In my previous post, I briefly mentioned Jewel and then realized I am so behind on keeping this blog updated. Jewel, was one of four females in Emma's last litter. Early on, two females died within the first week. We were devastated because we had wanted to keep a female back from this litter. I adore Emma, she's my favourite dog and I could easily get rid of all the dogs and keep only her. But Emma does not belong to me. She belongs to Farm Girl. And I've always known that some day when Farm Girl leaves home, she would be taking Emma with her so it became my goal to clone her. Okay, I don't really mean "clone" but you get the idea. I wanted my own little Emma. Hence the reason why we began breeding her. From her first litter, I wasn't altogether happy with the puppies. Mainly on account of the stud. The stud was Oldest's dog but I didn't like both his looks or more importantly his personality. So the puppies were cute and all but they didn't fit my standards. Except for one. Who was not a girl. But man I fell hard for that pup nevertheless. I loved him almost as much as I loved Emma. I had every intention of keeping him for myself. But as life would have it, it was not the right time and in the end I put him up for sale. I will admit that I took it hard. I cried for days missing that little guy. So when this litter came around and I had hand picked the stud myself I was very excited about the puppies. And when we got four girls, I was thrilled. But then two died and I was crushed. Not wanting to go through the pain of loosing yet another puppy, I turned my emotions off and decided against keeping a puppy. I remained detached through the entire 8 weeks we helped Emma raise them. As a breeder I was not disappointed. All 8 puppies lived up to my standards. But then Oldest went ahead and fell head over heals in love with the smaller of the two females who she nicknamed Jewel. Which, really, wasn`t hard to see how. But Oldest who has started in showing dogs, was looking to buy another female show dog. Though we live on a farm, there is only so many dogs we can keep. Besides, I really don`t want my house overrun by dogs. Even cute ones like Sam or Jewel. So even though she kept falling deeper in love with Jewel I wasn`t going there. Then when a show dog she was looking seriously at purchasing fell through, she announced she was keeping Jewel. Even though she wasn`t a show dog. Like me, Oldest had wanted her own clone of Emma and found it in Jewel. I have to admit, the longer she has been with us it`s been hard to turn my emotions off regarding her. She`s a lively spirited puppy who looks at me with Emma`s eyes and I melt all over. Still, I can't promise Jewel a forever home here, but then again I`m not ruling it out either.
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Life living on our farm is like a zoo. Indeed, so many people have referred to our farm as the zoo and asking what new additions they were to our zoo. And I loved telling them! My favourite subject is my animals. Get me started talking about them and there is no shutting me up. Farm Girl is the same way. We can have lengthy discussions about the animals. One of the reasons I started this blog was to show off my animals and to blab about them without restrictions. I simply love them. I haven`t posted much lately but there has been alot of additions to the farm. So let me introduce you. I think I have already introduced you to Dreamer---who we don`t think is pregnant---but possibly was before we took her because no mare has an udder as big as hers who wasn`t either about due or nursing. That large udder has since receded. And you met Pixie---we adore our Pretty Pony Pixie! Now the thing about miniature horses is that they are addictive. Meet Willow. And her son, Tex. Then I met Meadow and couldn't say no to this beauty. Not only does she have looks but she has a personality to match. Our shopping for horses didn't stop at the miniatures. Nope, Farm Girl bought her first completely unbroke greener than green young filly named Sierra. She will be her first horse to break. We were very lucky to find just the guy to help us too! We hired someone to trailer.Sierra home but he sent a "friend" instead. Turns out that friend is an expert in raising and breaking horses and is one of the coordinators of the local rodeo. And lives not far from us. How perfect is that! Can't wait for spring when they begin breaking her in. The explosion of population in the barn continues with Heathcliffe, an absolutely adorable and lovable babydoll lamb. And Clyde, the cutest little pygmy EVER! Two geese who are nameless at the moment. A pair of white Silkies. A huge number of rabbits both pet and meat quality...and some of those rabbits had rabbits. And lastly, one of our favourite new additions are these two Chinchillas. We also had some new additions that it was inevitable we'd say goodbye. And even had a visit from an old family addition. This is Emma with one of her pups from her last litter. He looks so much like his dad. We also lost some zoo members which is always sad. (Snickers, the guinea pig---not the boy.) Our two favourite ducks, Donald and Ben! As well as Jack. It was a sad morning that day when we woke to find all three male ducks had been killed in the middle of the night, leaving our two females left alone to defend themselves. Gracie also left us when she finally lost her battle to survive and succumbed to Goat Polio. Now I know you all think my addiction has really gotten out of hand with all these new additions, but truthfully, there is a purpose behind all this madness which simply allows me to exploit my addiction. Since this post is long enough, I will explain all in the next post.
