Cieba had turned out to be a deeply unhappy dog, that never adapted to either a role as a working LDG or as a house dog, even though we had tried both several times. She never warmed to us – or the goats – or even gave any indication that she was anything other than completely fearful of everything. She didn’t seem to be quite as terrified of me, but her distance and unacceptance of Melisa was staggering. Melisa is normally the pied-piper, the animals ALWAYS gravitate to her – even the dogs that are supposed to be ‘mine’. Not so with Cieba. We tried repeatedly to get her to calm down, we used herbal remedies, medication and an abundance of love, all to no avail. When she was out with the livestock, she treated both of us, and Melisa in particular, as if we were strangers and predators, barking incessantly at us, all while not seeming to be interested, protective, or even vaguely attached to the livestock. She would eventually calm down with me when I was out for a while, but would never stop with Melisa. When in the house, she isolated from the other dogs, not showing any interest in, or affinity with, any of them. I think that it broke Melisa’s heart that she was never accepted by Cieba.
Cieba in the Goat PenCieba was an absolutely beautiful Akbash, and we had got her originally with the intention to breed her but, with her temperament, to do that would have been totally irresponsible. So we had her spayed in the hopes that that would assist in calming her down, but still to no avail. After sixteen months of trying to find a way to get her integrated into the family, or finding a niche for her, with no success and, after consultation with both the breeder and our vet, we came to the painful decision that we just had to let her go.
