mom's little helper

[DeltaBluez Tess]

Ever have one of those days when you had a "mommy's little helper"

 

I sure did today. I put my ~11 week old pup in the house with the Jeff (spouse) and went to tend sheep. Tess, the right hand at the farm was watching TV with Jeff and looked too comfy to help.

 

So I wander down to the barn and get this *bright idea* of moving sheep to one pasture to the next. The gates are 90 degrees to each other and five feet apart. The sheep have gone fomr these pastures many times and know the routine. (or so I thought). I have a bucket of grain and *usually* the sheep mob me. (read: follow me where I go with the grain - I don't assume this anymore)

 

I look up at the house and the idea of maybe getting Tess out to help me, flashes briefly in my mind (should have got the clue here) and then I open the gate and shake the grain.

 

Meanwhile Trey, the pup needs to go potty and Jeff lets him out, unknown to me.

 

The sheep sniff briefy at the grain bucket and spill past me to my driveway and wellhouse and I think, "smart move, sheep don't want grain, gotta get Tess". Sheep are not coming to me when I shake the grain.

 

Then I saw the sheep raise their heads and then bolt past me into the pasture they just had vacated. I wisely moved out of the way while trying to not to spill the grain.

 

Trey, is fetching them to me. 12 ewes and one tough ram. At a dead run. They stop at the mouth of the gate as if to challenge him. Trey leans his head down and walks into them. They bolt and I stand there with the grain.

 

Trey looks up at me and ask "what next, oh foolish mom?"

 

I put away the grain and pick up Trey and we watch tv.

 

i got me a "mommy's little helper"

 

Diane Pagel

[Tassie]

I love that story, Diane - that's one of those 'need a box of tissues' moments. You must be thrilled with your little guy.

 

(BTW, I still think with gratitude of the insight I got from your story on your website about your 'micromanaged' AKC dog. Every time I catch myself over-commanding my little fluff-butt, I try to remember to pull back and let her figure it out, and trust her some. She and I have got to the stage where she's very unlikely to hurt sheep - so the worst that can happen is that we have a long walk to go gather sheep again and have another try at what we were doing.)

[DeltaBluez Tess]

>>BTW, I still think with gratitude of the insight I got from your story on your website about your 'micromanaged' AKC dog. Every time I catch myself over-commanding my little fluff-butt<<

 

 

Wow, talk about old history. That dog is approaching 12 and has been retired for many years.

 

I learned from my mistakes and now my dogs run much better as a result.

 

I sure am glad that I was converted to ISDS trialing many years ago.

 

 

Diane Pagel

Shiro, Tess, Koko, Bonnie, Faye, Mick, Kane, Dodge, Trey, Becca, Zot