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I seem to have ended up calling in sick this whole week due to my complete inability to be a human. I don't think I stayed on my feet for more than 2 hours consecutively without a nap, and really most of what I did was animal management.
Today for the first time in a couple weeks I've actually cooked a meal (roast duck and potatoes) and made myself tea (I'd just been taking oral electrolytes and water; it's been hot and without them I get dizzy-er). It's cooled down, that might be helping, or maybe taking the space has helped.
Either way I got my cedars (thuja plicata) and some Threshold-seed apples planted in the far field last night, along with weeping irrigation hoses to keep them watered. I also got cucumber seeds planted on another irrigation hose this morning, and snipped some of the aspen branches to clear my fava and garlic bed that the aspens were felled on -- the favas are flowering underneath there -- and to clear space for some potatoes.
What with spending a couple hours a couple times a week hand-watering the tomatoes and apples I'm not inclined to plant too much more without some form of irrigation.
The tomatoes are looking nice, though.
We had a stressful day, I don't remember if it was yesterday or the day before. It's been super windy here and the wind blew the door to the carport/basement open (it had shifted so the latch didn't catch right) while Solly was out. I was up gardening in the back field, planting those apple trees, and I heard dog-commotion and she came streaking into the back with Avallu in pursuit. When she was cornered she turned and barksnarled at Avallu.
In hindsight, processing what was happening, he was at that point not actively attacking her and hadn't (no blood and keeping his distance) but was instead just telling her to go away, and she was defending a little. I could potentially have ridden it out as part of an intro and agressively acted normal.
Instead, I grabbed his collar. This escalated it for him, and he was growling and pulling hard to try and get at her. He and I were equally matched, I could not pull him anywhere and he couldn't pull me anywhere, and neither of us were going along with the other. Solly didn't immediately run away but instead watched me from about ten feet away, which was not helpful since I couldn't get Avallu anywhere and he wasn't going anywhere on his own. Eventually she ran home, and once she was out of sight he settled and I was able to get him into the basement.
My big worry is this set introductions back. It was clearly a traumatic event for both of them, the opposite of getting them to associate each other with non-stressful moments. I've never had to hold Avallu back like that before, he kept cutting off his breathing lunging forward and I may have somewhat pulled my arms just holding him in place. And Solly has definitely become very wary of Avallu.
That evening they both accepted treats where they could see each other, though, with just a little barking and not really at each other. So, um, either Avallu is biding his time until he can really hurt her since he knows now I'll step in when he is warning her away, or else he's accepted that she has a place in the front there.
It's interesting to watch all the guarding behaviour going on. Solly is pooping along the fence, her shoulder to the fence, at regular intervals - excellent guardian instincts. She's also noticed the neighbour big white dogs and was barking at them last night. Thea has a lot more emotional intelligence than I do, and has been doing a ton of things to ease the tension: she is almost always between Solly and Avallu despite the fact that they have a door between them always, so she's either guarding the basement door and warning Solly away from it when Avallu is inside, or guarding the front deck and putting herself in front of Avallu to divert him away from the area when Solly is inside. She's also physically disciplined both of them for going too close to the other, she grabbed Avallu's tail and tried to hold him back when he was chasing Solly, and most amusingly when Avallu barks at Solly (and lately when Solly barks) she'll go to the fence and bark in a completely different direction, as if to distract either of them.
It's also super interesting to see the maremma behaviours. I'm not certain if Solly is done teething or not, but both she and Thea are/were very mouthy. Given how significant a bite from Solly can be, I'm redirecting her to a stick. She just likes putting her mouth around my arm, not chewing, but holding very gently, and so I'll give her a stick and she'll prance around with it or take it to chew up every time she does so. It seems to be working: she's picking up more sticks and putting my arm in her mouth less. It did backfire when I was gardening and holding my measuring stick for apple-tree-planting, since she wanted *my* stick and kept dropping the ones I gave her to try and grab it, but one can't forsee everything. I figure I accept responsibility for extra dog time and attention if I'm letting them in the garden.
Every guardian dog does the "pyr paw" which is sort of a single-foot paw when they want attention or are getting affection. I've minimized it a great deal with Thea and Avallu over the years. I probably need to teach Solly something like "shake a paw" to put it on a command. I *definitely* need to teach her not to jump up on me, which she does much less when she's just playing now but in the morning when she has a lot of energy, and especially before she's run some, it really comes out. She's still getting better at her sit-for-attention but as one might expect it'll take her ten-month-old brain a little bit to get it hardwired in there. More than a couple days, anyhow. She's moderately both food and attention-motivated, which is interesting. Thea is ultra attention motivated, and Avallu is ultra food-motivated and I guess significantly pleasing-motivated? I suspect Solly would be very play-motivated if I could figure out how to reward her with some moments of play. I don't want to teach her tug-of-war or keep-away with a stick, and I run so slowly compared to her that there's no way for that to be fun.
