Daisy's Sidekick

[Nanno]

Meet Pluto! 
   

He's named in honor of the recent first close-up photographs of the most distant member of our Solar System. He's a little forlorn right now and I keep hearing him cry and howl, but hopefully he'll settle in soon.  

Pluto was curious about the goats at first, but the moment he went to greet them they all went into panic mode and it was contagious. Now the goats and puppy are terrified of each other. The goats magnetized into a tightly-packed goat block any time Pluto crept out from beneath the horse trailer he hid under all day. This is about as close as any of the goats came to saying "Hi".  
   

Pluto is an Anatolian Shepherd, and we got him because we're not sure what our dear Daisy's future holds. She has had mystery health problems since April and three different vets haven't figured out what's wrong. The trouble seems to be in her hips and back, but there is no actual joint problem anyone can find. We've had x-rays taken and we had her on anti-inflammatory pain killers at first, thinking maybe she'd been trampled by one of the horses. But she got worse so we went back to the vet. The lameness moved from leg to leg so we thought perhaps we were dealing with a tick-borne illness and put her on a four-week course of antibiotics back in May. It helped a lot and she was almost back to normal until late June when she went lame again. We put her on a different type of antibiotic for two weeks with no effect, and now we're back to the one that seemed to help the first time. She's been back on this one for one week and so far she's still getting progressively worse, so I'm not confident we're going to beat this thing. She'll be getting blood work done this week and I hope we can figure this out and make her better, but Phil and I decided that if this is the end of the line for Daisy, we'd better get a pup ASAP so she can start training it while she's still able. 

So far she's doing a good job. She's polite with Pluto (I think she secretly loves him) but she's trying to maintain a cool detachment until he knows who's boss around this place. She can't fool me! Still, she's doing a good job as disciplinarian. Pluto tried to eat from her food bucket and Daisy snapped and snarled at him. After one meal, I couldn't even feed him from her dish after I put her out of the pen. I had to get him his own fresh bowl from the kitchen because he's terrified even to clean the bottom of The Big Dog's bucket. I'm very pleased that the pup is inspiring Daisy to finish her food. I've had a hard time getting her to eat enough recently because she doesn't feel good and she's dropping weight badly. With Pluto hovering near her food bowl, Daisy is determinedly forcing down every morsel. 
   

[IdahoNancy]

Daisy did such a good job. Is a bummer about her health. How frustrating it must be not knowing how to fix it. I wish you luck with her. Pluto is doll, he will learn his job.

[Charlie Horse]

I'm sad to hear about Daisy. With her job description I'd doubt its some kind of poison she got into. The tick virus seems possible and its one I'd have thought of too. An animal cant live its life on antibiotics though. I bet its the kind of thing that would probably take an MRI to find. Only 15K with the Obamacare Bronze plan, out of pocket. Still, you might spend a little time each day asking around the web and stuff. I hope its not contagious because I can somehow imagine the new dog would be getting it. BTW I like his white gloves.

My own dog is getting older and isn't capable of the big hikes as much anymore, but I do have to say she's done well on this last hike. She's got a wobble in her hips, but then, so do I!

[Nanno]

I really don't think Daisy's problem is contagious. I'm getting blood work done in case there is a slight possibility of that, but she's up-to-date on vaccinations, and she quite simply never hangs around other dogs so I don't know where she could have caught something. The few dogs she does come in contact with belong to my neighbors and they're all healthy. I would also think that if this were a contagious disease, the vets would have dealt with it before and would see red flags in her symptoms.

I'm more worried that it could be environmental--ticks, parasites, toxins or something like that. If that's the case, then I need to find out so I can take appropriate measures to protect the new pup and any other dogs we may get in the future.

[Charlie Horse]

Lyme and West Nile and some of those other diseases that sit around in the environment and "might" get your animals bug me. Vaccinations that are 40% effective-- Thanks a lot. My yak Tibetty got sold to a perfect home in Nebraska, where she died six months later from some kind of fly-borne deer ebola that "usually" doesn't affect cattle. Well apparently it gets some percentage of yaks. It made me pretty sad to hear about it-- I kept tabs on her. At least we're not in the deep South where the heat and humidity allow a ton more parasites and viruses to spread. In the west you don't see stuff like heart-worms in dogs unless they used to live in the South-East. Even fleas and lice are pretty uncommon here in domestic animals.

[nebs]

He is cool! I bet he makes a great LGD!

[Nanno]

Pluto is settling in well. The goats accepted him after a day or two, and he's learning not to be scared of them (although Nubbin is determined to make sure he doesn't get too comfortable around her!). Usually about once a day I hear the puppy yelping and I'll look out the window to see him trapped by Nubbin in some corner or in a shed. Nubbin doesn't usually hit him, but he's terrified that she might because she so enjoys threatening him and posturing at him.

