New Family Member

"Myah" (pronounced "Maya") really belongs to Number One Son and his fiancée who are away for a few weeks, staying with her parents in PiEmBurg while organising wedding dress and such. They have been renting the cottageon our property for the past few months.  In the meantime, J and I have become foster-parents and de facto trainers.

Actually, it helps lots to have an older dog around the place!  OB plays a valuable role in teaching the puppy -- now almost 12 weeks old -- that chasing the chickens is strictly verboten.

Myah is pure-bred Labrador retriever (though she's an Animal Welfare case, so without all the certificates,) highly intelligent, and very keen to please, so quite easy to teach.  She chews on stuff all the time, but around here that means plenty of sticks, pine cones, chew toys, so no problems to date with her chewing shoes or furniture.  She also loves to dig!  Sooner or later she's bound to try and help in the veggie garden, and then we'll have a lesson in store, but, with so much "garden" space I really don't mind the odd little hole in the ground.

Only one family member has her nose severely out of joint over the puppy...

Actually she's come around quite well after the first week or so.  Its just that OB (PhD) has never been very good at "playing" with other dogs.  She's wired for "very serious protector of the pack."

Many permaculture practitioners believe that there is no justifiable reason for keeping Dogs and Cats. They are wrong. I cannot count the number of times we would have lost entire crops or the flock of chickens, had we been without OB guarding our interests at night, and I am sure that Myah will be just as good a protector!