Hoping to do a little more planting today and take another nap. Best-case scenario I can eat the meal I cooked, since it smells wonderful and I did not enjoy the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I ate earlier.
Today for the first time in a couple weeks I've actually cooked a meal (roast duck and potatoes) and made myself tea (I'd just been taking oral electrolytes and water; it's been hot and without them I get dizzy-er). It's cooled down, that might be helping, or maybe taking the space has helped.
Either way I got my cedars (thuja plicata) and some Threshold-seed apples planted in the far field last night, along with weeping irrigation hoses to keep them watered. I also got cucumber seeds planted on another irrigation hose this morning, and snipped some of the aspen branches to clear my fava and garlic bed that the aspens were felled on -- the favas are flowering underneath there -- and to clear space for some potatoes.
What with spending a couple hours a couple times a week hand-watering the tomatoes and apples I'm not inclined to plant too much more without some form of irrigation.
The tomatoes are looking nice, though.
We had a stressful day, I don't remember if it was yesterday or the day before. It's been super windy here and the wind blew the door to the carport/basement open (it had shifted so the latch didn't catch right) while Solly was out. I was up gardening in the back field, planting those apple trees, and I heard dog-commotion and she came streaking into the back with Avallu in pursuit. When she was cornered she turned and barksnarled at Avallu.
In hindsight, processing what was happening, he was at that point not actively attacking her and hadn't (no blood and keeping his distance) but was instead just telling her to go away, and she was defending a little. I could potentially have ridden it out as part of an intro and agressively acted normal.
Instead, I grabbed his collar. This escalated it for him, and he was growling and pulling hard to try and get at her. He and I were equally matched, I could not pull him anywhere and he couldn't pull me anywhere, and neither of us were going along with the other. Solly didn't immediately run away but instead watched me from about ten feet away, which was not helpful since I couldn't get Avallu anywhere and he wasn't going anywhere on his own. Eventually she ran home, and once she was out of sight he settled and I was able to get him into the basement.
My big worry is this set introductions back. It was clearly a traumatic event for both of them, the opposite of getting them to associate each other with non-stressful moments. I've never had to hold Avallu back like that before, he kept cutting off his breathing lunging forward and I may have somewhat pulled my arms just holding him in place. And Solly has definitely become very wary of Avallu.
That evening they both accepted treats where they could see each other, though, with just a little barking and not really at each other. So, um, either Avallu is biding his time until he can really hurt her since he knows now I'll step in when he is warning her away, or else he's accepted that she has a place in the front there.
It's interesting to watch all the guarding behaviour going on. Solly is pooping along the fence, her shoulder to the fence, at regular intervals - excellent guardian instincts. She's also noticed the neighbour big white dogs and was barking at them last night. Thea has a lot more emotional intelligence than I do, and has been doing a ton of things to ease the tension: she is almost always between Solly and Avallu despite the fact that they have a door between them always, so she's either guarding the basement door and warning Solly away from it when Avallu is inside, or guarding the front deck and putting herself in front of Avallu to divert him away from the area when Solly is inside. She's also physically disciplined both of them for going too close to the other, she grabbed Avallu's tail and tried to hold him back when he was chasing Solly, and most amusingly when Avallu barks at Solly (and lately when Solly barks) she'll go to the fence and bark in a completely different direction, as if to distract either of them.
It's also super interesting to see the maremma behaviours. I'm not certain if Solly is done teething or not, but both she and Thea are/were very mouthy. Given how significant a bite from Solly can be, I'm redirecting her to a stick. She just likes putting her mouth around my arm, not chewing, but holding very gently, and so I'll give her a stick and she'll prance around with it or take it to chew up every time she does so. It seems to be working: she's picking up more sticks and putting my arm in her mouth less. It did backfire when I was gardening and holding my measuring stick for apple-tree-planting, since she wanted *my* stick and kept dropping the ones I gave her to try and grab it, but one can't forsee everything. I figure I accept responsibility for extra dog time and attention if I'm letting them in the garden.
Every guardian dog does the "pyr paw" which is sort of a single-foot paw when they want attention or are getting affection. I've minimized it a great deal with Thea and Avallu over the years. I probably need to teach Solly something like "shake a paw" to put it on a command. I *definitely* need to teach her not to jump up on me, which she does much less when she's just playing now but in the morning when she has a lot of energy, and especially before she's run some, it really comes out. She's still getting better at her sit-for-attention but as one might expect it'll take her ten-month-old brain a little bit to get it hardwired in there. More than a couple days, anyhow. She's moderately both food and attention-motivated, which is interesting. Thea is ultra attention motivated, and Avallu is ultra food-motivated and I guess significantly pleasing-motivated? I suspect Solly would be very play-motivated if I could figure out how to reward her with some moments of play. I don't want to teach her tug-of-war or keep-away with a stick, and I run so slowly compared to her that there's no way for that to be fun.
Hoping to do a little more planting today and take another nap. Best-case scenario I can eat the meal I cooked, since it smells wonderful and I did not enjoy the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I ate earlier.
