The only real herding that we have seen lately on the farm is Kupa herding the guineas. Watch this sequence.
This goes on for ages sometimes, 
He will walk around and around them keeping them in one place..
..or moving them across the field and then back. 
Kupa was disconcerted yesterday because one of the guineas is on the wrong side of the fence and he cannot get him back into the group.
Break away! And then he started all over again. You get the idea! I am thinking of training him to work sheep! Or maybe cats. 
Usually that is all the herding we ever see. But I was digging potatoes for dinner yesterday when TonTon came barreling around the house at top speed and ran right past me. Just roared past. No ball in his mouth. No begging to play. Hmm, I thought that is weird, then went back to digging up a dinners worth of my pitiful harvest of potatoes.
Around he came again, galloping at high speed, his tongue hanging out, this time he ran up, leapt past and appeared to pause in midair, catching my eye, feet peddling road runner style then hit the ground again and kept on running around the house and back out of sight.
Weird, I thought again and taking the basket of potatoes, went over to the frog garden to pull some beets for a salad.
I gathered enough beetroot then cut some greens and wandered with my basket around the front of the house, the dog galloped past me again and I watched him shoot at top speed from me straight to the open barn doors.
This time I had a clear view of the front of the barn. As Ton ran towards the doors out popped the Baby Bobby. He must have opened his interior gate and was wandering in and out of barn on the House Side. Bobby danced on his long legs out into the yard, saw the dog running at him, turned and high tailed it back inside. Ton braked, raising a cloud of dust, turned and ran back to me, around me and then ran back WITH me, as the Baby Bobby popped out again like a giant jack ‘n’ a box, to startle again at the sight of the dog and run back in again. I shut the Bobby into his side of the barn and double latched his gate. How long have you guys been doing that?, I asked Ton as he threw himself with relief onto the ground, his tongue in the dust. Good dog. TonTon may not be the best herder of sheep, but he does like everything to be in its proper place!
Good morning. Poor TonTon, he was desperately trying to get my attention, as well as stop the naughty calf from getting out onto the drive and into the bean fields! And I was ignoring him. Bad miss c.
The internet spat the dummy this morning so I had to call the nice man and he helped me reboot it. However I am very late at posting. I am so sorry. Now wea re all at sixes and sevens. The upside is that while waiting for the internet office to open I got piles of yard work and mowing done. So here it is 9am and I am quite delightfully ahead of myself!!
Oh and yesterday there was only the briefest of showers, someone dragged my rain cloud away to their farm!! But we did get some lovely puffy vacuous girly clouds! No strings on these baby clouds.
Have a lovely day.
celi
What happened on this day a year ago. Well nothing at all evidently! A nice quiet day here too. With some discussion about my plans for the blog.
The Kitchen's Garden 
71 responses to “TonTon saves the Baby Bobby Blanc”
Sometimes I forget to listen to my dog, too. Good Ton Ton.
Well they are dogs! As often as this happens i am always surprised to see the dog take the initiative! c
Animals really do get into sync and routine with us! They know when something is amiss! hehe glad to see there’s some herding going on… even if it’s not with sheep!
This sure is a strange place to live sometimes!! morning ashley! c
Ton Ton could have done a good job here this morning. As I took a short cut through some farms, to avoid sitting behind yet another combine harvester, Happy to be able to move at more than 20mph I whizzed round a corner startling two Charolais calves, who were patently playing truant as they had clearly been munching rich grass at the side of the lane before my reckless arrival, into very Bobby Blanc leaping and running,. Maybe they’re part of a free wheeling hippy herd because the grown up cows where all lounging about and seemed quite happy that the kids had found a way out of the field and were leaving them alone. Not having herding skills myself I followed Bobby’s system and high tailed it out of there.
No point trying to herd them anywhere, I just want to know what those mama cows were chewing on, while lounging about letting their kids run loose like that!! c
It’s just as well that I was too busy to log on this afternoon, or I would have been worrying about you! As it is, the first lot of guests have gone and the next arrive Monday, so a serious amount of tidying and bed changing plus refilling the stores. I’ve also made and semi finished (down to the ties) 8 new seat cushion covers for the garden chairs. Now for a bit of me time.
Will you tell that clever Tonton that he has a number 1 fan in France.
I do hope you get to have your Me Time sitting in your lovely newly covered cushions. you are so clever at stuff like that Viv! And you need a wee breather before the next onslaught! c
I learned long ago that if a dog is doing something odd, stop what you’re doing and check. My erstwhile shepherd-mix, Lady, acted like that when the Butterfly climbed out a window at the age of two…
Good Boy, Ton! She’ll listen to you quicker next time!
Just inside for a quick lunch – Free Friday, today! Those weeds don’t stand a chance!
Lady sounds like a clever dog!! A day off!! Excellent.. you will have a fantastic day in the garden.. I hope it is a bit cooler out there for you, we are having a fantastic garden day!c
It’s interesting that TonTon does not herd sheep well. He’s so skilled in so many areas and intelligent I just assumed he could do everything.
The sheep laugh at him, just ignore him, he does not have a hope!! c
Oh this post made me laugh out loud, what a dog!
Christine
Morning evening Christine.. over there in scotland..
I see you’ve got your sat nav fixed, ha, ha!!! Top ‘o the morning to you too!
Christine
Poor TonTon couldn’t get your attention, but given that the last few times he’s wanted your attention he’d been SKUNKED, it’s really no wonder that you were ignoring him! 😉
Exactly.. little stinker! c
For some reason, this story reminded me of the movie BABE…”That’ll do, Ton, That’ll do”
Enjoy your day C
Love that movie, i have not seen it in years~~ c
Sorry about making off with your rain cloud Celi! We so desperately need that rain, although didn’t have it for nearly long enough before someone else pulled that string and made off with the rain cloud. Darn! I hate it when that happens! XO
Ha ha Thats Ok.. I like to share.. But someone else is pulling on our strings.. we need to track them down!! c
Ton is such a good dog. So intelligent! And Kupa just puts a smile on my face without fail. Have a great weekend C!
Funny how animals recognize the order of thing – and want that maintained. (they will get you trained eventually!)
Glad you had nice clouds to soothe the internet annoyance!
This is written AFTER the absolutely wonderful Opening Ceremony in London and it did not rain, well a wee few drops ! Am an ardent anglophile, so appreciated everything from the tongue-in-cheek 007 [HM the Queen being a wondeful sport 🙂 !] to the London Symphony to the thoughtful flag and cauldron lighting ceremonies! Sang ‘Hey Jude’ to lift the ceiling whilst watching from bed . . . Yes, well – TonTon is probably wondering why you were just a tad slow on the uptake and left him to do ‘all the work’! Lovely clouds!!
I love ey Jude too, I can just imagine you sitting in bed over in Aussie just singing out loud.. brilliant! morning Eha my new friend!
Celia you tell the best story. What a delight. I just smile all the way through it. Thank you for making my day even brighter. Virginia
Morning Virginia, i hope you are going to have a lovely quiet weekend.. (with ice cream!) c
This is almost like a Lassie story – ha!