Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Jack the Cow Dog

Me and Jack just chased the neighbor’s cattle off our property. Normally Jack gets in trouble for chasing our horses, so he was a bit shy about going after the cattle. I am forever getting on to him for heeling the Great Dane or nipping at the Rat Terrier. He drives the other dogs crazy. So I was surprised that he was not willing to take care of the cattle problem. With a little encouragement, he eventually got into the job. I’ve always heard that you need a "go" word for a cattle dog. "Get ‘em" was not working at first. And I said it over and over. After I walked the length of the pasture and turned the cattle, "Whoop cow!" seemed to turn Jack on.

Oh, you WANT me to chase cows?! Why didn’t ya say so! Okie dokie, I can take it from here.

He and Zoe, the Dane, chased the cows on back down the pasture. What fun!

6 comments:

Deb said...

Good going Lou, we'll make a dog trainer out of you yet! ;)

heh wv=liked

Jo Castillo said...

Glad you are learning to speak dog!

Buck said...

I'm tempted to say you're easily amused, but I won't. ;-)

Bag Blog said...

Deb and Jo, with all my animals, I should be able to speak dog.

Buck, we are a little bored around here during the cold weather.

Andy said...

We lived on a road with some ranchers. One day, Joe Silva's cattle got out on the highway.

Bandit, the blue heeler that belonged to the Smith family (not ranchers) was over visiting our in season pup, Lady.

Bandit had never worked cattle, but that dog personally rounded up about a dozen cows, heeled them back into Joe's pasture, and stood guard at the break in the fence until Joe got there.

It was fascinating to watch. It was just "in him." I mean, when he saw the cattle out, he quit thinking about Lady, and sprang in to action. Fascinating.

Bag Blog said...

Andy, cow dogs are just fascinating, and they have really soft hearts - wanting to please. I love my Jack dog, but then I love my animals.