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. He must have felt like he was being punished in that coat. That’s all you need – a fashionista for a dog! 🙂
My Mirrhi is the same as Boo, I bought her a rain coat and she won’t move in it, and she’s already a good and obedient dog, I can walk her anywhere off lead, at heel, she instantly obeys lots of commands. But is not happy with a raincoat on……so she just gets wet now. She doesn’t like a blanket on or under her either……….she’s a working dog breed like Boo, maybe it’s something innate in the breed that they feel coats are unnecessary or just plain restricting.
When i go out he goes to his corner in the barn and waits there, while I am gone. I found him shivering in his wee bed the other day, hence the coat for when he is waiting outside.. He will not wait INside, he has taken out screens and hung on handles to get the doors open if he is left inside when I drive off. He certainly moves too fast to need it when we are working. He also rides on the back of the truck to the other barn, Ton tucks himself behind the cab but Boo has to be out in the wind! We will see how it goes .. he was fine with it this morning. c
Well, good if he’ll wear it, I forget how cold it gets there, our winters are hardly cold and today is around 40C ….no coats needed!
I wonder if Boo has the thick undercoat my cattle dog Bo had. She liked her bed & blankets but never needed a coat. She would also do the paw on the foot, lean on the leg thing, but with my Dad.
It’s best to stay out of the stores for a while now. I never used to even think about Christmas until early December after my birthday but now I get in early. Other than pre/Christmas groceries and weekly fresh stuff, my gift etc shopping is done. It feels incredibly good. I love Christmas but hate the commercial culture of buy-on-demand occasions.
I love that lean on the leg and foot on the foot thing, he usually only does it with me so when he stood on the new guys foot it was a bit strange. .. c
Maybe it is the ‘new’ smell that puts Boo off. Would it help to put the jacket over your knees when you are at the computer, that way it would be your scent and not that of the fabric, that Boo would smell.
I have been ‘involved’ with training seeing-eye dogs for a number of years. They get taught that when their coat [not so much for warmth, but so ‘SEDA’ is visible and they are allowed onto trains and buses and into restaurants] is on it is ‘serious work time’, once it comes off they are allowed to ‘muck up’ 🙂 ! Perhaps it comes instinctively ? And, oh, it IS lovely to live in the country and not hear ‘I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus’ six times during one shopping expedition 🙂 !
You will remember that Logan my eldest son has the avalanche dogs.. and until you said that I had forgotton about his dog Kai being a brat until the coat went on.. very good point eha mama.
[biggest smile] . . . dogs are ‘clever people’ . . as you and I know . . . Kai and Logan will be busy soon . . .
Looks like Elsie and Auntie Del are having some girl talk. 🙂 Sweet Nanny Boo.
It’s so comforting to read to comments to your post, Celi. It brings me back to the days of young mothers discussing the perplexing questions their toddlers raise.