TLDR: a dream of a dog, and we couldn’t have had a better first day with any dog on our property.
So the #Maremma is a lovely boy. Wagging his tail as the car approached the gate, accepted pats and scratches. Dubious about coming home with us, but has met the chickens (ignored them, until they did shrill ‘predator in sky’ call), met the cows - barked at them, growled, and was quite scared, but cows were too curious to take the hint. Had to shoo them away.
We have him on a long leash and he’s been for a walk up the hill on a lead.
He’s not had any training that we can tell, but offers each paw in turn to shake hands. He’s very sensitive to shouts, raised voices (at the cows, not him. Don’t know why we bother; cows don’t care).
He spends a lot of time pacing out the territory he can access, observing all the boundaries, and generally getting to know the lay of the land.
We need to get him to come when called, already beginning that, and lots of positive praise when demonstrating correct behaviour.
He already follows us, has just done some prancing, playing behaviour, and is helping to fix the land cruiser handbrake.
