Have you ever known a child who is perfect one place (maybe school) and a proper little devil in another place (maybe home). I know a dog like that. His name is Blue. 
We call him Boo. Sit, Boo-Boo, sit. He is the opposite – perfect inside and a heathen outside. Boo and I have decided that he is better off on a chain for the first part of the chores. Boo is less than thrilled about this decision but his behaviour needs to be checked. Firstly, he feels he needs to nip at the heels of each of the animals as I am calling them in. Hard. He nips hard. These large slow moving animals do not need or appreciate the hurry along.
They have got it in for Boo. In fact the other day I watched Queenie watch Boo run along beside him, Queenie stopped, adjusted her huge weight forward ever so slighty and the moment Boo was perfectly placed she let fly with a sideways back hoof kick. Yes, cows can kick out to the side. Hard. I heard a thunk, hoof on brain, and Boo returned swiftly to MY heel. Chastised. Silent.
Secondly, he is also giving the Big and very Old Dog a hard time. I know it is the way of the young buck to oust the old one but I cannot allow it. He is bumping into him, and trying to herd him, nipping at him. He does the same to Ton, running like a shooting dolphin straight at him and hitting him with his nose, hard. Dolphins can kill sharks by doing that you know. Boo is especially naughty if Ton is working. Ton’s job has always been to find each animal for me and anticipate who I am feeding next, watching the buckets and working out where we are going, and Boo has decided that his job is to turn Ton, push him sideways, dominate him and Ton runs like an arrow the moment he has his task in hand, arrows, dolphins, torpedoes, sharks. Collisions. When my tottery old Big Dog gets in the middle of that – it is not good.
All of this happens in the first 15 minutes of chores. So I have decided that for the first 15 minutes of chores, Boo is on his chain. He sits very quietly. Pretending he is the inside Boo. The sweet Boo who loves his teensy weensy tiny bung-eyed kitten who lives in the lid of a shoe box because the whole shoe box is too big and the cat is so small it could sleep in a child’s wooly hat and disappear and does. But that is the Inside Boo.
The last thing I need is a Blue Heeler with bad manners. I know he loves his kitty. Inside he is a prince, outside he might become a horror.
And we don’t need any more horrors.
Do we. I know I sound terribly strict .. well.. that is because I am. No-one wants an unruly dog around other vulnerable animals.
The hoses have also had to succomb to my wishes, they are to be drained of the water and hung on a fence post each night, I do this every winter, all winter, so they are not frozen solid in the morning. You will remember I have only one outside tap (faucet) to provide water for the whole farmy and it is right beside the house. I cannot afford to have hoses that are frozen solid.
Winter is coming and Miss C is getting ready.
Have a lovely day.
Love your stern friend,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
73 responses to “Sit, Boo-Boo – Sit.”
I’m wondering if you had to train TonTon as you are doing Boo. My Border collie would nip at the heels of his smaller little brother (not same breed) and herd him into the corner when he was young.
TonTon was much much easier to train. Ton wants to be good for me. Boo is another set of tricks all together. c
An untrained dog on a farm is a danger to himself and everyone else, so you have to take him in hand; he needs to know you are the boss, not him! He’s smart, he will soon ‘get it’!
As a Dog of Character, Boo is entitled to the saint/sinner mix.
Don’t you think you should work towards a back-up water source? Having only one of those would make me VERY nervous.
There is only one Well here, to sink another one would be astonomically expensive. So fingers crossed.. c
You’re not kidding! We need new leathers in the bottom of ours and it is costly! We’re hooked up to the rural water system, for the barn close to the shops and house and out at the hog barn. Our water comes from an aquifer. Fingers crossed for you here too Celi! 🙂
Always something! $$$$$$$$$
So Boo has to sit in the naughty corner for a quarter of an hour 🙂 ! I hope the message of ‘why, Miss C?’ will slowly get thru’ to him. Love the ‘Colonialist”s ‘saint/sinner’ comment tho’ about that teenager!! He’ll grow up and learn respect . . . .
Aw, cute photos!
Sounds like you’ve got Boo under control. We’ve had to do the same with our hoses. It’s a pain, but frozen hoses are far worse!
Your opening comment about a child made me laugh. My sister’s daughter got rave reviews for her behavior and helpfulness when she was in middle school. My sister always wondered if they
were talking about the same child. Either that or she did a complete personality change between getting off the school bus at the end of the drive and entering the house! We have had two wirehair pointing griffons, the old one (we lost him this past summer) could be disciplined by putting him in the fenced yard by himself and going about our business elsewhere, he hated that. I do believe you could bop the young one with a 2×4 and he wouldn’t get the message! They’re all different and some need more ‘finessing’ than others I guess. My schnoodle on the other hand is a stubborn little piece of work so we are constantly butting heads. It’s my profound hope he will learn, like the horses and the other critters here, that I ALWAYS win. Even so, I would not part with him for all the tea in China.
Forgot, while we have water in our garage which is close to the horses’ yard for the goats and birds and donkey we have a hose reel in the basement. This allows me to pull it out the cellar door and then crank it back in though it is a bit of a workout for the cranking arm!
Good thought though.. At least you are in the warm when you are doing the cranking.. I hear you with those dogs.. !
I still want a donkey.. c
Definitely a donkey! Now that I know where you are I can see what my rescue friends know!
I guess every dog has their own personality. It is good of you to identify that there is a problem in advance and get him to sit Boo Boo sit while the chores are done. I work with my 5 month old ball of fire personality “Buddy” Yorkie several time during the day like you suggested. However, at the end of the day he is a puppy and puppy’s sometimes need to be puppies and play and roll in the grass. Wishing you a super weekend. BAM
I love my donkey!
Hopefully, Boo will outgrow this puppy stage and settle down before long.
Dear Boo is so unnaturally mature and good with his baby that he has to let off steam at other times !
He sounds like a typical teenage dog, and in my experience of 17 dogs, he’ll be a teenager until he’s about three !! Good luck !
Considering today’s topic, that photo of Boo, with his muzzle extending out from the shadows, is perfect, Celi, as if Good Boo is starting to reappear. Easy to see he’s not happy wearing that chain but he’s a smart dog. It won’t take long before he realizes that life is easier when he does what Miss C says. 🙂
I like your stern approach. You can’t afford to have that sort of nonsense from Boo. You have to balance the needs of so many different animals; it must be tricky for you. Do you have a water tank fed from the roof, Kiwi style, just for a backup?
It’s like you have to say to children, that you are doing it for his own good – he will soon learn. We had to retrain ours in England not to rush out when we open the front door. In Spain it’s fine – they run out to a country track. In England it’s a road with cars on it. They now wait for us to call “Come on” and then they can walk out nicely on their leads or jump into the back of the car.