Not Sure I am Ready for This

Oh, I am really really not sure I am ready for this. I am not sure that I posted about this, but a few months ago we had to have Cujo, our Rhodesian Ridgeback, put to sleep. He had a very aggressive type of cancer and went downhill pretty fast. It has been rough around here without him. Cujo was the all around farm dog. He protected both livestock and property viciously. Old age did slow him down a bit and that is why we went looking for Dakota. He was a great dog. Now poor Dakota has duty all to herself. It used to be that she would take night duty and get to sleep while Cujo kept an eye out during the day. She would periodically do a check during the day, but for the most part it was her downtime. Now, she is on duty 24/7. I can tell that sometimes she is just plain tired, especially after she worked hard on a particular night. We have had a fox that has been desperately trying to figure out how to get past her at night, but it stays just far enough away and outside the fence. Soooooo.....we know it is time to get another dog. The problem is that it is almost impossible to bring an adult dog onto the farm because of the livestock. Sooooo...that means a puppy and all the things that a puppy entails. Introduction into the pack, learning its place in the pack, obedience training, chewing, housebreaking, chewing, obedience training....well you get the picture. Puppies are almost a full time job in and of themselves. But we really need another dog. Not just for 4 legged predator control, but two legged as well. Pyrs are great at guarding against 4 legged, but they are just too people friendly to make good property guards. We do have another dog, but well she is about as useless as tits on a boar hog. We really knew that it was time to start looking when a couple weeks ago someone drove up to the house, got out of their car, didn't think anyone was home and got back in their car and drove off without either dog giving a single bark. Now fortunately, I found out later that this was someone that I knew. However, this was not someone that the dogs knew and they should have barked. In his day, Cujo would have barked and held them in their car until I got there. I didn't realize how much I depended on him until this person showed up. When he was younger, Cujo never let a stranger out of their car until I told him it was ok and then if he was unsure of the person he would stay by my side the entire time they were here. He did slow down quite a bit on meeting strangers at their car door as he aged, but would at least still bark most of the time. We would like another Rhodi, but not sure if we are going to be able to do that. Breeders are hard to find and pet quality pups are even harder to find. We need a working farm dog not a show dog. So we will see what we can come up with. I just know I am not ready for a new puppy on the farm. Blessings, Kat