"Hi, my name is Salt. I don't know why I'm here. I miss my old farm and my old family. I'd been there a long time, almost 14 years. This farm is okay though. At least there are sheep here. The other flock dog is nice to me and I've known the shepherd since she came over to my old farm and picked up a lamb named Keebler."
Salt was one of the guardians at the "big farm", where the Final Frontier Farm mommas and babies live after they leave the lambing barn. She worked there with Old Zee and Brick and the job they did there was epic...yet standard as good flock dogs go.
Old Zee passed away last year. The summer farm help ran over Brick a couple weeks ago. Taking care of hundreds of lambs was a big job for three dogs. It would be impossible for one very old one. The scramble to find a replacement was on.
Guardian dogs are bred to do a job and that job is what they want to do. The instinct even in puppies is incredibly strong, but they need many months of on the job experience with guidance and supervision before they fully ready to work a big farm with freshly weaned lambs. Kathy needed to find an adult dog, not an easy task.
The best option was a female with four puppies on her. She could borrow the mother until she found something else, but the puppies would obviously come with her. Putting two females together safely would have been incredibly hard. A female with puppies...would have undoubtedly killed Salt.
Stella, at the lambing farm, made it perfectly clear that Salt was not welcome there either. The instincts that make them good guardians are the same instincts that get them into trouble sometimes. Flock dogs can be complicated.
Salt's only safe option would be living in a kennel run. Nobody wanted that. Guardian dogs are bred to do a job and that job is what they want to do. We offered to try her here. Our farm is well fenced, Hank, a male, is as laid back as they come and there are sheep. Several sheep she even already knew.
The first night was terrible. She was horribly confused and upset. I slept in the barn with her and neither of us got much sleep. The next day she relaxed a little, but as evening came she got very agitated again. Maybe she was thinking she needed to be out working her old farm. The stormy weather wasn't helping anything either.
As the days have progressed, she's seeming happier. She likes the barn with the cool, dark feed and tack rooms. Tim moved the trailer (aka spaceship) next to the barn, but she prefers to sleep out in the driveway under the truck. She hasn't made any patrols yet that I'm aware of, but she does like hanging out with the sheep.
Hank is fine :-).
