10/11/2019
Wyatt is my 5 year old son
Tony is my husband
Odin and freya are my 8.5 month old lgd's
Tonight I pulled in the driveway and saw Odin up with the ducks. He came to the edge pf the bank before it slopes to the house and stayed their.... humm... that's odd.
I watched him as wyatt opened the car door and got out to open the garage door for me (I lost my garage door opener several months ago)... he still didnt come down when wyatt got out of the car...something is wrong..really wrong...adrenaline rises in me and the pit of my stomach hurts as my heart starts to race. he walked back and looked over his shoulder back at me and flung his head up in come over here kind of way.
Oh god where is freya? What has she gotten into? She has a high prey drive that makes me a little nervous around the ducks.
I park the car and take off up the bank. I see several ducks in my "to be butchered today pen" she is laying in front of it.. she seems calmer than usual. She greets me quickly and back to the pen... odd.
She keeps looking into the pen. What is she looking at? I get closer, all the ducks are on the opposite side of the pen where they normally are.
Then I see it. A young drake got his head stuck in the slats of the fencing and panicked and died... oh
Pups, hes dead I'm sorry. She sits and watches him.
Wyatt comes up and we talk about death and accidents. About life on the farm and how it's a circle. He goes in the pen and drags the duck out for me.
I lay it on the ground to look it over and to see what the dogs reaction is and to correct any unwanted behavior and have a teaching moment.
Well i wasn't prepared for this.
They both sniffed it gently freya laid down next to it and nudged it gently trying to get him to get up. She then told Odin to back the eff off and this is her bird. She growled at him and even showed her teeth at him. She always allowed wyatt and I to touch and move her bird.
Wyatt cried several times. Said that our friend had died. I think that was good for freya to see that So she knows that yes this duck is important to our family, especially since I'm not a crier.
She licked it a few times but stayed with it.
I heard Tony's pick up, wyatt and I walked to meet him. Odin takes off to greet tony. She stays with the bird! (Everyone come to see dad when he comes home so it's a big deal she stayed)
Tony gets out of the pick up and i say you got to come see this! He gets closer and i say she is NOT in trouble she didn't do this.
Shes still with him. She raises her head to meet Tony's gaze, with submissive ears back and big eyes. shes guarding him.
Odin comes over and she snarls and barks a high pitch bark that means I said stay away!
Tony wants to correct her and I tell him let her be she needs to teach him to listen to her just like she needs to listen to him.
We take her bird, she follows us and allows Odin next to her, shes upset and hes trying his best to comfort her.
I take her bird in the garage. She lays down by the door.
A few minutes later shes playing with odin.
I put both dogs in the garage while we butchered the other 12 ducks, they dont need to see that.
So here is a picture of freya guarding her duck, sad he is dead hopeful he might wake back up.
8&1/2 months old
10/10/19
