Randall Glen is a working mountain farm and our Great Pyrenees are working farm dogs. Our goal is to raise strong, confident, happy pups that are ready to grow into their guardian roles in their new home. Our pups are immersed in genuine farm life from the time they’re born. We provide clean, healthful facilities to insure that they start off in the very best guardian way.
Our Pyrs patrol and protect all of our farm.
Our dogs freely roam the entire farm–field, mountain, creek, and forest–to protect our livestock. Before they go to their new homes, our pups apprentice with the big dogs for several weeks, learning their guardian job.
The Barnhouse is the heart of Randall Glen.
Our farmhouse is called the Barnhouse because it’s a real barn that’s been adapted for living. With its open plan, 10-foot ceilings, and exposed beams, it’s the rustic living heart of the farm. Special needs babies—puppies and kittens, goat kids and lambs, new-hatched chicks—come into the Barnhouse for bottle feeding, incubator care, and 24-hour minding. Randall Glen owner Mary Adore Coloney lives upstairs at the Barnhouse and spends many, many nighttime hours making sure the babies are well.
The Randall Glen dispensary is located at the Barnhouse, with a comprehensive stock of medicines, first aid supplies, prescriptions, vaccines, supplements–and even scalpels, sutures, and splints. With a vet tech on staff, we’re capable of immediately treating all but the most serious cases with injections, intravenous treatment, and minor surgery. Our nursery stalls are centered at the Barnhouse so we can monitor the births of our pups, and our hospital yard is centered here as well.
At the Barnhouse we carry out regular “farmy” pursuits too. In the big kitchen we preserve and can our garden vegetables and fruits, make butter and cheeses, bake farmhouse bread. We freeze our own pork, beef, and lamb, make our own sausage, and prepare nutritious meat-and-egg supplements for our Pyrenees. We feed and sleep our Shetland sheep next to the Barnhouse for safety, and in July we shear them on the Barnhouse porch.
The Barnhouse is also the office and center for welcoming our guests. We’ll sit down with you here when you come to meet your pup, review his puppy records, learn all about his puppyhood and his future needs.
The barn is Livestock and Pyrenees Central.
Next to the Barnhouse is Randall Glen’s 8-stall working barn. Here at the barn we trim goat feet, milk our Jersey cow and Nubian goats, groom and tack up our horses, hatch chicks and gather eggs. In the feed room we stock tons of feed specialized for each breed, and daily mix and distribute it to our hundred-plus animals and 200 poultry. We store many tons of hay for winter fodder.
In the tack room we keep the saddlery for our horses, our farm tools and hardware, and our secondary dispensary of medicines, supplies, and supplements. This is where the barn cats and their kittens nest, too. Visitors often marvel that the Pyrenees, the cats, and the chicks live peacefully together.
The goats and poultry sleep at the barn for safety. The barnyard is headquarters for the Pyrenees, who patrol all night and watch all day for threats. In cold weather we leave a stall open for them, but they usually choose to sleep outside even in the snow, keeping watch over their flocks.
Our pups are born in fresh air nursery stalls.
When birthing is near, we move Mama into one of the two nursery stalls close to the farmhouse where we can keep watch. They’re bedded in fresh hay and near the farm animals and other dogs, not shut away. In warm weather the nursery stalls are open air, well shaded and protected.
In cold weather the nursery stalls are insulated and heated. They’re always provided with electric light and monitored day and night–video, audio, and temperature–by Puppy Cams. Chickens roam freely in and out, and often sleep with the pups.
As our pups grow they move to puppy paddocks.
At about 4 weeks when the pups are walking well and started on solid food, we move the litter to one of our four puppy paddocks. Each paddock is a spacious lot with grass and wildflowers for romping and play, with a stout puppy house built of locally sawn red oak and floored with native stone from our mountain. Like the nurseries, the puppy houses are equipped with electric lights and monitored day and night–video, audio, and temperature–by Puppy Cams. They’re insulated and heated in cold weather and there’s a constant supply of fresh running water from our crystal-pure mountain well.
The paddocks adjoin the pastures so the pups can interact nose-to-nose with livestock. The paddock gate is always open so that Mama can come and go freely to nurse her pups and still do her guardian work. A knee-high barrier keeps the pups in. When they’re big enough to climb over it—around 8 weeks–they’re ready to be out with the big dogs. They may still sleep in their puppy house, but most pups choose to join the big dogs at the barn.
After the paddock, on to the whole farm!
Once they graduate from the puppy paddock, our pups spend about 4 weeks apprenticed to the big dogs. They begin to learn the ropes, watching for hawks in the day, patrolling at night and helping to fend off predators. They become well socialized with people and start learning which animals are welcome and which ones are threats. They tone their young muscles and cardio systems running on the mountain. And they have lots of fun! When they go home with you they’re ready to grow into their guardian jobs.
We do not kennel our dogs.
Our dogs range openly on our farm, free to protect and interact with our goats, sheep, horses, cows, pigs, poultry, and barn cats. In our mountain wilderness they defend against coyotes, bears, bobcats, foxes, coons, possums, weasels, hawks, owls, and—yes—mountain lions. From 8 weeks to adoption time at 12 weeks, our pups run with the big dogs and begin hands-on learning to protect their flocks.
There is only one kennel at Randall Glen, and it’s only used for “planned parenthood”. It’s a spacious grassy yard overlooking our creek, with a big 8’ X 10’ house. It serves as the “honeymoon suite” for breeding couples and as a temporary segregation for sires not scheduled for breeding a dam in heat.
Sometimes a dog needs to be isolated–due, perhaps, to a vet appointment or health treatment, orientation for a new arrival, or a dam in heat. We house them in a well lit stall in the barn, bedded deep in shavings, ventilated in summer and heated in winter.
And just in case—our hospital yard.
We house recuperating dogs or livestock in the hospital yard at the Barnhouse, where we can keep a close eye on them day and night. The big grassy yard is shaded by trees and has a snug house built of local hardwood. There’s grazing for sheep and goats, and the house is insulated and heated in winter. Critical cases are monitored day and night by Critter Cam.
Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall—At Randall Glen we raise excellent pups.
