Tears & Frustrations

As many of you already know, we have been having a hard time keeping Gracie & Hooch, our two Great Pyrenese livestock guardian dogs, in their fenced in areas this summer for some reason. I'm not sure what the deal is. They were a challenge when we first got them (see one of my first blog entries) but have settled in nicely over the past couple of years. When we first got them, we kept them in a run that pretty much surrounded the alpacas pastures. We didn't give them access to the pastures themselves because Gracie was still young enough that she would try to "play" with the alpacas and I didn't want that happening. After nearly a year of this, they were no longer content to guard the perimeters but wanted inside the pastures so they dug their way in under the gates. They seemed to do just fine and I was confident that Gracie was going to settle in well with her charges, which she did. Fast forward now to this summer...

This summer has been a never-ending fix it, fill it, spend it, repair it, and struggle to keep Gracie & Hooch from leaving their runs & pastures and finding their way into other areas on the farm. Not only our farm but the farm next door as well! Next door, there are more horses and cattle too! Something new. I guess our three horses and 20+ head of alpacas are not enough to keep them busy or they didn't understand that a fence is a boundary line...not to be crossed. Gracie & Hooch quickly learned that fences are just a slightly minor inconvenience that, with a little bit of effort, could be easily navigated. Over, under, or through. As far as they were concerned, the entire county was their responsibility and why did Jon & Phyllis keep trying so diligently to keep them locked up in this little 20 acre yard?!

When they did get out, they didn't go very far. Just to the next farm and once to the farm past that one. Then we would round them up or they would come back home and we'd start the process all over again for another day. This is not OK though. It's not OK for two 150-190 lb. dogs to be roaming the neighborhood. It's not safe for anyone involved. I was at a loss though as far as what we were going to do next to contain them, for a while. Short of building 8' cinder block walls around the property I didn't know what to do next. Even a block wall, they would eventually dig under. Hot wire worked for a while when they were digging under the fence but then they decided to go over the fence. Barbed wire does not stop them, their coats are so thick it never reaches their skin. Shock collars don't work for the same reason, PLUS you have to catch them in the act in order to get the zap when they need it. Taller, sturdier fence everywhere (except for two, small 3' sections,) worked for a while then they went under that. A layer of fence along the ground at the base of the those 3' spots of older fence kept them from digging out, so then, they went through the fence. How a 150 lb. dog thinks he can fit himself through a 4x4" metal square is beyond me but when he actually accomplished this feat, I realized we were defeated. Jon was out of town and they were out and there was nothing I could do until Jon returned and we would have to finish putting up the new, taller, sturdier, fence on those two short 3' areas without delay.

With Jon out of town I kept the dogs in one of the horse stalls in the barn for the night, hoping for the best. These stalls are 12'x12' square...a HUGE doghouse. Totally surrounded on all four sides with wood 5' up and that topped with wire mesh fencing, they were not going anywhere. In the morning, I let them outside to potty and fed them their breakfast in our "nursery" pasture which they have never had access to before. This pasture is completely enclosed in the new, taller, sturdier fence! Ah ha! Maybe this will hold them until Jon got home the next day and they won't have to stay in the horse stall. For nearly an entire week, this pasture became a peaceful haven for my Pyrs. Everyone seemed very happy with the new arrangement! My theory was this...The dogs were with a group of alpacas, had a good vantage point where they could see all of our horses, all of our alpacas, the neighbors horses, and the neighbors cattle! Maybe they felt like there were some of their "charges" that they couldn't see well enough to properly protect them! These dogs are pure genius. Fast forward to the following weeek. Also note that Jon is out of town again.

It was early afternoon. I drove up the driveway after work to find Hooch curled up asleep in the front lawn. Gracie is off wandering around the house.

I give up. I admit defeat. Where do I find enough cinder block to build a fortress around our 20 acre paradise?

For the rest of the evening, Gracie & Hooch hung out in the yard and wandered around and seemed content. Jon would return home the next afternoon. Maybe we can hold on until then.

The next morning I woke up early & it was still dark. My first thought was wondering if the dogs would still be in the yard. Looking out the kitchen window, I could barely see a big white ball of fur laying outside in the dark beside the lawn mower. "Good," I thought to myself with a sigh of relief. When I went outside a little while later to feed them, Gracie was the big ball of fur that I saw in the dark but Hooch was nowhere to be found. This sent a wave of panic through me and I immediately knew something bad had happened to Hooch. #1. For Gracie to be there by herself without Hooch, something had to be wrong. Gracie would have never left him and come home by herself. #2, when I went outside & took food to her and she got up real slow and was trembling/shivering. She wouldn’t eat and smelled like she'd been sprayed by a skunk. I squatted down and was talking to her and she just kept pawing at me. What was odd besides that was while I was petting her and talking to her and she was pawing at me she was staring me straight in the eyes which she has never done before. This was a stark contrast between she and Hooch. Hooch would stare so deep and lovingly into your eyes it made you think he could actually see into a totally different world...he would seem to get lost in the stare. She, on the other hand, was always a bit skittish and would avoid looking you in the eye. After a while, I went back to the barn to put their food away and she followed right beside me, limping. Looking her over closely, there were no visible signs of injury. She wandered around the yard a little bit, sniffing all of the spots where I know Hooch has marked. She's looking for him. She started down the driveway & I called her back several times. She headed back down the driveway and again, I called to her. She would stop and consider coming back to me, then turn and keep going down the driveway. Our driveway is nearly 800' from the gravel road. This went on for a while and I finally decided to let her go to see what she would do. She walked slowly to the end of the driveway turning to look back at me every 10 feet or so. Before she got to the end of the driveway she stopped and stood there...then turned around and slowly walked back to the barn where I stood watching her. We spent quite some time together in the barn...me, trying to figure out where she might be hurting and assuring her that she was home and safe now and her, I'm certain she was trying to tell me what had happened to them and where I might find her buddy, Hooch.

I left her with our other dogs in the barn and drove all over the place to see if I could find Hooch or see anything that might give me a clue and there was no sign of him anywhere. My heart broken, I returned home to check on Gracie.

I can only speculate but I figure Hooch has either been hit by a car (even though we're 4 miles from any paved roads) or worse. Gracie would have never left him.

Our son, Justin told me when I got home that when he returned home at 11pm, Gracie was laying there where I found her this morning, she got up when he pulled up but didn't bark or approach him…when he got out of the car, she moved away cowering like she was afraid of him and wouldn’t come to him. This confirms my fear that someone has done something to them and Hooch will not be coming home.

Someone remind me again why some of us fall so hard for the gentle, furry creatures of the earth and then there are others who wouldn't think twice before causing them harm or even worse.

We love you Hooch. You will forever be in our hearts.

(UPDATE): Hooch was found 2 days later.  He had wandered to the paved road & hit by a car.  Thankfully, he wasn't hurt other than a nice scrape on his head.  My neighbor called me and asked if we were missing one of our big white dogs, that her boss from work that lives not far from us had found him on his back porch.  Obviously hit by a car but virtually unhurt.  I went & got him and brought him home & he was genuinely happy to have made his way back where he belonged and reunited with his girl Gracie.