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Swan Ridge
Farm
Female Armenian Gampr - Kohar
Introducing Kohar!
Update Feb 20, 2020.
Since arriving home, Kohar has done nothing but delight. She is a serious, yet affectionate, loyal gal. She has been very interested in learning the ropes, and attuned to what pleases me.
Absolutely thrilled with this gorgeous girl.
Backstory:
We imported a lovely Gampr gal from Armenia this fall via the Armenian Gampr Club of America with significant assistance from the President of the Armenian Gampr Club of Canada.
The following is what I wrote upon her arrival at our nearest airport...
Oh man, I'm in love already! 😍 Kohar has traveled 11,460 miles to get here. She arrived calm, sweet, friendly, confident, well mannered. 🥰The attendant's first words were, "She may be a puppy, but she's HUGE!",and then, "She's in love with you already!" upon seeing how friendly she was to me, followed by, "She's amazingly well mannered! What type of dog is she?" Whereupon we discussed Gamprs :)
She hopped in the car on command, and promptly fell asleep with her head resting on me. Stayed that way for the entire (hour) trip home...
A couple of minutes after being released from crate - not phased by any of the changes.
Just leaving the airport
By the time we turned onto the highway from the airport...
A short video of our first few minutes at home. :)
HUGE, EXPONENTIAL thanks to the president of the Armenian Gampr Club of Canada for looking after her & going above and beyond to send her the rest of the way to us!! Couldn't have done it without you! 💕And thank you to the secretary of the Armenian Gampr Club of America for importing & entrusting me with this lovely girl! Despite my running into some difficulty arranging transport to my far flung region of Western Canada... I'm extremely happy with my experience working with both Erin & Bia. They did everything in their power to get her to me. :)
(Same Dam)
Kohar's parents are Zorik's Yerekore, 'Kojol' & Vagr.
Vagr was Embark DNA tested as Armenian Gampr.
Her results are here.
Kojol
The team ran out of tests before arriving at the sheep camp where Kojol works.
However, Kohar is registered, her Embark DNA tests were 100% Armenian Gampr, and completely clear of any issues. Unfortunately, she scored mild hip / 1 elbow dysplasia on her OFAs. That being said, according to the director of the AGCA, the shepherds tend to pick pups up by a hind leg to inspect, and aren't particularly gentle in depositing them on the ground, so there may be an environmental aspect to this. As such, we were given permission to have a preservation litter. However, we had decided to wait until a later date to decide if we were going to go through with that, since it's not an inexpensive endeavor, and is quite time intensive. Since we already had a litter of English Shepherds on the way when Kohar came into heat, I decided to pull her and wait for another time. BUT... apparently there were other plans afoot! The litter arrived Jan 19, 2022. There is one pup remaining, Hawk.
Kohar was SPAYED May 3, 2022 and is back on the job working with her stock.
UPDATE 2021:
Kohar has remained a super sweet yet serious dog into maturity. While an excellent guardian, she's also interested in and and friendly to all welcomed visitors. She is submissive to her humans, is remarkably eager to please for an LGD, and accepts correction well.
She is great with our free range poultry (& has been from the start), tolerant of our barn cats, and when I bring her into the stall, she first briefly checks out, snuffles (this vid was taken upon her first intro to some newborn kids May 2020) and licks our goat kids, then hunts for her favorite goat snack, lol. Kohar was very accepting when I brought a blind herding pup in to socialize and did a wonderful, gentle job with him while he was here during training and prior to placement. (I don't normally let dogs play with my LGD, but he was being placed in the city, so no risk of any ongoing LGD / herding dog confusion.)
Kohar's response to the pushy buck who butts her on occasion is to lay down.(I don't have video of that yet, because I'm usually trying to water and /or step in if he gets too rough, but here's her response when rammed by a new mom in 2020 at almost 1 year of age - OUCH! - and first experience with newborn goat kids). That being said, I don't leave her with the buck 24/7 because it doesn't seem fair that she would have to put up with that behaviour continuously, and I prefer her to be around the poultry since they're more vulnerable.
We were also highly pleased with her calm, innate mannerisms when we exposed her to the cows that we got fall 2020. She's not in with them, but we wanted her to know what they were. The video clip was taken about 2 minutes into the introduction.
We also bought a few Kune Kune pigs in fall of 2021, and, once we were over Covid... started the process of introducing them and their piglets this winter. Argos is familiar with piglets, having been trained on them at his previous farm. Given Kohar's nurturing behaviour towards other animals, we hope that she will fall in love with the piglets soon.
Kohar is a HUGE asset to us; we have been so very blessed to be able to add her to our farm!
Please see our Blog for other updates on this sweetheart.
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