Monday, August 12, 2019

Goat Puppies

Della helped lure the puppies back out of the shed and then
laid down next to the stack of firewood.
I've still been trying to come up with new ways to engage, entertain, and challenge the puppies. Most of the things in the Puppy Palace yard have been re-purposed objects that I had laying around. When you live in the country you tend to accumulate stuff, based on the idea that it may be useful someday. Sometimes that comes true.

I was thinking I'd build a double set of stairs so they could go up one side and down the other, but buying two sets of risers plus boards for steps seemed too expensive for something that would only be used for a few more weeks. Then I thought about goats. I had a goat at one point in my life and learned a few things from that experience, one of which is that they love to climb. I had stacked up firewood for Rogan to climb on and he loved it. So this evening I did the same for the puppies.
It didn't take long before they started chewing and climbing.

The area between the two birch trees is just becoming a dust bowl so I built a low wall of stacked firewood between the two trees for them to climb on. I'm hoping that the puppies will chew the wood instead of the bark on the trees too. It was getting late by the time I had it finished because of other things I had to do today. We had put the puppies into the shed a little early so I could haul the firewood in without their "help." They thought they were in for the night and were settled down for sleep when I made them come back outside because I wanted them to see the new fixture in the yard.
Killian was the first to climb up from the left side.

They weren't crazy about coming back out, and two of them were in the back of the crate and I never did get them out. Those that did immediately checked it out, of course, and soon began chewing on it and climbing on it. I think it will be a hit tomorrow morning when everyone is full of energy.

Chimay wasn't about to be outdone by a mere boy and she
started climbing up from the right.

The others mostly milled about before and chewed on the
ends of the firewood.




Carl found a piece of chew on.




Killian came down and Paulaner took his place with Chimay.

I think Carlsberg wanted to go back inside and sleep.





Chimay planted her butt and claimed it as hers.



It will entertain me as much as the puppies.

2 comments:

Claire said...

Very clever!! They will love playing on the wood pile tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

They are getting so big! I hope they don't eat the wood. I had a lab pup chew sticks and the vet told me to curb that immediately so he quit swallowing the pieces