OldManFarm

We have the greatest cats for training puppies to be respectful of Felines. Here you can see how patient Inky is with these little white flock guardian puppies. They have so much interest in everything and everything is a learning experience for them. These dogs generally don't have a strong drive to chase things unless it suddenly runs away or does anything that might resemble a play run when they are young like this. That's why it's invaluable to have calm gentle cats around as these puppies grow to weaning age and beyond. Our adult dogs are really great around cats and therefore these cats that have never been threatened or seriously chased by a dog are great for teaching puppies to be respectful to their kind.

The puppies look up to the adult digs and learn a great deal from them. Here, Maple wades into one of the pools we recently made as part of a system that connects several springs together making a steam through the barnyard. Flock guardian breeds like Maple and her grandpuppes don't usually like swimming but they do like to wade in up to their chest sometimes just to cool off and get a deep drink. They seem to not want to get their tails wet especially. These little nine-week old pups from a litter by Maple's daughter Wynter are watching their grandma dog with wonder and gather around her as she makes her way out of the pool.

This is a continuation of the earlier video called "Sybil teaches Magnus a bit about the ways of cats."

I swear I don't set this stuff up, I just lug the camera around a lot and point it at some of the stuff that's happening around me while I muddle through the day. Here's a brief moment of interaction between Sybil the VERY dog-friendly cat, and Magnus, a puppy learning to be cat-friendly. You can see a cute little circle of life sort of thing by looking back in the videos on my Rumble.com channel to find a couple where Wynter, the mother of the puppy in this video, plays with Sybil very gently when she was just a kitten only a couple of days after I found her abandoned beside the road and decided that 4 cats was now our new absolute maximum of cats to have here. There will not be a new absolute maximum after this.

These Flock Guardian puppies are playing with their uncle Greyson who has a piece of bark from a big old Maple tree that blew down by the barn in the last storm. We don't breed our dogs very often, only about every five years or so in order to have overlapping generations of dogs in the pack that protects our sheep and farm in general from coyotes and other predators. Unlike the way some Livestock Guardian Dogs are utilized on farms and ranches, our dogs are home companions as well as working dogs, and for that reason we like to make sure our puppies are well socialized with people as well as all the other animals on the farm. On a small farm of the scale we operate we don't need the dogs to be with the livestock twenty-four seven. They come and go from the house and always let us know if and when there's something to be concerned about outside. In this video, Greyson who is the brother of the mother of these puppies, plays with them gently as well as teaching them how to be appropriate around other dogs. This kind of interaction between a gentle adult dog and these puppies is very important in their growth in terms of later behavior. In general, puppies that are naturally weaned by the mother dog and who have other well behaved adult dogs around to interact and learn from make for much more stable and well behaved dogs as they grow up.

I decided to try doing a time-lapse video of the little job I was trying to do by enlarging one pond that contains a spring while covering up an older pond that goes dry too often. This great little tractor that we call "Woody" can do an amazing amount of work in a short time. But in this case I should have been paying more attention to what I was doing, because just after I moved the camera to catch more of the digging action rather than the filling in; I went too close to the edge and the bank gave way and poor Woody tipped over sideways into the pond. I was very, very lucky not to be hurt or worse. I was also worried that the tractor would be damaged or badly affected by fluids flowing up into the cylinders where they shouldn't be and possibly causing major engine damage. Diesel engines don't like being upside-down or laying on their side. After I got out through the side window underneath the machine I had to think of what to do quickly. Woody was starting to burn oil...you can see the smoke start just near the end of the clip. I did take a few seconds to reset the camera to real time in order to capture my attempts to get unstuck since the cam was already there. I did loose a few tools in the water. I'll go looking later with a metal detector.

What a great little machine, with a not so great operator....or I wouldn't have gotten us into this mess in the first place. After tipping over into the pool (Video 1) and getting Woody, my mini back-hoe upright again (Video 2), we were still somewhat stuck. With lots of fiddling and jigging and not being able to push myself out with the hoe I managed to get turned around and make a bit of a ramp so I could use the hoe to pull out of the hole backwards. Oce we were out I parked Woody and let him rest for 24 hours just to make sure any fluids that had gotten up where they weren't supposed to would have a chance to drain back down into the crank case etc. He needed a bit of oil the following day, but after a good re-greasing and fluids check and replenish, all was well and Woody is back at it again today. More carefully though.

