"The Lord will give goodness: and our earth shell yields her fruits." -- Psalm 84:13
Showing everyone their truth, persistence, and humbleness, will be best on those who live with their Livestock Guardian Dogs. From my book, The Way of The Pack: Understanding and Living With Livestock Guardian Dogs, shows this time and time. Read these works, study them, think over them. Wisdom and faith comes on in the end.
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On Being the Good Shepherd
From The Way of The Pack:
Understanding and Living With
Livestock Guardian Dogs
“…neither shall the flock be lacking in obedience to the Shepherd nor the Shepherd be lacking in watchfulness over the flock.”
--- Roman Catholic Daily Missal, Proper of the Saints, Postcommunion, St. Gregory VII
The Way of The Pack is based on good shepherding. Before focusing on the dog, we focus on you. That is what makes it both simple, yet difficult. Owning the best livestock guardians there are means nothing in the hands of a lazy, cruel, impatient or incompetent shepherd. Here are some of the key elements of a good shepherd. You may be surprised at what is listed, but really, you shouldn’t be.
Focus. “This one a long time I have watched. All his life has looked away…to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing.” – Yoda, Return of The Jedi. Be here now. The good shepherd is living in the present and focused on the task at hand. Don’t have a “monkey mind” - scattered and jumping all over the map. Don’t negative forecast. A great percentage of problems with LGDs stem from unfocused, short-attention span shepherds who are distracted and out of balance. I blame this on too much Internet and social media. Focus is vital to being a competent LGD owner. Leave your cell phone off or in the house when you go outside for puppy training time. No texting, no tweeting! Be centered. Be with your LGD and focus.
Common sense. “Common sense is not so common.” – Voltaire. Cultivate it. Some old timers wryly note common sense seems to be fading from humanity and this sadly includes the agriculture community – but give us hope: develop some and use it. If it means asking your elders for their words of wisdom based on their years of experience you lack, then humble yourself and do so.
Patience. “Patience is bitter, but it’s fruit is sweet.” – Aristotle. Why are you in such a hurry? Will the world stop turning if you don’t get the sheep in your barn exactly at the time you think they should be? Of course it won’t. Will it end simply because your 12 week old LGD pup chased a hen for the first time? Absolutely not. The world is too fast; the movies we watch are hyper-paced, the roads we travel are checkered with speeders, the holidays have turned into a mad, frenzied rush. Why not step back, contemplate what is around you, and slow down? Rearing an LGD pup takes infinite patience to succeed and do well. Be patient with your LGD, and do not rush him.
Perseverance and persistence. "You cannot slay the dragon every day. Some days the dragon wins." – Colin Powell. Nothing worth having comes easy. Part of farming and ranching is getting up every morning, and dusting yourself off when you fall, and going again. Legendary rancher and horseman Tom Marvel once quipped to me, “If you have livestock, inevitably you will have dead stock.” You don’t quit just because you lose something or fail at a task - that is, not if you have persistence. “The master has failed more times than the beginner has ever tried.” .....
......You have just began the story and the book. Much more left for you to read!
YOU, the one who waits and waits for the time yet keeps making excuses, YOU read the rest of the key elements of my book for you to read it and study and think, too. Only this kind of focus will show you the way.
