Uncle Greyson shows the puppies that his bark is worse than his bite.

These Flock Guardian puppies are playing with their uncle Greyson who has a piece of bark from a big old Maple tree that blew down by the barn in the last storm. We don't breed our dogs very often, only about every five years or so in order to have overlapping generations of dogs in the pack that protects our sheep and farm in general from coyotes and other predators. Unlike the way some Livestock Guardian Dogs are utilized on farms and ranches, our dogs are home companions as well as working dogs, and for that reason we like to make sure our puppies are well socialized with people as well as all the other animals on the farm. On a small farm of the scale we operate we don't need the dogs to be with the livestock twenty-four seven. They come and go from the house and always let us know if and when there's something to be concerned about outside.

In this video, Greyson who is the brother of the mother of these puppies, plays with them gently as well as teaching them how to be appropriate around other dogs. This kind of interaction between a gentle adult dog and these puppies is very important in their growth in terms of later behavior. In general, puppies that are naturally weaned by the mother dog and who have other well behaved adult dogs around to interact and learn from make for much more stable and well behaved dogs as they grow up.