The Intern
Things are always changing at Pemberley Farm.
Sheep rotate paddocks.
Chickens establish new laying locations.
Infirmary residents are discharged.
New (to us) structures appear.
This week Human Resources created a new position: Security Intern.
This handsome gentleman is Samson.
He’s a nine-year-old Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd mix. I know current regulations frown upon asking and disclosing these sorts of information about employees, but we make some exceptions here. And for us, these exceptions were important!
As long-term readers may remember, we have been dealing with pasture pests over the past few months. We started with skunks, raccoons, and opossums, who filled the live traps with startling regularity.
But when the Regiment started taking casualties from regular coyote patrols and the industrial-sized live trap wasn’t doing the job, we wondered if another solution might be available.
Some of you might say, “close up the chickens!” and in theory, that’s a good idea. In fact, we did for the group that overnights in Barracks 1. Their run has a solid perimeter, and they’ve never decided to take the flying part of bird existence very seriously.
The other chickens are less disciplined. The Barracks 2 chicken run is more of a suggestion. You have a better chance of finding those girls anywhere else on the property rather than in their run or house during daylight hours.
And as for Seal Team Six? No run even exists. Their entire mission is to roam the property, like the little unit they are, seeking out and destroying bugs, feed, and any sense of order in the main sheep stall. They are very, very good at their job.
Chicken containment was not a workable solution. And so, when an ad was placed in a local paper asking if there might be a position for an older gentleman who was used to open spaces and had livestock guardian in his DNA, the stakeholders had a meeting.
Samson’s family recently moved from the country to the city but realized their beloved boy might be missing the open spaces he was used to having in his former home. After lots of texts, questions, and photo exchanges, we all thought we should see if Pemberley Farm might be a good fit for him.
Here are the things we know so far about Samson:
He is one of the calmest canines I have ever met in my life.
Chickens fly over his head, invade his space, commit larceny of his kibble, and the gentleman is utterly unmoved. Strangers walk up and he is alert, but his tail is slowly wagging, and he would very much appreciate some scritches, please. Lambs in a stall are worth a sniff, but not much more, even when they tear about like we just caught them in the middle of reading the Hound of the Baskervilles.
He is a quick learner.
We’ve been taking him on walks around the property to teach him what’s “ours.” We go along the interior of the fences, and we use a long lead so he can explore to his heart and nose’s content.
To me, this has to be confusing. There are a million fences. There’s the perimeter fence, of course, but there’s the inner barnyard fence, the ram pens have fences, there are portable electric fences, and several other fences that separate out different paddocks and areas. How’s a dog supposed to map all that out and know what fences he can get to the other side of and which fences are hard stops?
Well, it’s a good thing I’m not a dog, and I have minimized the Power of The Gate. There must be something about the scents and traffic patterns and what all that’s helping Samson get this sorted, because he has quickly learned to wait patiently at the correct gates when he’d like access to another area on his patrols.
He’s also figured out, in about 3 days, what “go home” means. He turns his nose back to his home base at the barn and heads toward it, waiting patiently at any closed gates as necessary.
He has also learned exactly where his favorite snack is on the property, and makes it an early stop on each patrol.
He has an interesting relationship with the sheep.
This is going to be a story worth watching.
We’d already seen that Samson wasn’t chasing when sheep (or anything else) ran, and that he wasn’t showing any signs of stalking or being concerningly obsessed with prey animals, so I took him (on a lead) in with the main flock the other day.
As I got closer, the sheep gathered tightly in another odd class portrait formation. All eyes were on Samson as we approached. My eyes were on Georgiana. She honestly looked like she had something to say.
And then, to my surprise, Fitz the Brave came out to investigate.
There was a tentative mutual nose boop, a startled WOAH jump back, and then…nothing.
I was expecting a sheep explosion. Wool to the four winds, hooves flying in every direction, WE MUST FLEE baas bouncing off the barn wall.
Instead, when I called Samson to continue his Official Inspection of the area, the whole flock started following him. In formation. I don’t know what was going through their sheepy brains, but at least they weren’t terrified of him.
His interactions with the rams are also interesting. There’ve been two mutual nose boops and WOAH jumps with Mr. Darcy, followed by some restrained dog sniffing and ovine indifference. There have been barky invitations issued to play with Mr. Knightly that we’ve discouraged (and Samson has easily abandoned), and one calm mutual sniff.
Mr. Bingley is excused his reaction of panic due to The Previous Dog Incident. We hope he’ll realize his enclosure is the equivalent of Fort Knox and Samson has no intention of adding to his scar count.
He is a very sweet boy.
Samson is very people-oriented and seems to be motivated by pats and praise more than anything else. He’s not at all picky about who gives them to him.
We know these are early days, but we’re very hopeful that Samson will continue to be safe and happy at Pemberley Farm. We’re not exactly sure what he’d do if a coyote walked up to him, but we’re hoping he’s making the place look and smell a little more like “no, thank you” to anything looking for a snack.
Greg’s Got Questions
Thank you to those of you who participated in the poll last week.
The winning question: You mentioned the necessity of rotating pastures and I know we’re doing that. But are we concerned only about barber-pole worms or are we fighting other foes who seek to destroy the citizens of Pemberley? Shall we deploy The Regiment as our protection against these adversaries?
Barber pole worms are the Big Baddie for us right now, as Fitz and Eliza can attest. And from what I read from other shepherds and ranchers in the U.S., it’s been a rough summer for barber pole all around. But there are other parasites and buggies that can affect sheep, and rotating pastures is one way to reduce exposure to all pasture-based parasites.
Depending on the size and purpose of individual operations, some shepherds make choices about keeping only those sheep who prove to be more resistant to parasites to reduce the amount of vigilance needed to be sure sheep are staying healthy.
I’ve got two really good links for more information about sheep parasites. This first one is mostly words, and it’s very thorough.
This second one is also very good, but be forewarned, there are pictures of things that might turn your stomach. Especially if the interior of stomachs isn’t something you’d like to see.
As for The Regiment, while they’re good about being disruptive to the general order of things, I don’t believe we can count on them to make a meaningful contribution to the War on Ovine Gastrointestinal Parasites. However, our retired vet friend told me that one reason she has her goats and cattle grazing together was because the sheep/goat-affecting parasites they swallowed couldn’t survive in the cows, helping break the parasite life cycle.
What do you think about getting a Pemberley cow?
This Week’s Questions
(As a matter of procedure, the poll function takes you to another page to submit your vote, so if that happens to you, you’re on the right track!)
Question 1: Of Samson’s two breeds, which do you think he has more of and why?
Question 2: Since you’ve identified Samson as one of our Pemberley Woolworks team members and we use the Six Types of Working Genius model in our business, what are Samson’s two Working Geniuses based on what you know of him so far? You know I caution my coaching clients not to guess without doing the assessment, but I think we need to make an exception for Samson since he doesn’t have a PWW company phone or laptop yet.
Question 3: What’s the process we’ll use to develop Samson from a Security Intern to a permanent employee and how will we know he’s a good fit long term? And, you mentioned HR, did they confirm his employee eligibility using the standard I-9 form or since he’s a dog, did they choose to use the… (You can see where I’m going there.)
Happy knitting,
Kiersten J
