Thanks for sharing your story harmony
. However, the situations are not analogous. Skip has always been shut away when not working until I moved here, because I was living on someone else's farm and that's how he did things. I hated having the dogs locked up in a stable when they weren't working or otherwise out and about on the farm with me. So thus far Skip's new life and partial retirement beats his previous working life hands down!
It's interesting to ponder how things worked previously, however. Skip did bark, from his stable in the corner of the farmyard, when someone new came into the yard. He learned who were the visitors who were regulars and/or friends, and did not alarm when they came. (Apart from one neighbour who Skip didn't like.
). So I had expected him to do the same here, learn who lives here and the regular visitors, and not bark at them. His failing hearing and eyesight, though, I guess make that harder for him. Also, I've just realised, I've no idea whether Skip used to bark a lot when we were out when I lived up north. We hadn't any neighbours near enough to be bothered by it, and no one ever mentioned it. So it is possible this isn't a new behaviour.
Not sure that helps any, mind.
I think as our dogs, whether work mates or pets or both, approach the ends of their lives, each of us has to make judgements as to what is and is not acceptable for that dog, taking into account our knowledge of the dog, our personal situations, etc. Most often we talk about these things in terms of health and mobility, pain and so on. In this case, I have to make a quality of life judgement for a dog I've worked with for 11 years (he was approx 2 when I bought him) who is not yet so uncomfortable (thanks to his medication) that life has become not worth living. I knew that an old injury would render him arthritic as he aged, and was mentally prepared for the decisions that would arise on that score. When I decided to move to the community here, I knew that there could well be problems with these dogs and the children here, and that I may end up having to muzzle or destroy one or both dogs if they couldn't learn to tolerate the children, if we couldn't be sure that the children were safe.
I wil think about what you've said, harmony, and whether it would be kinder to Skip to have him PTS than the alternatives. One complication is that I am still not yet in my own flat, but in temporary accommodation. This has all taken way longer than any of us anticipated, so I had expected that long before now I would have worked out some 'dog accommodation' under the decking or somewhere, where the dogs would see and hear less of the goings on around the rest of the community. However, this is all still many weeks away, and winter will be around the corner then, so maybe I'm not being sensible thinking that it will be worth hanging on for Skip.