I was creating a pool near a spring beside our house when I misjudged the bank and slide sideways and tipped over into the pool. Diesel engines don't like being on their sides or upside-down because the oil or other fluids flow up into the cylinders so not knowing what else to do I increased the throttle hoping the oil wouldn't stall it out before I could figure out what I should do. I had the camera set up previously to take a time-lapse video of the pond being made, so I can eventually put that up as well, showing the tip-over at the end...in fast motion. I decided to try to get out myself thinking that if I called for help maybe too much damage would be done with the machine on it's side in the water and I was worried about oil spillage as well if left too long. At one point I had to hop out to retrieve my glasses case which was floating in the pool. I hd my prescription sunglasses on, but the sun was going down and my dark glesses were making it difficult to see what I was doing. Thank goodness I spotted my regular glasses floating near the bucket along with a few other things that fell out when I tipped over. I'm sure my many mistakes will be pointed out, please go ahead so I can learn. I'm fairly new to using one of these machines with only about 300 hours experience ...mostly just moving manure around or putting in fence-posts. This was a challenge I wasn't sure I could manage, but somehow did. The camera reset before I got out of the pool, but the part of how I got out is shown in video number Three

Little heifer Peggy is getting her fill of concentrated liquid sunshine in the hills of Cape Breton Island , Nova Scotia. Peggy and her mother Pepper are Scottish Highland Cattle and very well suited to the conditions and climate of Cape Breton.

I took a break from digging a waterline today to just sit and spend some time with some of the animals in the pasture. There's nothing more relaxing than hanging out with the cattle when they're having a break too. Maple's just always with me, so she gets in a lot videos.

A beautiful early Summer day in the pasture and Peggy the little Highland heifer wants some of that freshly converted grass. She already had huge drink, but now she tries to get the last slurps out of each quarter until after the next nap.

Peggy the little Highland heifer and Maple a Maremma/Pyrenees mix Livestock Guardian are very curious about each other, but suddenly decide now is not the time to meet. Perfect exits!

Greyson, one of the farm dogs, knows he's not supposed to take things from the kitchen and looks a bit guilty as he reluctantly allows his prize to be taken back!

Greyson makes odd sounds as he tumbles on the office cot and tries to get his sister, Wynter to play with him. She seems to think he's being ridiculous.

This little tractor is loved by all, especially Rory the Scottish Highland bull. He heads straight for it so he can use the teeth to scratch his back and head. Awesome!

Our Livestock Guardian Dogs spend time with us in the house as well as protecting our sheep and other animals in the barnyard, pastures and woodlot. Wynter is very much top dog, but Lochie tries his luck to get the comfy spot with playful coaxing. Wynter doesn't buy it for a second. In the foreground Greyson gently tries to get his old grandmother Phoebe to join in the play.

Sometimes when I put hay out in the morning the dogs pick a pile and have fun with it. Wynter seems to have found something interesting that she's trying to keep from the others. The sheep don't really care but Greyson worries they might get too close.

Wynter and Lochie love to play fight like this all the time, with Wynter demonstrating here signature "Wynter-roll" 3 times in this clip. But Lochie started getting a little too pushy or rough and Wynter had to sort him out by letting him know she'd the boss of him, not the other way around. After she shows him that all is welll and they both shake off their tension to help relax into the play mood, but this time Lochie will be a bit more careful.

These dogs like to find a high spot where they can check the farm for potential threats. Here, Wynter and Greyson are using the top of a frozen manure pile to survey their territory. Their mother, Maple just stays closer to me as usual.

Often when this farm owner puts hay out for the cattle and sheep, the dogs love to jump in and have tussle in it. They eventually let the sheep have it!

Meet Holly. She was born about a minute before this video was made and now her mother, Bonnie is drying her off with vigorous licking which also helps stimulate Holly to get her muscles working to get up and get a drink of milk. Bonnie is our family milk cow and is half Scottish Highland and half Jersey. She's a very good milker and with the Highland mix is like a 4x4, Winterized milk cow and much more tolerant of our Cape Breton weather than a regular Jersey Cow. That makes Holly a 3/4 Highland and 1/4 Jersey, and we'll probably keep her as a back-up milk cow.

Maple loves her puppies forever. She is now 10 years old and has had 2 litters of puppies; and 4 year old Wynter is one of her daughters that we kept as a working sheep guardian along with her brother Greyson. Mother dogs often do this love nibbling/grooming behavior with their young puppies, but Maple continues to do it into her puppies' adulthood. Wynter has no complaints and will often lie down in front of Maple and roll onto her back to get attention like this.

Half Highland, half Jersy, Winterized 4x4 milk cow Bonnie gets her new little one (Holly) going with a thorough strong licking. Not only does it help to dry her off, but it helps to stimulate her muscles to get up and get some of that very important colostrum/first milk.

Our Scottish Highland bull, Rory, loves it when I put the back-hoe bucket in a good position for him. This time of year the cattle are shedding their Winter coats and they feel a bit itchy until all that loose hair is replaced by their shiny Summer coat.

King, one of our Maremma, Great Pyrenees mix Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs) takes some time to feel the crusty snow all over his body and he obviously enjoys it. But King is a very dedicated guard dog and after a brief play time he heads back to keep an eye on his sheep and chickens.