I have decided Not to Shop for anything at all until AFTER the American Thanksgiving. This way I can avoid the Christmas Rush just a little longer. (They are already playing Christmas Carols). Thanksgiving is now Pre-Christmas. I think Thanksgiving is such an innocent and genuine celebration. Just food. Just people. What more could one possibly want. Why is Christmas already doing its dance?
Yesterday The Matriarch and I drove up to Chicago to collect the first of the Thanksgiving Visitors. On our arrival back home I found a package addressed to Nanny Boo. In the box was a new dog coat. A working dogs coat. Red. I loved it. But The Moment I put the coat on Boo he went very quiet. His ears went flat. And he stood still. His behaviour became incredibly good. Leaving me he went and stood beside John’s brother, (a complete stranger to the dog) put one big paw on the man’s shoe, sat down leaning on his leg and stared back at me. Still and silent in his beautiful red coat.
It was late .. about 9.30 m or something but I put my own coat on and the dogs and I went out to check the animals. Boo, still dressed in his coat, stuck so close to my side I could barely walk. He did not grab at sticks or chase Ton just walked right at my heel. Sitting when I stopped, pacing exactly at my heel. His good behaviour was unsettling.
I went in and checked the pigs, then came back out through the gate shutting it behind me. Boo always jumps through the gate. Ton and I were at the verandah already before we realised that Boo was not with us. I whistled and heard Boo crying. I turned the torch back on and walked back out to the pasture and there he was, on the wrong side of the gate, he would not jump over. I had to open it for him.
The jacket felt like a tether to him. So he could not jump. His personality was suddenly sedate and good. And scary.
I took the dog jacket off, it was all too much. A well behaved Nanny Boo was way too much for me to handle. 
We will try again today.
Love your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
43 responses to “No Title”
Poor Boo, sounds like he thought you were punishing him – some dogs just don’t like clothes 🙂 Elsie is a small cow, Aunty Dell will be towering over her very soon. Our Chistmas carols have been blaring in the shops since mid October, drives me nuts. Laura
I envy your incredible energy!
Poor Boo.
Bless him.
Poor Boo. Those clothes are often just so wrong for dogs. We have one for the puppy who really needs it in the cold (as I’m sure Boo does too), but he always eyes me very reproachfully. How could? he says…
How could you? I meant to say.
Poor Boo. I think he needs to sleep with that coat a bit, till it smells right and properly doggy. It’s probably a bit stiff still, too. Either he’ll get used to it, or you’ll get to like a well behaved Boo. I suspect the former!
Some dogs just hate having anything on, even a collar. Hope you have better success to day C.
Have a lovely day.
🙂 Mandy xo
I’ve heard that anything that causes pressure on a dog’s back is interpreted by them as a demand for their submission. This seems to prove that theory. I heard this on a BBC program about dogs and cats.
How odd that must have been to see Boo like that, not his usually bubbliy self. I’m with Kate. Maybe he just needs to muck it up a bit before it doesn’t feel like a tether. Elsie looks misshapen from that angle or maybe the calf in her belly is shifted to one side, but she is a beautiful cow. Does Aunty Del like having a new friend?
His coat might act like the ones they call Thunder shirt which is used to calm a dog of cat. I have one for my boy to use when it thunders.
I need 4 red coats for my dogs then…to have then quiet , obedient and behave properly would be perfection……At the moment they would just chew them up just like they do their bedding and everything else that they can get their teeth into
Thanksgiving has morphed into Christmas because there just isn’t enough money to be made off Thanksgiving. It’s a sad state of affairs. Black Friday is bad enough, but now Thanksgiving itself is becoming the frenzied day of shopping for bargains and consumerist craziness.
LOL. Reminds me of the time I put a harness on a cat to take her outside when I lived next to a busy road and she flopped upside down on the living room rug and pretended to be dead. Poor Boo. Extra doggie treat for him. 😀
I’m with you. I’d like Christmas to hold off until at least Thanksgiving evening after the dishes are all put up.
Sweet Boo. He’ll get the hang of it. Maybe put it where he sleeps and let his scent get all over it for a bit.