This morning was particularly funny. I have a little doghouse in the girls' pen where Pluto can sleep at night and also hide from the goats when they are mean to him. Nubbin is far too big to fit in that doghouse (she's been too big for a year!), and she hasn't crawled into it for at least 18 months. However, knowing that it belongs to Pluto, Nubbin decided that she would assert her dominance by taking over his house. I heard him barking his head off this morning and went to see what the commotion was about. Pluto was standing a few feet from his doghouse, angrily yapping at Nubbin as she lay crammed in there with her head poking out the door. She had an insanely annoying smug look on her face which was driving Pluto mad. Nubbin just stared at him the whole time as if to say, "Oh yeah? I'm in your house, and what are you gonna do about it, Pipsqueak?"

All I can say is, "Watch out Nubbin! That dog will be twice your size in a few months!"

[Nanno]

I'm feeling very thankful right now for our wonderful livestock guardians. Daisy is still hanging in there. She has her good days and her bad days, and I'm resigned to the fact that she'll probably always moves stiffly, but she seems happy with life and we will keep her around as long as that's the case.

Pluto is turning into a wonderful goat guardian. He's a beautiful dog and he's good with the goats. He's about eight months old and bigger than most of them, but he seems to be getting ever gentler with them as he grows. 
   
We've had to reprimand him occasionally for short spurts of chasing and for teasing Tigerlily, but that almost never happens any more. It's also been a while since I've had to scold him for barking at the horses. He doesn't like the horses--they sometimes chase the goats--but he's finally learning that he must accept them. For a couple of months he was waking us up in the night because he would bark at nothing or at things far outside his territory (we know it's not important if Daisy isn't barking). But he's been toning that down lately as well. I'm hoping by summer he'll have figured out what things are actually worth making noise about. So far I'm very please with this dog and I hope he gives us many years of good service.   
   

[Nanno]

I have been very impressed by Pluto's response to the all the new babies. Since he is only 11 months old, I've been very careful never to leave kids with him unsupervised, but I do want him to be exposed to them. When we first got Rocky and Rambo, Pluto kept sneaking over to the patio enclosure to look at them through the gate. I let him come in to eat while the babies were there, and he crept up to them very cautiously to sniff. I could tell he was trying not to spook them. Both of them had somewhat dirty bottoms (no mama to keep them clean), and Pluto began to lick them gently. When they startled away from him, he retreated immediately to a non-threatening distance.

Daisy has a habit of always checking out new kids and giving them motherly licks. Pluto has been a lot more reticent than Daisy--almost acting a bit scared to go near the babies--but he's ever so curious about them. He went to check out Delilah's a few hours after they were born and she warned him away with raised hackles and tilted head. When he saw that she didn't want him there, he immediately left the enclosure. Apparently Delilah doesn't trust this "puppy" any more than I do! But he got to check them out later when Delilah went out to graze, and he was very gentle and always retreated if they acted nervous of him.

I'm very impressed. He's a big bruiser and one playful snap of his jaws could instantly break a kid's neck. He's fast and powerful and has a vicious bark. I fear for the coyote or ill-intentioned stray that crosses Pluto's path! Yet he's gentle as a lamb with these kids and hasn't shown one sign that he's going to try to chase or roughhouse them in any way. I will never cease to be awestruck by the amazing care-taking qualities possessed by this large predator species for these tiny, helpless prey animals. It is nothing short of miraculous to watch.

[Nanno]

Delilah went out to forage with the other goats this morning and left her babies alone in the shed. Pluto was concerned and went in the pen with me to check on them. He is totally enamored with these kids and spent time gently licking each of them. When one jumped on him, he collapsed onto the ground and rolled over. At one point he had three babies crawling around on his belly. I went inside and left him with them. I wanted to see how he'd act while "unsupervised". Unbeknownst to Pluto, I had him on the Goatoscope. 
   

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I enjoy watching him interact with the kids, but he is definitely still a puppy in training and not to be totally trusted with them. I kept an eye on him in the monitor, and after 10 minutes or so the kids began to annoy him by clambering onto his face. His response was a very light "snap" to push them away. That might be acceptable discipline for puppies, but not for kids! I opened the window, waited for him to do it again, then hollered at him the second he opened his mouth. He jumped like he'd been stung and immediately slunk out of the pen with his tail between his legs. I want him to enjoy the kids, but he must learn that they cannot be treated like puppies. I've read that these dogs do not really leave the puppy stage until they are a good two years old. Pluto is not quite a year and I think he's making very good progress. It looks like he will mature into a very good LGD once he learns a few "do's" and "don'ts".