All Activity

Sorry for your loss Rebanne. He looks such a lovely boy. Take care R.I.P Warrior

I’d make a visit to the vet. We let one of my girls go a few days past 63 and it resulted in a caesarean. My vet had checked her and said she seemed fine etc but my gut was telling me different but I decided to go along with what he thought best and as it turned out we lost 2 pups and almost lost mum dog as well.

Warrior 24/06/2011 - 24/04/2024 Ch/NeuterCh Brantarby Winter Warrior ET My bestest boy, keeper of my heart I've had some really, really good dogs but you were just about the goodest.

Did you progesterone test your girl? That will give you the best idea. Wouldn't hurt to have a vet check now.

We have a German Shepherd bitch, 62 days pregnant, first litter. One tie on the 23rd of February. Pregnant with 6, possibly 7 pure bred pups. She is currently day 62, with limited signs of labor anytime soon. She is accustomed to her whelping box and sleeps in it for most of the day. Her puppies are very active and they seem they are keen to get out as soon as possible but mum has not yet started nesting. Temp checked her this morning and temp was at 37.4 and then again at 4pm it was 37.5. It’s been fluctuating for a couple days but today being the lowest so far. She is still eating small amounts but has had a bit of diarrhoea today, she is also doing a lot of wees. She has clear stringy discharge which she cleans up herself and occasionally is grooming her teats and vulva. She seems to have been in a bit of discomfort for the last couple days and will not lay still for very on and will always sleep on her side. How long after 63 days should we wait until we contact her vet? Or does it sound like she will be whelping soon?

Maybe their fencing practices are as out dated as their webpage ;) It is showing 2017 highlights, and 2018 annual report ! Guardian dogs are powerful and territorial .It's fortunate there was only one dog killed , IMO.

Thanks @sandgrubber Quite frankly, true working livestock guarding dogs are scary as heck if they don't know you, or think you are some sort of threat to their herd... and if there is a history of them not necessarily staying close to their herd and roaming loose where they may encounter the public, then I think the decision to euthanaise the repeat offenders now they have actually caused harm to someone (and killed their dog) is a sound one. The fact that the farm in question is some sort of venture to show how sustainable farming can be achieved seems to make this incident - and the other livestock escape issues over the years - even more neglectful. Sticking to your guns about using a fencing system that clearly isn't working can't be explained away or excused by saying they are "green" or "sustainable". Fix your containment issues, or loose your license to operate methinks. As for charging $400 for a meal produced by this farming method... if that's what it costs this operation to provide a meal, then it's way too expensive to be touted as the "way of future farming", don't you think? T.

A Vicious Dog Attack Upends an Elite Westchester Farm At a farm tied to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, where a meal costs around $400, two dogs killed a poodle and seriously injured its owner. Now the dogs face a possible death sentence. Two large white dogs lay among bushes in a lush green forest behind a small wire fence with a sign that reads: “Guardian dogs on duty please stay back.” Luna and Owyn, the guardian dogs for Stone Barns Center, in a photograph from 2021.Credit...Charlotte Steiner Christopher MaagDaniel E. Slotnik By Christopher Maag and Daniel E. Slotnik April 19, 2024 On a cool, windy day in February, two big white dogs escaped from a well-known nonprofit farm in Westchester County and ended up on a public footpath deep in a New York State park. They encountered a 10-pound miniature poodle on a leash. The larger dogs attacked, killing the poodle and then severely injuring its owner. Acting on the recommendations of state law, a local judge ordered the dogs to be euthanized. The disturbing encounter’s aftermath has been considerable. The farm, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, which is connected to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Pocantico Hills, filed an appeal on Thursday to stay the dogs’ euthanization. A lawyer for the miniature poodle’s owner, Yong Ging Qian, said she was considering a lawsuit against the farm connected to what she said in a hearing in Mount Pleasant Justice Court were her substantial injuries: a mangled hand, several broken ribs, brain hemorrhaging and a mild heart attack. The dogs — Luna, a Great Pyrenees, and Owyn, an Akbash — were guardian dogs, bred and trained to protect livestock. They had escaped on Feb. 6 from the farm in Westchester County, 15 miles north of New York City. The restaurant, where a meal costs in the range of $400 per person, has earned two Michelin stars for its innovations in farm-to-table cuisine as well as a Michelin green star, awarded to restaurants “at the forefront” of sustainable practices. The attack has focused attention on Stone Barns and Blue Hill, as former farm employees, breeders and nearby farmers questioned whether it engaged in practices that created a dangerous situation, an accusation that the farm denies. “That two of our dogs had a first-of-its-kind incident after 20 years does not reflect on the broader safety of our guardian dog and livestock program,” a spokesman for Stone Barns said in an email. “To the contrary, it shows how safe the dogs we put into service are.” How the guardian dogs were able to encounter BaoBao, the poodle, remains in dispute. It seems likely, experts said, that their escape stems from inadequate fencing and the farm’s failure to maintain control of its dogs. According to Bill Costanzo, who leads the livestock guardian dog program at Texas A&M University’s Agrilife Research and Extension Center, livestock guardian dogs naturally roam vast territories. The low fences at Stone Barns aren’t much of a deterrent against that instinct. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen,” Mr. Costanzo said. The Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, a massive and elegant structure behind an open gate, where a dozen or so students stand before a tour begins. The Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture was established by David Rockefeller to pioneer new methods in sustainable agriculture.Credit...Calla Kessler/The New York Times Stone Barns Center is a unique farm. It is bounded by the Rockefeller State Park Preserve, more than 1,700 acres of forest and pastures crossed by carriage trails that attract more than 350,000 runners, hikers and dog walkers a year. The center was created in the early 2000s by David Rockefeller to pioneer new methods in sustainable agriculture. It opened in 2004 in partnership with Blue Hill at Stone Barns, where the chef, Dan Barber, hoped to model a sustainable food network that is healthy for farmers, animals, restaurants and diners. “It’s about seasonality, locality and direct relationships with your farmer,” Mr. Barber wrote in his book “The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food.” The farm keeps herds of cattle, sheep and goats. Using mobile electrified fencing, it often rotates livestock among temporary paddocks set up on different pastures to improve the health of the animals and the grasslands, a spokesman for the center said. Just beyond the fencing, the state park is a habitat for coyotes and foxes. Rather than use lethal methods including traps and hunting to protect its livestock, Stone Barns Center uses livestock guard dogs — which can grow to 150 pounds — to scare predators away. But the farm’s fencing was often ineffective at containing the livestock, according to three former employees. Goats and pigs have escaped, they said, and in 2018, a herd of cattle stampeded away from the farm, according to reporting by Eater; one steer was recovered six weeks later, following a search that involved a New York State Police helicopter. The cows, the farm’s spokesman said, were sent to the farm by mistake and were too large for the farm’s fencing to hold. “Any suggestion by The Times that this incident had anything to do with our program or practices would be false,” he wrote in an email. Former employees say livestock escapes were a regular occurrence at the farm. “I used to get calls from the park staff once a week” about farm animals found in the preserve, said Mike Peterson, who worked as Stone Barns’ livestock director from 2018 until 2021. “These assertions are false — it has never been common for our livestock to leave their enclosures, and it is not common now,” a spokesman for the farm said. But according to workers and the farm’s spokesman, the farm’s livestock dogs have been known to slip past the fences. That’s a problem, Mr. Costanzo said. If they escape even once, he and other experts agreed, the dogs will consider the state park part of their territory. “You can’t just have guardian dogs roaming the countryside,” he said. Opinions from outside experts are irrelevant in this situation, the farm’s management said. “An expert could not credibly opine on what led to this incident without having met our dogs, learned their history, walked our pastures and learned the details about how we operate,” the spokesman said in an email. Employees and guardian dog experts described the center’s movable fencing as a primary means of escape. The netting is no taller than three and a half feet. “That is not high enough to keep a livestock guardian dog from just jumping over it,” Mr. Costanzo said. Like many current and former workers at the Stone Barns Center, Mr. Peterson, the former livestock director, grew close to the dogs, calling them “very sweet.” He said his son had played with them when he was a toddler. Late on Thursday afternoon, Stone Barns Center filed an appeal to the judge’s order, which will stay the order to have the dogs put down pending a decision by an appeals court. If a reprieve is granted, several local breeders and farmers offered to take the dogs in. “These are beautiful dogs,” said Georgia Ranney, a farmer near Stone Barns Center who has offered to rehouse the dogs. Euthanizing them would only add to everyone’s grief she said, adding, “They shouldn’t have been running around loose.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-21/petflation-forces-australians-to-surrender-pets/103739960

