EEC Forest Stewardship has gone to the dogs this month. With winter fully set in her darkest days, the night predators are more active in seeking out a meal in the lean times. With the advent of a full moon, the nights become as active as daytime for many species, and the Livestock Guardian Dogs are on patrol day and night to deter incidents between wildlife and domestic stock. Our newest LGD on the farm is Koban, now in his fifth month on the job, he’s learning his big dog bark now, and running night rounds on his own. In the last hours of December, there was a particularly active evening and the onset of a wolf moon. I was awakened at 2am by my herding dog Val, who sleeps on the covered porch, barking at something on the move through the property. When I hear certain barks from my dogs, I know the situation is serious. Quickly rising from my bed, I put on my robe and grabbed the flood light for good vision outside. First I let Val loose to show me where the threat was. She tore off into the west orchard and at first, I thought I heard a deer pronking away. Then I heard the fleeing animal stop, and Val holding her ground with more intense barking. A deer would not stop and turn like that while being chased. I was going to head down the hill to join Val with the light, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was happening, but suddenly, both Kangal LGDs caught wind of the situation and all hell broke loose. Kangals bay when they see danger, and though I was still in the dark, the dogs knew there was an immediate threat on the landscape, and they were raising cane about it.
I called Val back to me and listened till the baying died down. The Kangals had run off the threat and Val calmly went back to her kennel. I returned to the house and crawled back into bed, knowing it would take a while to get back to sleep after all the excitement, but the peace would not last long. As I was just drifting off, I heard another barking in the yard, this time, it was not Val, but Koban. He was barking from just below the house, meaning he was out of the upper pasture enclosure for the first time. I jumped out of bed. Went out to find my Kangal puppy confused and upset in the driveway. How had he gotten out? It was now 3:30am, and I calmly put the agitated puppy back in his pen, and let Gill loose to run him on patrol along the fence, while I searched for a way out. There was one looser part of the fence I tied down, but I think Koban night have been motivated to jump the gate, if he saw the predator approaching. Still, he had remained on the property, and not run off chasing something, a real miracle for the night that I stopped to give thanks for.
Kangals like territory, and will expand their boundaries as far as they are allowed, so high fencing and good recall training are priceless. With the Kangals back on track in their enclosure, I returned to the house in hopes of getting some sleep, but the disturbances continued, so I used my final defense tactic, I loaded the 20ga and set off two compelling rounds from my boom stick, which silenced the night and let me get some sleep. This is a great way to deter predators, make loud noise, especially gunfire. Now, I’m not aiming at living things, I shoot into a safe berm in a ditch next to the house. The noise is enough to drive off threats, wildlife tends to avoid gunfire, and healthy predators flee. There were no more disturbances that night, but when I walked around the next morning to check for evidence, a deer jaw had been dug up from the compost and drug to the fence. I covered the compost with a fresh layer of ash, and made sure it was well covered with additional leaf litter and manure.
Scent will bring in a predator, so keep pens clean and kitchen scraps well buried. The ash is an additional deterrent that keeps wildlife and my herding dog out of the compost. I had just recently slaughtered a ewe, so the smell of blood was in the air, even with good cleaning and rinsing of my tools. I had put the guts far down by the creek, but a clever coyote might have come up to check for additional opportunity after a fresh kill. The old deer jaw had come up, and that was more than enough reward to risk slipping in. I’ve got a new gap under the fence to fill. It’s always important to check your fence lines, especially if an animal gets out. I’ll be spending a bit more time checking mine now that I have an excited pup who does not need to become an escape artist. I’ve learned that if animals learn to escape, that’s what they will do. Keeping boundaries well fences, and animals well fed are two of the best remedies to escaping.
I’m not mad at Koban for getting out, he was doing his job, but I am now more aware of his enclosure, and keeping him engaged in more sportive ways of protection. Let’s hope his adventures remain contained to his pasture duties. There has not been another escape since the last day of December, and I am thankful for all the support the dogs bring to the farm, and their loving companionship. LGDs prevent livestock losses, and most importantly, prevent fatal encounters with me. I’ve never shot a predator on this land, and would only do so if I found it actively attacking my animals. I hope to keep wildlife safe through deterrence strategies, and dogs are one of the best. Gratitude to my Kangals, Valentine the Aussie cross, and the energy to preform my own responsibilities to the farm, even in the middle of the night.
EEC Forest Stewardship 