Outdoor Dog Bedding~ Problems & Solutions

This is Misty. She is old, deaf and blind. She still enjoys life though, and especially resting on the porch, which all the dogs love. The problem is , how to keep water dogs who enjoy the outdoors from ruining the porch and their bedding while drying off before coming inside for the night.
Look at the mud on the back porch. Look at the dogs cramming themselves into the crates. Yes, they love the crates, and tussle with each other for the chance to have the crate to themselves. Another dog will eventually roost on top of the crates. The problem is the Viszla loves to always have bedding under himself and he drags the bedding out into the grass, dirt , or mud to sit on. I have watched him drag the blanket or expensive dog cushion around as he follows the sun spots. Smart, but eventually the bedding is soaked or filthy or both and often ruined, especially if the dogs play tug of war with the bedding.

My husband and I don't like the place to look like a doghouse, which is why we put a gate on the back porch and the dogs have to dry off before they come inside for the night. But we also want the porch to look nice. Practical, and nice. What to do, what to do?
I found these dog beds when I googled "Durable dog beds". Up popped these dog beds by Coolaroo at HealthyPets.com . They promise to be durable, easy to clean, and they were relatively inexpensive. They also arrived within 2 days of ordering. I assembled them easily.

Look! Two dogs on each bed.

The dog beds are supposed to be cleaned by hosing down, I like that.

I think the beds are a winner as far as the dogs are concerned. Now I have to again pressure wash the back porch and scrub the railings. We are painting the house this summer ( if summer ever comes ) and then I think I will put a protective barrier on the back porch siding of the house, a WASHABLE protective barrier.

Shortly after I put the beds on the back porch I saw one of the Labs scratching fiercely at the bedding to do her usual shredding of the bedding. The canvas remains undamaged. So far these beds are a big thumbs up for me. I will let you know later if the beds withstand the abuse 4 dogs can dish out.

Barnaby's Babes

This post is spotlighting the lambs sired by Swallow Lane Barnaby. This little cutie is the last lamb born here, very recently. She is the first lamb of Cedar Pond's Saffron, and I have named her Sesame. I really don't see her sleeping much, she is very active and keeps up with the much larger and older lambs quite easily.

Sesame's tail is 'bout ready to drop off , looks funny doesn't it?

Here is Tilda, daughter of Barnaby and Cedar Pond's Thora. Thora is Goth's twin sister.

Close-up of Thora. Although I did not get a picture of her tail here, she was born with such a short tail I did not dock it. I kind of like her tail that way.First lambs who's tails I did not dock were born this year. It appears that the ewes bred with Barnaby produced lambs with much shorter tails.

Another view of Tilda. ( above) Tilda has 4 horns.

This is Pixie, so named because she is tiny, like her mother Ruth and sister Mally. This very tiny size seems to run in this particular line of my sheep. Pixie's mother is Cedar Pond's Ruth.

It is hard to tell here, but Pixie is brown. Not faded black, but chocolate brown, with light eyes.
Pixie has 4 horns.

You can almost tell here how brown she is in comparison with her mother Ruth. Ruth has 4 horns, 2 on each side. The horns are fusing to look like 2 fat horns on each side. Pixie's sister Mahlon ( Mally) has 6 horns.

Dinah is 3/4 Jacob, 1/4 Romney. Dinah is the daughter of Delilah and Barnaby.

I think Dinah is cute too.Note , she has no horns, or is 'polled'.

Dinah posing so properly.

Here is Viking, son of Swallow Lane Barnaby and Cedar Pond's Valkyrie. Valkyrie has 5 distinct horns. Viking is very handsome and a strapping big ram lamb with promising horns. All 4 are well formed and spaced thus far.

Sassafras with her little ewe lamb. I have not settled on a name for this ewe yet. She is the other lamb who's tail I did not dock because it seems short enough. She has 4 horns too.

This little ewe lamb does have a lot of black on her, doesn't she?

There you have it, Barnaby's babes, and a lovely group of lambs they are.

Buttercup & Basil

Bide-A-Wee's Buttercup resting with her ram lamb, Cedar Pond's Basil. Basil is as big as his mother and I have heard him baaing mournfully because his mother will not let him nurse any more. Can you blame her? Just look at the size of his horns! I have seen him ram her udder to bring her milk down and it looks awfully painful, and downright deadly to me. I think Basil looks very much like his father, Goth. He is mighty handsome and on his way to being a very big ram with great horns. ( I might be a bit biased about this though)

Would You Mess With This Lamb's Mama?

Look at the expression on Valkyrie's face I captured when I snapped her picture.

I was trying to get a good picture of her son, Viking. Viking's father is Swallow Lane Barnaby.
I am getting excited about him. His horns are looking good. His markings are nice. He has blue eyes too. He is pretty big, and although he was the last born lamb here he is among the bigger lambs. To get to him though you have to confront his mama....

...does she look like a creature you want to cross? ( note that she has 5 horns)

Hmm, look at his stance in this photo. He is going to be one big and beautiful Jacob Ram and I think he knows it!

Puny Mahlon

This is Cedar Pond's Mahlon just prior to being sheared, so- named because this line of my Jacob Sheep are all named from the Book of Ruth in the Bible...and because the name that fit her is the name of Ruth's first husband ~ Mahlon, which means 'puny'. I will call her Mally for short , no pun intended!

Does anyone else have a Jacob Sheep this tiny? Mally is a yearling ewe lamb and she is no more than 25 pounds...maybe even less. The newborn lambs stand as tall as her. She also has 6 horns, 3 on each side of her head. They are fusing to look like 2 very short fat horns, but for most of last year they were 6 very distinct horns. ( Hey, maybe all her growth went into producing horns!)

We had Mally sheared last weekend and she is not underweight for her size. Definitely not malnourished. She has been wormed and had her shots. She does not lack for all the alfalfa she can eat, which is plenty.She is perfectly healthy and active in every way. In other words, she is not stunted for lack of proper care. She is just very tiny. Her mother is small, but nowhere near this tiny. Her Grandmother, Cedar Pond's Naomi is pictured elsewhere on this blog and is one of my larger ewes...never , ever tiny. Mally's father is Cedar Pond's Goth, and he is not small either. So I ask again, are there any Jacob Sheep owners out there who have a teeny tiny sheep every so often?

More About Mally~

This is Cedar Pond's Mahlon, or Mally, pictured shortly after her birth last spring 2009. As you can see, she is a normal sized lamb. Her mother, Cedar Pond's Ruth is short and stocky and probably does not weigh over 50 pounds. Mally's mother has 4 horns, but her horns have fused so it looks like she has 2 fat horns .

Here is a side shot of Ruth and her daughter Mally.

Mally' pretty cute, I think.

Mother and daughter are still attached to each other, even though at this writing Ruth is due to lamb any day now.

So you can see from the pictures that Mally started her life as a normal little Jacob sheep lamb who at this writing just hasn't grown much. Are there any of you Jacob Sheep owners with a normal, healthy, but very small sheep? Please let me know, I am interested!

Spots Of Distraction~

I am not the only one distracted by the little bouncing spots! This group of Jacob lambs surrounded a ewe ( you can't see the other 3 ) and they were running around her, one bounced off her. They bounded under her and in her way. Fortunately she is the mother of 2 of the 6 in the lamb gang so she knows to be patient, but really, aren't they just too cute and distracting?