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6 Posts
Hi everyone,
I have just registered in this forum as it looked to me from the questions and answers here that I could find support and answers to my own questions. We have 4 children of different ages including a baby, run hobby farm in Canada, ON, with goats and chickens, and just recently got a beautiful present - Golder Retriever puppy, who is 5 months old. He is with us for 1 month already. I never had dogs before in my live so this experience is quite new to me, but I enjoy this little puppy. We called him Mart.
Here is the basic dilemma that we are facing and could not agree on (even after reading about the breed) - whether to raise him as a family companion or a helper with animals. If we decide to raise him as a family companion and watch dog, we will still have to keep hip outside the house in a shed, or a dog house. So here are few questions that I would appreciate to get answers for:
a. Is it better to raise Mart as a family companion or a helper with animals?
b. If we have to keep him out of the house would it be better to put a dog house close to the entrance of our house, or to put his house in the area where animals and birds are?
c. Could Golder Retriever be trained to watch the small flock of chickens and turkeys ? (He seems to get along with goats all right, but we did not introduce him to birds yet)
d. Taking into consideration that we do not have any fencing (we are among the fields), is it worth to train him to be on a leash when we are not around?
I would appreciate your comments, answers and may be links so that I could start from something.
Thank you,
Anna
I have just registered in this forum as it looked to me from the questions and answers here that I could find support and answers to my own questions. We have 4 children of different ages including a baby, run hobby farm in Canada, ON, with goats and chickens, and just recently got a beautiful present - Golder Retriever puppy, who is 5 months old. He is with us for 1 month already. I never had dogs before in my live so this experience is quite new to me, but I enjoy this little puppy. We called him Mart.
Here is the basic dilemma that we are facing and could not agree on (even after reading about the breed) - whether to raise him as a family companion or a helper with animals. If we decide to raise him as a family companion and watch dog, we will still have to keep hip outside the house in a shed, or a dog house. So here are few questions that I would appreciate to get answers for:
a. Is it better to raise Mart as a family companion or a helper with animals?
b. If we have to keep him out of the house would it be better to put a dog house close to the entrance of our house, or to put his house in the area where animals and birds are?
c. Could Golder Retriever be trained to watch the small flock of chickens and turkeys ? (He seems to get along with goats all right, but we did not introduce him to birds yet)
d. Taking into consideration that we do not have any fencing (we are among the fields), is it worth to train him to be on a leash when we are not around?
I would appreciate your comments, answers and may be links so that I could start from something.
Thank you,
Anna