. He looks so at home there.

It was chilly here last night so we stuck one of Jonah's old coats on Albert. Not sure he's ever worn a coat before because he was initially trying to get it off. Didn't take long though! He slept like a log (with a blankie on top of course).

You're Right I think - once I thought he was considering jumping, but thought a bit about it and went the safer way

Smart Don has the age and experience in life to know that making his way back down the way he went up was the safest way... a younger dog might well have jumped down and hurt themselves... Is Don... is good boy! T.

Behind a paywall... can't read the article. T.

A Vicious Dog Attack Upends an Elite Westchester Farm https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/19/nyregion/dog-attack-blue-hill-stone-barns.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

Some dogs are crazy agile! But I would have a heart attack if I saw that!

had my phone- but truth be told, I was so worried, it didn't happen

Is Don, is still good

Well done to 2 puppies although where is a camera when you need one Persephone

Well Done, Rose

My little heart attack this morning was walking into the back yard and seeing Rose in a perfect sit! 10 out of 10. Had her 5 months now and never seen her sit. But she was soaking up the rays. Rose is nearly 7 and sitting isn't the easiest thing for a Greyhound but she had nailed it. But for one second I thought OMG what has she done to herself We can take the competition world by storm Perse

They are so clever aren't they.

Don is 10 - and pretty sensible . he does LOVE trying to dig rabbits out of burrows - but is basically settled. yesterday morning he treed a feral cat , and then proceeded to climb the tree! Don is not little, and not athletic like most of our Koolies . One of his grandfathers was a lab, so he is solid. The tree concerned is a very old, large and gnarled peppertree - with big thick branches of all shapes under a canopy of foliage . It is a bit like a spiral staircase ....and after Don clambered up the trunk to where branches started he then climbed 10-12 feet up ! I didn't call him as he was climbing for fear of him losing concentration - instead I marvelled at just how well he was doing! When he couldn't go any further I suggested he come back down - all the time worried that he might just jump and break something , but he wound his way around the trunk again and landed safely. Mild heart attack time ! LOL

He certainly looked as though he was very well cared for! Sleeping outside can mean many things - including sleeping in a very cosy dog bed on the verandah - merely a wall away from the family .... or it can mean a hole dug in the dirt of a bare backyard .I am sure oakley had an appropriate comfy bed and good shelter . there was nothing specific on that contract ...what a sad story .

So, it's ok for the shelter to keep the dog in a kennel/enclosure 24/7, but adopters can't have it sleep outside ever, even if it's inside at all other times? Double standards much? I'll bet that the dog wasn't sleeping rough at it's new home, but would have had decent bedding, etc... It's stories like this that give rescues a bad name. T.