Sunday, January 3, 2010

We Got a Puppy ( AKA Livestock Guardian Dog).

For some weekend excitement, our family went to a farm up the road yesterday to visit chickens and quail. On our way up the dirt road to the house, we saw giant white dogs hanging out with goats. Then we saw five white, fluffy puppies. The puppies are 14 weeks old and weigh over 40 pounds.


The farm owners told us the white dogs in all of the goat pens are called livestock guardian dogs. These dogs (part Great Pyrenees and part Anatolian) protect chickens, goats, and llamas from cougars, bears and other dogs.

So we decided as a family (Grammy and Pop, too) to get a dog to protect our goat babies and chickens. Glenn works on a sheep ranch locally and there has been a major mountain lion problem (killing sheep). Instead of an electric fence, we got a beautiful dog.

We went back to the farm today to pick out the best of the remaining puppies. Pop named her "Lotta," which is short for Whole Lotta Dog. Pumpkin is in love with his new puppy friend. After he got over the initial excitement of having another dog around, he cuddled with her next to the fire. Welcome to the family, Lotta!


8 comments:

  1. She's beautiful! And what a cute name!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lotta is right! What a great name for a dog. And I had no clue that dogs were used for that purpose. Makes sense though. And it looks like another subject that Oli will be able to use his camera on!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow- it's becoming a veritable zoo over there! She looks like a beauty! Congratulations on the growing brood!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a cutie! Congrats on your new addition!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great looking dog. There is another blog I visit where they talk a lot about their dogs (they look like your new pup. Check them out - and congratulations.

    Scroll down to around Dec. 12 for pics.
    http://stephenbodio.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh my goodness! She's gorgeous and reminds me of the big, white, wooly dog that guards the sheep and chickens at the Groton family farm here in CT. I can't wait to come visit (mark me down for June).

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a sweet face. I can see she'll be loved forever...and will return that. Congrats!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Awww...she's so beautiful! I hope she doesn't end up having to fight with a Mountain Lion...she's so sweet looking and I would hate to see her get hurt!

    ReplyDelete