We went up to Tractor Supply on Monday night, planning to restock on pine shaving bedding for the coops and some chick starter feed, and to see if they had any chicks yet. Pretty much most of the staff up there knows us, so we always have a nice visit with them all when we stop in. We picked up the last six of some Light Brahma chicks from their first week of Chick Days, yay for more feather-footed chickens! But the real news to report is what we truly did not expect to bring home from TSC that night.
Another customer and his son came in to buy puppy food, and coincidentally, had one of the puppies in question in the child seat of the cart. I was immediately drawn to that baby, because of his piercing blue eyes. A conversation between the gentleman (Tim), his son, the store manager, and myself ensued. Some other employees stopped to see the little guy, too. Tim encouraged me to hold the pup, who immediately snuggled his head into my neck, sighed, and just relaxed in my arms. I was enchanted. 
Further conversation revealed that they had two female dogs who were knocked up accidentally by the neighbor’s dog, and so they are swimming in puppies, with some a few weeks older than the litter this little guy came out of, and they have been giving the pups away. They figured they would find dog people at TSC and so they bring the pups up when they come to buy more puppy food in an effort to find homes for them. After putting the pup back into the cart and walking to the back of the store to get our supplies, George and I discussed it. The price was certainly right (free!), and within our budget! And he is a little charmer. Also, he will be a big boy, because his mom is a Shepherd/Husky mix and his daddy is a Pit Bull mix – with all of the coyotes and other predators around here, we’ve realized we need some kind of deterrent to keep them away from our livestock. We would like to eventually get an alpaca or llama as a guardian for the goats, but we really don’t have the space for one yet, and they require significantly more food than a dog will. Also, did you know that camelids choose one place to poop, and that’s the only place they will poop? Awesome Vet’s llamas chose the middle of the floor in her barn for their poopin’ place. We really don’t want to bring one in until we can provide it more space. We don’t want Mount Turd in the middle of the goat pen. The goats agree.
So, we decided to bring the little fellow home, after exchanging phone numbers and getting assurances from Tim and his son that if things didn’t work out, we could bring the pup back to them. So far, though, we don’t see that happening! He’s been a good little dog, sleeping quite a bit, as puppies do. He 
loves, no, adores, Loki – who is pretty happy for the company, but admittedly is a little annoyed with all of the whining that occurs at night when not-yet-potty-trained puppies must be locked away in a crate. Of course, we are also less than amused with that, so his annoyance is understandable! But potty training is going pretty well, particularly for a five-week old pup. Yes, that’s a little young for him to be away from mom, but he was already on solid food (puppy food with warm water to make it mushy, really) and they were going to find a home with someone for him. I’ve raised a puppy that was only about 3 weeks old many years ago – our family’s dog Taffy, who lived to be 17 years old, if memory serves correctly, so I’ve got some experience in that arena. 😉
He’s a funny little dog, and we are introducing him to the other animals early to get him used to the idea that these are part of the family, and we hope that it will encourage him to consider them his protectees. Just having his scent on the property should help deter the presence of some predators, anyway.
We’ve decided to name him Frank. This picture should be all of the explanation required. As his namesake once said, “I am a thing of beauty.” Yes, yes he is.
Except for when he falls asleep and ends up on his back, and has trouble rolling back over. Then he’s just darn cute.
We have high hopes for Frank to become a good guardian for the farm, and have already started working to train him as such. Have you trained a guardian dog on your farm? What methods do you use?
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