Every genuine or would be cowboy’s pride
and joy is his ‘good dawg!’ One of the highlights at a Stock Show is the
stock dog trials.
Now, allowin’ for
the fact that all my exposure to stock dogs in the past had been on
workin’ cow outfits, I wasn’t prepared to see a dog that actually obeyed
his master’s commands! It was quite a shock.
Accordin’
to the rules there were six classes of competition; three with cattle
and three with sheep. They were divided into Advanced, Open and Started.
In
the Advanced category the trainer could not cross a certain point in
the arena. Using primarily voice commands, he instructed his dog to
drive cattle through a series of gates, chutes and other obstacles.
These dogs were a pleasure to watch. They were quick and quiet and like a
good cutting horse, anticipated the critter’s moves. One of the best
dogs was blind!
In the second
category, the Open, they were a little less polished. The trainer was
allowed to stay closer to the dog and used more hand signals and a
louder voice. These dogs had moments of brilliance but, like any
sophomore, occasionally they get a little too exuberant or stopped to
check out the crowd.
The
Starter category was a three-ring circus! Wally’s dog Ruby, looked like
a cub bear on his first date! His hand signals reminded me of a
shipwrecked sailor who’d just spotted the rescue plane. He used a lot of
the same voice commands I’ve heard you ranchers use on your own dogs.
Ruby had the attention span of a Bartlett pear. Matter of fact four
minutes into her trial run she decided Wally could handle it by himself
and left!
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