THE HAPPY HEATHEN-The puppy days

 My last post was dark and depressing, and I ask your forgiveness for that.

I have finally sat down and pondered my life and realize I need to once again, live in an attitude of gratitude, in spite of my pain or circumstances.  God has been patient with me and for that I am grateful. His thoughts are higher than mine and His ways are higher than my ways. He keeps me on a need-to-know-basis as far as the "why" in my life, and apparently I don't need to know.

So the following posts will center around a critter God sent me, that has made life tolerable and kept me afloat through the dark times. 

To all of you who recommended an English Shepherd years ago, when I did the post about getting a new dog, I thank you. And to Jennifer Keuhn and Mary Peaslee, I owe you my deepest gratitude. 

When Heath (The Happy Heathen of Shepherd’s Way, named for his sunny disposition) first came home with us at 8 weeks, it was a 7 hour drive. He settled into my arms and never complained. He let us know he was very uncomfortable a few hours into the drive and we pulled over and took him out on his leash. He pee’d immediately. We were impressed. He never cried, not even that night. It was as if he instinctively knew, he was created, just for us.

I began his training right away, along with basic obedience. Using positive reinforcement and a clicker, after he learned to sit and lay down, I began teaching him to pick up his toys and give them to me. Then drop them. Then put them in his toy basket. Little did I know how helpful this would be to me in the future, as I was looking forward to having him help me with sheep and calves, not to be my service dog. He was and is, a very quick learner with a very biddable attitude. He loves to just be a good boy. At 12 weeks he was putting his toys away in the basket and learning to open and close the back door. 

Of course, during this time, he was also learning more obedience commands, and reinforcing what I had already taught him, never working more than two minutes at a time, but working several times a day. This suited him well, as herding dogs have a lot of drive and energy and need their minds kept busy. I never punished or spoke harshly to him, and he seemed to thrive on that. When he did something wrong, like biting or chewing on things, I would just tell him “you know you can’t do that” in a happy voice, hold him on my lap and let him teeth on the big knot to the shoestring I wore around my neck with the clicker on it.

The Maremmas would come in to visit and in terror of his little needle sharp teeth, would both hide on top of the ugly pink leather couch together, out of his reach. Once he was able to hop up there, they quit coming in for awhile.

 Once, Heath escaped my notice and made it to the back pasture where the sheep were. The Livestock Guardian Dogs, amazing creatures that they are, worked as a team to protect the flock and bring him back where he belonged. Mr Potamus got between Heath and the flock and Bruno sacrificed himself to deal with Heath. He engaged him and redirected him, bringing him back through the gate to me.

We had some meaty chickens that ran loose in the yard during the day. At night we had to round them all up out of the bushes, etc to put them in the shed. It wasn’t long until 3 mo old Heath was walking the chicks into the shed himself, one at a time. He enjoyed doing it and liked going out to check on them and watch them during the day.

There was one chick that had deformed legs, not unusual for the fast growing Cornish X, but not a big deal as we processed them at 8 weeks. I was surprised one day when Heath opened the back door, walked in and handed the chick to me, unharmed. Then he just sat and looked at me as if to say “fix it”. He brought the chick to me daily until we finally decided to dispatch it.

He was our chief rabbit herder as well, as many of them escaped the shelter we raised them in. He would either hold one down with his front feet, or if it was small enough, gently pick it up and bring it to me. We had a lamb born with a crooked neck that was unable to nurse. I have a disability that was beginning to manifest itself at that time so we kept the lamb diapered in the house so I didn’t have to go outside and find her, so I could bottle feed her. Heath nurtured her and slept with her.

One day when cleaning house, I heard a strange noise. I looked at Heath who was just laying in his crate. I heard it again. It was definitely not a noise a dog would make. I called him to me and the mystery was solved when he reached back, picked up a young bird he had found and brought it to me. He had carried it in himself and chose take a nap with it. For a herding breed, he is amazingly gentle.

He enjoys other animals, calves, ducks, rabbits, sheep, goats, chickens...

He has, from the very beginning, lived up to his name as a very happy, Happy Heathen!

Til next time, God bless you!

Petey & Heath