I love buying new animals for the farm. It's an addiction. I probably should get help for it. But meanwhile...... This here is Pixie, a beautiful miniature mare. I`ve always wanted a cute little white pony. And this little lady is Dreamer. We`ve got our fingers crossed that both females are pregnant. We would so love to have foals in the spring! And lastly thought I`d share some puppy photos! Marnie`s puppies are growing so fast and are already 4 weeks old.
Big news! We are blessed with having two litters! Marnie has delivered five boys and one girl! Emma is next! Will post photos of her litter in the next few days!
Unfortunately, we had to rehome Ella. She was a wonderful dog and makes a wonderful pet, but we were looking for more than just a pet. We were looking for a working dog on top of that, and truthfully, we just don`t have the room to keep every dog we fall in love with. So we went back on the hunt and came across another border collie. This time I was smarter and looked for a registered dog ensuring it's purebred. We had looked at a dog named Marnie earlier and decided against her because she appeared aggressive toward Emma whom we had brought along to see how well socialized she was with other dogs. Even though I knew it was probably because they had met on her own territory, in her own house, playing with her toys, I turned her down. Then I decided to reconsider her and went for another visit after rehoming Ella. The main thing going for her was that she was slim, athletic, and registered. I recognized some of the names in her bloodlines and knew she came from herding stock. The bad against her was of course that she was aggressive, a bit older than I had wanted at 2 1/2, and came from a home where she controlled the owner. On a second visit we decided to take her for a walk. The owner wanted us to put on a guard around her mouth because she was unable to walk her properly without having her shoulder dislodged. I went against using the guard and discovered exactly what she meant. The dog had zero respect for the human walking her and dragged and pulled ignoring any demands or corrections I tried to give her. I could almost hear my instructor groaning at me. She thought Ty was bad on a leash!! This dog would need work. Lots of it. Needless I decided to take a chance on her. Upon bringing her home, she was excited, nervous, apprehensive, but greeted all the dogs wonderfully! Two days after bringing her home, she and Emma are the best of friends unlike Ella who took 3 weeks before she bonded with Emma. Ty, of course, everyone loves at first meet because he such a laid back quiet unassuming type of dog. Then the following morning I decided to begin working on correcting her on a leash---something I was not looking forward to. A couple weeks before I had made this piece of homemade training tool as per my instructor`s advice. The goal is to teach the dog to walk behind you by swinging the tool like a pendulum back and forth in front of you. Hopefully, the tassles on the one end is sufficient enough to scare any dog from passing, but a stubborn naughty dog may have to get the other end which holds a stick. Marnie was a good girl and respected the tassles. Amazing really considering just the day before she was walking us! She is such a smart little girl! That's why I love this breed so much! What can take days, weeks for some, a border collie can pick up in a few short lessons. There intelligence is remarkable. And Marnie is living up to her breed. Let's just hope her instinct test goes well. I'm very nervous about that, she doesn't show as much eye as Ty but hopefully that won't effect her natural herding ability. But even if she doesn't pass her test, she is extremely athletic and Farm Girl has signed her up for agility classes. She just needs to build some more muscle up and this girl will go far I'm sure.
First the good, our snowy call duck Daisy`s eggs finally hatched! Ty passes his natural instinct test and is given the go ahead to begin training. The bad, Ella fails her natural instinct test. The ugly, enterotoxemia and goat polio hit the barn and I loose two lambs and a goat. None of these posts should be fly-by posts (especially the last one) and I will write a more detailed blog entry for each. But for now, wanted to update my blog about the newest events occurring at the farm. I would have wrote about the above event sooner but to be truthful, my blog was the last thing on my mind. But I will be writing a post about my experience if not for anything else then to help educate and perhaps save a lamb or goats life.
Becoming a shepherd of a flock of sheep, I knew I needed a herd dog. But I know nothing about herd dogs. The only thing I did know, was that the border collie was the number #1 choice in shepherds. So I went on the hunt for a BC and found a four year old male named Ty. He`s a real sweetheart and gets along with my son splendidly, but when I contacted the woman who would train both me and my dog to herd, she had doubts that Ty would be able to herd because of his age. He has spent too much of his life not working. We plan to still bring him in for an instinct testing and will cross our fingers. He certainly has the eye. He can sit and stare at our rabbits for hours on end. So much so that we have locked him in the barn on numerous occasions because we did not notice him sitting silently watching the rabbits. He did come unneutered however, so all is not lost. We plan on using him for a stud to produce our own little herd of border collies.
Meanwhile, we went back on the hunt for another dog. And came across Ella. She is only 19 months old and comes from working parents. We really have our fingers crossed for this gal. Unlike Ty, she has a natural instinct to herd anything she can, including my chickens. I can`t wait to begin lessons and getting her working with the sheep. Or should I say livestream! Check them out LIVE! (Link on photo.) I've also added a Puppy Cam page above for those who are interested in watching puppies grow.
Oh my gosh, we can't get enough of these little guys. We are so enjoying their company in the house. I may just have to keep this one.
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