Our new puppy Boo continues to be a work in progress here at Struan Farm. At the moment John does her early morning feed and takes her for a long run with the quad bike, tiring her out. I feed her lunch and we play with balls or sticks and walk out to Chook World, where she pretends to antagonise the chooks from the fence while I feed them and collect the eggs. The hens decided early on to ignore Boo and I think they've made the right decision!
John and I take turns feeding Boo dinner, and John takes her for another run at the end of the day with the quad bike yet again. She has learned to sit and stay, isn't jumping up on people the way she was, will even come sometimes. John keeps trying to get her to obey farmdog commands like "come behind" and "get up." I don't feel the need to do this training since I don't really understand the point. She is not going to be a working dog, although she does need to coexist with the sheep and not bother them.
It seems John wants the dog to stay behind him when he walks, while I am quite happy to have her run ahead. So long as she returns when called. When we go out together with her there's the inevitable discussion that "someone" should be spending hours each day training her. I wish that "someone" would magically appear and get on the job!
Nephew Mike is another variable in the training equation. We have all had to agree absolutely no jumping on people, even in play. She doesn't understand the difference and we need to be consistent.
At least in my perfect world.
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