Thursday, July 09, 2009
Meet a German Landrace,
These pictures were taken in the last few days by my parents near Nuremburg Germany. The dogs in the pictures are working Old German Shepherd dogs, apparently two different types of them, but part of the same landrace of shepherd's dogs. These dogs serve as dual purpose dogs, they move the sheep like other herding dogs, but they also guard them. There aren't a lot of predators in that part of Germany, only foxes and some loose dogs. The sheep in the area are a light color, with the occasional chocolate color mixed into a flock. From what my parents told me, the two dogs above are working a very large flock of sheep, when I was a kid the shepherd in that area usually had around 150 sheep at a time but my parents said the flock is much larger now. The car in the picture is what the shepherd uses to follow the flock, they used to be on foot and had a very small wooden trailer to return to for the night to sleep in.
To see more pictures of this landrace here is a German website:
This one looks the same as one of the dogs the shepherd in this area had when I was a child, the other ones the had were the black ones with the longer and straighter coat called "Sueddeutscher Scharzer" on the above website. Back then when I asked the shepherd about the breed, he said Altdeutscher Schaeferhund, which translates into Old German Shepherd Dog, he said despite the different looks, they were the same kind of dogs.
These pictures were taken in the last few days by my parents near Nuremburg Germany. The dogs in the pictures are working Old German Shepherd dogs, apparently two different types of them, but part of the same landrace of shepherd's dogs. These dogs serve as dual purpose dogs, they move the sheep like other herding dogs, but they also guard them. There aren't a lot of predators in that part of Germany, only foxes and some loose dogs. The sheep in the area are a light color, with the occasional chocolate color mixed into a flock. From what my parents told me, the two dogs above are working a very large flock of sheep, when I was a kid the shepherd in that area usually had around 150 sheep at a time but my parents said the flock is much larger now. The car in the picture is what the shepherd uses to follow the flock, they used to be on foot and had a very small wooden trailer to return to for the night to sleep in.
To see more pictures of this landrace here is a German website:http://www.altdeutschehuetehunde.de/ scroll down to the tab that says
"Hutehundschlage" which shows all the different varieties of this working type of dog.
I think when looking at the different types, one can see a resemblence to today's Belgium Shepherd Dogs which also come in 4 different varieties.
This one looks the same as one of the dogs the shepherd in this area had when I was a child, the other ones the had were the black ones with the longer and straighter coat called "Sueddeutscher Scharzer" on the above website. Back then when I asked the shepherd about the breed, he said Altdeutscher Schaeferhund, which translates into Old German Shepherd Dog, he said despite the different looks, they were the same kind of dogs.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Pullet Egg,
here is the first egg of the spring chickens, it was one of my two Buff Orpingtons, I saw her in the nest box yesterday, and yippeh, she laid an egg today, this is sooner than I hoped, as they are just 4 months old, I got them in the end of February
