Hi there, our three farm bitches had their first litter of puppies recently. We moved to a new dairy farm job on June 1st and with it came the drystock managers' sneaky Male Huntaway dog.
Ruby our well-bred Huntaway had 13 pups, our heading dog Bowie had 9 Border Collie X Huntaway pups and our other heading dog Trixie had 8 pups. These pups are getting smarter by the day, always finding new ways to escape their wooden "fenced section" that we have to extend higher by the week. The smartest pups flip their water bucket to use as height to jump over the railing, all because they're so keen to go out and round up the cows with their mums.
If anyone is keen on a new farm dog let me know. I've already homed 10 pups, to lots of different families. A couple of lifestyle block owners, a young guy wanting a hunting dog. A family house trained their pup in within a week hamilton and now Roxy lives inside. Dairy farmers and drystock farmers too.
I need a medium "strenght" female. Strong enough to be able to handle cattle, soft enough to not kill the sheep and goats with over-exuberance.
How strong are the parents?
What price?
LR most of that comes from control you can send her in hard on ^&(**^%&^*() cattle :)that don't want to move and then tell her to be gentle on anything that moves easy
We have our good days and we had bad days too. The kids learnt fast to bring their shoes inside, and the dogs are smart enough to do their business outside our section in the paddock.
Both heading dog's the mum's Trixie and Bowie are great dogs, both prefer to give the cows the "eye" when rounding up and show a little teeth as if to tell the girl's they mean business. Dad's a good farm dog loud, deep bark. Pups make a good combination of parents. $75.00 in "other" section of livestock classified
Yep got our girl's spayed now. Vet reckoned it was better to let the girls have a litter first so they know all about it. Some people say thier bitches get lazy after being spayed,but I'm yet to see the difference.
sarileah We have two girls both done neather had pups, Megs a heading dog still slim and runs like the wind, Violets a rotty gone all fat but still likes to try to run so I think it maybe more the breed type
My dad was a vet for many years, and he too was told to let them have a litter first. But he found that it was hugely easier to do the operation before a litter had been conceived, and never had any complaints from clients who he had told to "Do it young, the younger the better".
For best health effects, young bitches should be allowed to have their first season, typically at around 6 months of age (between 4 - 8 months old is usual). Its a long 3 weeks for all concerned, keeping her under strict confinment and exercising only on lead but it lets all her hormones 'kick in'. She can then be speyed about 2 months later during anoestrus, the dormant phase between cycles.
Speying young reduces the chances of her getting breast cancer in later life. It also removes the chance of her getting pyometra, a life-threatening infection of the uterus which they are prone to after having a false pregnancy.
She doesn't need to actually have a litter at all, just the one season and she definately shouldn't be bred at such a young age on her first season.
Interesting. My research indicated that we should spay our pup before her first heat in order to maximise the reduction in risk of mammarial/breast cancer and other diseases. This is particularly recommended for bitches that will never have a litter.