I Feel GOOD!

Sheba, my Akbash, is getting up there in years (at least for an Akbash), she's 8 and not prone to outbursts of happiness anyway. She has always been mostly stoic and takes her guardian position seriously. Yesterday, however, she got a wild hair and I was able to catch it with my camera and thought I would share. :) Notice all the fluff from the latest "de-fluffed" bed which I am convinced they use them more as large toys, than something to sleep on. spread about the lawn.




Whew! That outburst should last for another year or two.......

I just wanted to thank everyone at this time for their thoughts and condolences on the loss of my Mom. I can't tell you enough how much I appreciated it. My blogging friends are the best!

Sheriff Sheba and her sidekick Deputy Harley

Sheba is my Akbash. She is a Turkish Guardian dog. I purchased her from Sheepfields, a well known breeder of working Akbash. I tried REALLY hard to make her strictly a guardian dog for my sheep and poultry.....but it was SO hard to not spoil her....so spoil her I did.

Now she would rather hang out up by the house with the other dogs and bark at anyone that goes by the house, whether on foot, horseback or in a car. She still likes to keep an eye on the pastures though, and I've seen her chase a coyote or two around.

She will drag herself under the gate to go check out and mark her perimeters. Harley, the rescued Australian Cattle Dog, believes it is his job to monitor what Sheba is doing. After all, she is JUST A GIRL! :)

I decided to follow her in her rounds the other day and take some pics of her and Harley.

They will seek out predators or vermin, and they will show no mercy.



No inch of pasture goes unchecked....








Hmmmm what has been over here......





After it all passes inspection she'll head up back to the house and where she would really rather be. The emus are not very happy that there are dogs going by their pen....

And Jasmine the donkey is REALLY not happy about the dogs in HER pasture. "Hey you two, I have it handled!"

I wanted to have Sheba model some Turkish Guardian Dog collars, which she was not very happy about...but at least she let me put them on her and snap a couple of pics. In Turkey they will also crop the dogs ears so that the predators will have less to latch on to.




Oh....and Linda? over at the 7MSN??? Sheba said these were for you.....:)

The landscape construction...er....destruction crew

Here they are, the finest landscape destruction crew around. Let me introduce you. There's Finn, a 11 year old Border Collie that you would think would be past his landscaping days.....


Sheba, the 6 year old Akbash, a Turkish guardian dog that thinks cars driving past the property are more of a threat than any 2 or 4 legged predator.


Harley, a rescued Australian Cattle Dog, that's other favorite pastime is shredding anything the UPS man drops off on "his" side of the gate.


And last, but definitely not least is Kylie, a 1 year old Belgian Tervuren who I had to fence my pond off to keep her from swimming in it 24/7.


I'm curious, can anyone out there tell the difference between the following trenches dug.....why one would be more comfortable than the other?


























Here is a work in progress, with two workers and a supervisor....






Sheba enjoyed the fruits of her labor....though it was only for a few minutes and then she wandered up by the house and thought this:
was more comfortable....why all the excavation work, if you're just going to lay on the asphalt anyway???


Kylie dedicated herself for a good 6 months into biting hard into the lawn and yanking, thus pulling out a lovely, round hunk of sod. What's this? dirt underneath? OH! that need some added dirt removal. Our lawn looked like a mine field....it's starting to recover. Hopefully she doesn't decide it needs some "touch up."





















Now if only I could teach them to pull weeds.......