Armenian Gampr Update - Kohar
Kohar is one year old today! Huzzah! So I thought I'd take the opportunity to brag on this beautiful sweetheart of a girl. I know she's still young and we've got a ways to go yet but... at the beginning of May I was down in the barnyard for several hours while I mucked out and washed the chicken coop (we do deep litter method here in the winter so there was a LOT to remove).
Since I needed the chickens out of the coop to do that I decided to have Kohar free with them semi supervised (because most of the time I was in the shed, although I could still hear if there were any ruckus).
Here are a couple of video examples of her behaviour during that entire time:
**With all videos click on the link then click on the video to open fully** But even more exciting was that after I was done it was still light enough that the chickens didn't want to go back into the shed. As a result, I would have needed one of my English Shepherds (ES) to herd them back in. However, to accomplish that I would have had to pen Kohar and tie up Argos.
Kohar had been so well-behaved I didn't want her to get the impression that she had done something wrong so I did not want to either tie her or pen her. Nor did I want to give her the impression at this early stage that it's a good thing to chase the poultry, which the ES would have had to do.
Kohar voluntarily laying amongst the roosters mid May. ^^
So, since she'd been so good, I decided to risk it and just close up the main door and leave a small door (too little for dogs) open for the birds to go back in and left them out with Kohar free - for several hours unsupervised - while we were up at the house. I did, however, feed her before I left so that she wasn't hungry.
I came back down to do evening check (because we are now into kidding season) with some trepidation, hoping that I had not misread her. All chickens and the four ducks were safely tucked away in their coop 💖
The following day, my husband was mucking out some of the barn so let the chickens out but when he came up not only did he not think of putting Kohar away, he left the main man door open on the chicken coop, so if Kohar had wanted to, she could have gone in there and taken out all of the poultry. She was free out there unfed for seven hours before he happened to mention what he had done. I went out to check on things and, once again, all poultry was quietly resting in the coop and Kohar was laying a couple of hundred metres away. 💕💖💕
As a friend stated, "For those that have never kept chickens: after many years of having them free range, I have come to the conclusion that their entire predator survival strategy is to be as attractive to them as possible, because the predator will be full after eating one, lol. To that end they squawk, flap, and run about in pounce-triggering mayhem. So when I say good girl Kohar, she really was behaving above and beyond the norm!" (Thanks, Linda :) )
(And, being spring these roosters are particularly active in their excitement that they're OUT of the confines of the coop, creating total mayhem as they fight for hierarchy.)
Since then, the roosters & ducks have been out at will - poultry door left open. We have not lost one, nor even had ruffled feathers. Kohar with poultry May 15, 2020.
I haven't caught Kohar laying amongst the ducks yet - most likely because she likes it dry, and they like it wet... but, she has been well behaved towards them.
The gate to the pen she was in is open so she can come out of that pen anytime, but the ducks are often in there too. In fact, they usually sleep overnight on the ground in there since the roosters have matured enough to become territorial against them in the coop.
Kohar has also proven to be invaluable as a puppy mentor.
Playing with the pup May 3. She is gentle, calm, and adapts well to the pup's abilities. Now... I don't typically allow my LGD to play with my ES, so as to discourage dogs wanting to get into the pasture to play, gangs of dogs chasing stock, or refusal of LGD to protect against dog friends. BUT, our blind pup, Peach, will never freely roam the farm, will hopefully find a home in town as per vet recommendation, and needs the exercise & socialization of playing in a safe area with a larger, gentle dog so... he is an exception to that rule. Kohar playing with Peach May 16, 2020 Argos is gentle with him, but hasn't indicated any desire to play. Kohar is young enough that she's a willing - albeit molting - sport, lol.
May brought kidding season to the farm. Kohar has demonstrated that she's both highly interested in - but gentle
towards - the new kids. Here is her submissive response towards meeting a set of new goat kids. Even when rammed hard by the dam a couple of times, she didn't react aggressively, but tried to make friends and lick the doe under her chin... then lay down submissively. Kohar curiously watching newborn goat kid ^^ while ignoring the does she was penned with.
🎉 I am beyond delighted with this amazing girl!! 🎉
