Zaltana Anatolians

A glimpse into his past?

Zazou our very elderly Great Pyrenees has been with us for almost a year now. He was found wandering the streets of Las Vegas and nobody came to claim him. So we know nothing about his past. He adores children, so it is very likely that he once was a beloved family pet. The first picture shows him with my friend's daughter. He is just drawn to her whenever she comes to visit.

Recently when the company who built my little kennel building left their trailer to bring supplies I watched in amazement how Zazou did not hesitate for a second to hop right on it. He exitedly
walked to the front of it and stood there with the wind blowing into his face. He kind of seemed to say "Yeah, we are going for a ride, let's go, I am ready". It really looked like he thought this was a pick-up truck and he was going to go somewhere. Looks like he used to ride along in the back of a pick-up truck. I just hated to disappoint him, this vehicle wasn't going anywhere. Eventually he climbed down.

Zazou is just such a sweet old dog. It's just so hard to understand for me how somebody could abandon a dog that looks at you with such devotion, just wanting to get a little bit of attention.

Michael's Visit

Michael came and has actually already left and I hadn't created a blog entry about him. Most of the time when he was out and about on our property he was really too busy chasing lizzards to pay much attention to my dogs. He played a little with the girls and pretty much ignored the boys. My dogs taught him that guarding the property was a priority and when the two weeks that he stayed with us came to an end, he knew when the pack had to work together to bark at the occasional motorcycle or car going by.

Some of the pictures show him on the lookout for lizzards. He dug a few holes trying to get them to come out from their hiding places. I don't think he caught any, which didn't seem to matter to him, he never got tired of stalking them.
He joined Kobi and me playing with the garden hose (had to water my plants again). Kobi didn't think that sharing the garden hose was part of the deal of letting Michael stay with us, so he was yelling profanities at Micheal when he wanted to play with us.
When Michael arrived here he looked like any good city boy, clean and well-groomed. He didn't quite fit in looking like he just stepped out of a grooming parlor.
So he took it upon himself to make himself look more like he belonged here. Here is his recipe for success: get yourself a little bit wet, roll yourself thoroughly in the dirt, shake access dirt off - done.
What do you think about the all new look of Michael? Doesn't he just look like he belongs here? (Tip: click on the last picture for a close up view of the new look)

Can I sit with you?

Leydi approaches Ayla and wants to sit with her. So she approaches politely. She doesn't plop down like some dogs do, she always very carefully lowers herself to the ground. I still think she doesn't like to sit on all these rocks, having grown up in Florida where the ground is softer. When she first arrived she walked on the gravel the same way I would walk if I had to go barefoot. I am sure that's what it must have felt like to her. She has gotten used to that now, and has no problems with it anymore.
On the next two pictures Leydi is still making a real effort to be polite. She is demonstrating "Calming Signals". First she looks away, this is a very common calming signal. It tells the other dog that she isn't looking for trouble. On the other picture she is flicking her tongue, that is also a calming signal used to tell the other dog that this is a peaceful approach. Ayla's sniffing the ground is another calming signal. So both dogs are demonstrating a very polite attitude in these pictures, letting each other know that they are okay with being this close and they aren't looking for any trouble.





And here they are sitting together at last. Now Leydi is looking away from me, and using calming signals towards me, because I am "staring" at her with the camera. Ayla is used to me constantly taking pictures of her ever since she was a puppy. So she knows it's okay to look straight at the camera and maybe get a treat for being such a patient "model".

Another straw bale queen
Leydi has been keeping an eye on Ayla's straw bale activities (see earlier blog entry). Here she is taking another look at the bales.




And there she is, Leydi, queen of the straw bale II. Not the most flattering picture of Leydi, but the tail is up, and she enjoys the view.








How do I get back to the ground?













Good job! Ayla tells Leydi how proud she is of her straw bale accomplishments.

More visitors

Today my friend Cheri came out from Las Vegas to visit. First we took Nanuk for a walk together with her dogs. Nanuk loves Cheri, she was one of the first people he met when he came to us. When we all go on walks or trips together he is just so happy and excited. When we came back it was time for all the doggies to meet. Ayla had met everybody before, so she was very happy to see them again. She was her usual happy and social self. Cheri and her dogs hadn't met my newest addition Leydi yet. So first I let Leydi meet Cheri without her dogs. Leydi loves to meet people, so was very happy to get some treats and attention. I always love to see my dogs going from alert mode and barking at the strange car to happily meeting visitors and their (well behaved) dogs. The first two pictures show Leydi with Zipper a Jack Russell Terrier. She was very excited to have a chance to hang out with another small dog and Zipper was only too happy to meet her as well. Then it was time to meet Keira, a German Shepherd Dog. Keira is good friends with my Pyr Nanuk, we have been on many hikes and trips together, so those two were excited to see each other. Leydi and Keira got along just fine. Keira loves to play very rough, so it will be exciting to let those two play sometimes when it isn't so hot. I am very proud of all my dogs. My two Anatolians are great ambassadors for their breed. Being nice to welcome guests is part of that.

The Praying Mantis

I was out watering my shrubs when I noticed this praying mantis running towards me. It seemed determined to come to me, so I moved away from it, I am not too fond of bugs coming too close. At first I totally forgot that I had my camera on me. By the time I remembered, the insect had gone towards a shrub that had water all around it.
So I shot one picture of it sitting there. I realized that I had the sun in front of me, so I moved to the other side of this rather large praying mantis to take another shot. I noticed it was putting its front legs into the water as if to test how deep it is, then, to my utter amazement,
it started walking through the water to the shrub. It has never occurred to me that an insect that can fly, would decide to cross a shallow body of water on foot to get to a shrub. This is the first adult I have seen this year, I do see quite a few small white ones, I am assuming they are very young. I am quite fascinated with the praying mantis, so I am hoping some of them will make our place their home so I can take more pictures of them. I have often seen them stay in the same place for many weeks.
I used to have one sit on my window screen every evening for many weeks, I really missed it when it disappeared.

Afternoon happenings



Kobi my Jack Russell Terrier loves to entice the big dogs to play with him. Here he teases Leydi, one of my Anatolian Shepherd Dogs, with a toy. And he is lucky, she is just as mischievious as he is and so the game is on. It's always interesting to observe the dogs.
Leydi is really mischievious when it comes to other dogs, when she wants to play, she knows how to push their buttons to get them to do SOMETHING other then sleep. It is really easy to get Kobi started. All Leydi has to do is tap him with her paw, or just pretend she is going to touch him with her paw. In return, he acts like he is highly upset and yells "errrrch" while baring his teeth.
Of course that is EXACTLY what Leydi was hoping for, so she continues to pester him with the paw tapping, he will just fling himself at her "grrrrchhhhh" - they think this is just so much fun. As Kobi gets more and more into the play fighting one can see how Leydi is very careful not to step on the little monster as he is bouncing around and getting underfoot.




So she offers him a play bow to calm things down. Kobi is still posturing, he sure doesn't care about that he is so little

Don't they just look like best friends?

Kobi and Leydi sharing the doggie bed for a nap after their little romp.