henry went to the veterinarian

henry has been sick and not really eating. we thought the worst. our vet is our large animal vet too. they understand that henry is a working farm dog. they understand that we love him a true love but his real value is that he protects our farmstead. i told them that he has never even been in the car.

things were a lot different from when most people who take their dogs to the vet. henry is not leash trained. in-fact he has never had a collar on him. i don't want to put a collar on him it just seems wrong for henry--each dog is different. to further complicate things henry doesn't come when you call him like most dogs will. when i call him he has always taken it more like a suggestion. eventually when he has resolved all other things he has bouncing around in his head he'll come. sometimes it is right away. other times if he hasn't checked the perimeter in a while he'll give things a good look around the be sure things won't fall apart while he is getting petted. he takes his job very seriously and i figure anything else i do as far as training goes will only detract from that.

so given the above constraints how does a person get a huge one hundred pound dog into the vet? luckily i'm fairly strong. i carried him. tabitha arranged the proper door people and that a room would be waiting. the waiting room made a singular gasp when they saw me with this huge thing in my arms. he is one quarter Komodor which means he is very fluffy and looks like he weighs two hundred pounds. he weighed in at ninety four pounds.

i am always surprised by peoples reaction to henry. he is a very scary presence. to us he is just henry. our big fluffy teddy bear that would die rather let something hurt his pack. he was very confused but well mannered as always. they said he has a temperature and likely has a tick borne illness. they prescribed antibiotics and pain killers and said, of the multitude of treatable things that can cause his symptoms, this medicine will fix it. we are hopeful.

we love henry and he is trained just the way we like him. he doesn't go into the yard and he protects us with a ferocity that is so comforting that we don't know what we'd do without him. when i set him down at home it was in the yard where he has never been. rome pounced on top of him. rome loves henry and henry has a special tolerance for rome's nose grabbing, hair pulling ways. we gave him his medicine and i carried him to his pastures. he seemed happy to be home. it was almost like he though he was never going to go back home again.

we are getting a companion for henry very soon. lgd's preform better in teams. we want to never be without livestock guardian dogs ever. our life is too enhanced by their presence.