Traveler's Lucy

I really like the farmcollies though. We have had Lucy, a farmdog we got from Sandra Niedrauer, for a year now (she was then 1 1/2 years old). I think she comes from Elaine's farm originally. (As you can tell, I'm still puzzling things together) She is working out really well around the farm and the animals. It's great that she does things right automatically.

We have decided to breed her next spring (she just was in heat, so it'll probably be May or June). I'm new to the whole thing of breeding, so a little nervous about finding places for the pups. We already have 3 places though, I guess that isn't bad. Anyone interested in the litter please let me know. Ted Green's Buddy will be the father.

I won't be able to be on the internet too often, since we don't have a computer and have to drive into town to the library for access. I guess it'll take a while to figure out who is who on this discussion webpage, but I'll figure it out.

Anyways, I'm glad to be part of it.

It's great hearing about all those puppies being born. Can't wait till next year to have Lucy have her litter. I sure hope it won't be 9 though. How many puppies is common for these dogs? Lucy is great with our goats. However- our goats (Toggenburgs, since I grew up in the Toggenburg valley of Switzerland) were not raised with dogs. When we first got them and they got out of the pen, Lucy just put them back in, I guess the goats were respecting her fine. When a friend was visiting with his two big dogs from the city, they took off after the goats and Lucy jumped in before any human realized what was going on. She pinned them down and growled as soon as they were moving until we humans got there. During the rest of their stay lucy wouldn't let them get within 50 yards of any animal. Our friend left early with his dogs and we sure don't want people bring dogs out anymore. You would think our Toggs would appreciate Lucy, though they really just look for an opportunity to nip her. I would love to have Lucy in the pen with them but it isn't possible right now. Our toggs really lost any respect for dogs though. When i took our yearling to be bred she went after a Great Pyrenees and butted him in the side. I guess you would think they don't need much protection from coyotes and wild dogs though they still get spooked.

Does anyone have experience to get your goats accustomed to a dog? I have started tieing up the goats and letting Lucy in but I'm not sure if that is a good approach.

I'm amazed that Lucy still protects them!
Kerstin

Here are a couple of current Lucy Pictures.
I hope you enjoy them and that they are useful to put on the web. We have had a pretty rough beginning of winter, that’s why I haven’t gotten around to doing much e-mail. I hope that ‘ll change since I am getting a lot of useful information out of the discussion group.

We had a pretty big snowstorm here about three weeks ago and let the dogs in the house that afternoon. I guess the chickens got disoriented and they didn’t return to the coop that evening. Lucy figured it out as soon as I let her out that evening and found them all!

I carried one at a time to the coop while she lay close to another one until I got that one too! Pretty amazing! She is also getting more assertive with the goats and puts them in their place when they get too wild. The day before yesterday we had the coyotes get pretty close but Lucy and our other dog had no problem chasong them off. She is a very assertive dog when it comes to it. We sure couldn’t spare her any more!

Thanks for all your help and efforts for these dogs!