Goliath is Definitely Earning His Dog Food

Our LGD, Goliath, has come a long way at settling in to life on our farm.  For the most part he just hangs out, only barking on rare occasions.

Because Pyrenees are known to roam, he is in a fenced in pasture around our chicken and duck pens.  Since he came to live with us we haven't lost so much as a single chicken, although we still worry with the turkeys out in another pasture.  Luckily heritage turkeys are such big birds that most critters won't bother them.

Last night (or should I say this morning), I woke to Goliath barking.  LOUDLY.  Not really panicked but definitely making a statement.  I went to the patio doors and looked out but saw nothing, so I laid back down, thinking he'd stop in a few minutes (I don't think terribly clearly at 1:45am).  Twenty minutes later he was still at it.  I figured it was worth a closer look.

After putting on some pants and shoes and grabbing a flashlight I headed out.  I didn't hear or see anything but the dog.  As I opened the gate between the pastures to see what had the dog worked up, he ran past me at full steam and nearly knocked me over! 

Now, when Goliath decides he wants to go somewhere, it's not easy to deter him, but he's generally not pushy.  When I turned around to see where he had gone, he was coming around the backside of one of the turkey pens..... in hot pursuit of two large raccoons!  He ran them through the barbwire fence, then stopped and started a walk around the pasture perimeter, marking as he went.  I checked the turkeys and they were fine, though the coons were large enough they definitely could have killed one of them if they had had a chance to get it.

After ten minutes of checking, sniffing, walking and marking, Goliath sat down at the gate to be let in to his pasture.  I opened it up, he went in, and went over to where the goats were laid down and settled in. 

I headed back to bed, impressed that a pup of eleven months is already doing such a fantastic job.

Needless to say, the next time I hear him carrying on at night, I'll take him a bit more seriously!