Mister McCoy: Annie's Playmate, Teacher, Disciplinarian

 Annie did not learn from my NOs  to stop chasing goats when they come running for apples and tree branches that  I throw over their fence. If I'm inside the fence instead of outside when she begins chasing, I can squirt her with the hose and that stops her. But I can't stand there all day with hose in hand. I noticed that Mister McCoy, when he was out in the evening and morning, would stand outside the closed goat gate (closed overnight and opened when I finish morning milking) and bark at Annie when she started to chase the goats. So I decided to open the gate and see what happened.

What happened was a surprise. McCoy walked in among the goats and they paid him no attention. But when Annie started to chase, McCoy growled and ran and stopped her. It only took a few times for Annie to realize chasing was dangerous. I left McCoy out the rest of the day... and every day since. He is ten years old and a little stiff and puts up with no nonsense from the pup. Time will tell what he does when the goats come in heat and jump on each other. He used to aggresively not allow that or any other sort of roughness and scared the goats. I'm hopeful he can now be out 24/7 to keep Annie under control without terrorizing the goats like he did when he was younger.

But McCoy has no magic for keeping Annie from getting too close in front of my EZ Go. She had a very scary encounter with it yesterday. She and McCoy had accompanied me with my load of sticks that the goats had stripped leaves from down to the burn pile (in-the-future-after-the-winter-rains-return burn pile). On the way back, Annie kept stopping to sniff things right in front of the EZ Go. I would stop as quickly as I could but one time I did not stop fast enough. She was squished under the front of the EZ Go as it ran over her. She screamed like she had been killed and ran off holding her right rear leg up. I thought it must be broken. But I soon realized she was running from the horses who had come up to see what all the racket was about. After I shooed them off, Annie let me examine her. There were no abrasions and nothing seemed broken, just bruised. She walked with a limp the rest of the day, but soon was bouncing with a limp.

Today she mostly doesn't limp at all but she keeps a great distance away from my EZ Go. I'm hopeful she will be cautious of cars now as well as EZ Gos.

Today I threw lots of branches and apples over the fence to the goats. Annie bounced over to chase. McCoy growled and lunged at her. Goats kept eating. Annie backed off. McCoy lay down in the corner and watched. When she attempted to "play" with the goats, he charged at her growling. She quit. Goats kept eating. Hooray for McCoy!!

The brown kid behind Annie is her best friend, other than Mister McCoy. April Starlight is not at all afraid of the pup and never runs from her. I wish the other goats were that smart.

Although Annie did not chase the goats while McCoy was watching her, she could not resist trying to get something going with him. He growled and lunged at her as though to say, "No rough-housing around the goats!" She rolled over in submission.

 

 But then sat up and looked at him. "You sure you don't want to play?"

He was sure.

And I am sure glad Mister McCoy has taken over the training of this energetic pup!

There Was a Little Girl Who Had a Little Curl...

 There was a little girl who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. And when she was good, she was very, very good. And when she was bad, she was horrid. That's Annie. (Although she doesn't really have a curl in the middle of her forehead. Neither did I as a child, I had curls all over my head, but my mom used to say that about me.)

Annie loves to chase things... chickens, especially, when she can sneak into the chicken yard. And goats when she's excited, which is much of the time. Most of the goats have learned to face her down. But one, in particular, is terrified of her. If I'm close when the action begins, I can squirt her with the hose while saying NO!! very loud. She stops. But I'm not always close. The goats are going to have to learn not to run from her. She doesn't want to catch them, after all. She just wants to race after them.

She also likes to escape the confines of the goat territory and come play with us, or chase chickens or cats. Johnny tore a hole in the fence with the tractor and she found it before he did. She was very interested while he repaired it and kept him company the whole time. She is a sweet pup... when she's not being a holy terror.

After fixing that hole, Johnny moved on to another place where Annie goes under the fence. She watched him fix that one, too. I wonder how long before she finds another escape route.

She found her way out to hike through the woods to the creek with Johnny and me on our first smokeless day. I didn't take any photos that day, but I did today, when she hiked with friend Mary and me. She was  attentive to Mary who was walking a safe social distance behind me and kept going back to check that she was still coming.

 

Down at the creek, Annie waded right into the water for a drink. then she spotted a leaf floating. It moved as Annie waded toward it...

So she had to catch it! And pull it proudly back to shore.

She led us onward toward the big maple, where the horses can go, too, so there are lots of interesting smells....

In the Qi Gong grove on the south side of our property, piles of bear poop and bear throw-up, all rather old, were in our path. Annie was not interested. But later, walking through the dry ash swamp, she found a place where some animal had scratched and urinated, keeping her attention for a long time... I would guess it was a coyote. Coyotes must be more interesting than bears.

 

As we went back to the barn, Annie scared up a covey of quail and took chase as they flew low and long to get away.  She doesn't seem to be interested in catching the things she chases. She just likes to chase them. Like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead, sometimes Annie is very good and sometimes she is, well, not so good.