankful for warmer weather and longer days!
Disclaimer: Some links on this blog are affiliate links; when you use those links you help support my family, at no additional cost to you. Thank you!
