# Farm Dogs.. what would we do without them?



## mehpenn (May 22, 2006)

We live on a small, working farm. We raise chickens and goats. Our dogs are used daily, and earn their keep, but sometimes I'm simply amazed as how well they do their jobs and how their instinct guides them. 
Yesterday evening, after all the random farm chores had been completed, and I was waiting on a couple new kids to finish their evening hay in the corral, I took the dogs in to relax for a bit. This is our normal, daily routine. While the kids are in the corral, having a bit of seperation time from the moms, I'll take the dogs and go inside and start on supper, and relax and fiddle around, and then when we've all had our supper, and I know the hens have all made it back to the coop, the dogs and I go out and make sure everyone is put back where they should be and locked up safely for the night. 
It's unusual for the dogs to request to go out between the time we come in and the time go back out for our final lockdown. But yesterday, Will, one of our GSD's, became insistant about wanting to go out . He was scratching and whining at the door, in a manner I'd never seen. Of course, the oddity of it makes you take notice, and knowing your dogs, you know the differance between a "I need to pee" behaviour and a "something's not right" behaviour. And his was definitely a "somethings not right behaviour". 
I went to the door and let him out, and he took off like a bolt of lightening. Down the porch, across the walk, out across the yard, nose to the ground. What the heck? What is that dog doing? I started after him, and then I noticed one of our kids (baby goats) was bellowing quite loudly from the corral.... I went down and checked it out, and sure enough, one was missing. 
At that point, I realized that Will had gone after the goat. How he knew it was gone, I have no idea, but he knew and he was tracking it. 
So, I started off in the direction I'd seen him go, with Zee on my heels and saw him behind a barn off across our road, through a grown up field that at one point housed cattle, but in recent years has been abandoned. He came around the side of the old building, saw me, barked, then circled back to where he'd come from. Zee stayed with me, and we watched him to do this several more times before we made it even half way to him. 
Zee and I are picking our way through the pasture, towards the old barn and suddenly Zee slipped in front of me, stopped dead in her tracks and started growling. I just about fell over her. What the heck is it now? I tried to step around her, but she moved in front of me again. As I started to step around her again, I saw a snake coiled up almost directly in front of us, in the midst of some underbrush. Zee kept herself between the snake and me, and kept her eye on it as I slowly backed away, fighting the urge to run, screaming for the hills. (I do not do snakes, at all. Not even a little bit. I don't know what kind it was, it could have been a harmless black snake, I don't know, and don't care) When I was far enough away that I was sure it couldn't uncoil and lunge at me, in that way vicious snakes do in my mind, I called Zee and we started picking our way on through the field, towards Will. We finally made it to him, and there, in a thicket of blackberry bushes and briars, was our little goat, stuck. Will had found him. 
I picked my way through the briars and bushes and finally got the goat loose, and with Will and Zee in the lead, we all made it back home, safely, where little Maverick was reunited with his mom and brother for the night. Zee and Will got special noms last night. I swear, I don't know what I'd do without those two. :wub:


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## LARHAGE (Jul 24, 2006)

Neat story, it's amazing how much you rely on your farm dogs and how intelligent they are, I had a Corgi years ago and one day she started barking at me to come outside and follow her, every time I went a different direction she would come and jump on me and run off looking back to follow, I finally followed her to a stall where the horse inside had its blanket hood slide over its head and it was blinded and couldn't move, I was amazed how that little Corgi had spotted it while on her rounds and knew it was not right, she was always on patrol and never allowed the horses to paw or bang their doors, I called her The Warden cause she didn't miss a thing! Lol!! I've had some fabulous ranch dogs, mostly German Shepherds and my bossy varmint killing terriers.


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## Rangers_mom (May 16, 2013)

Wow great story! Your dogs are incredible.


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

what an awesome story! Thank you for sharing!


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## Tina D. (Aug 29, 2012)

Love this story!! Thanks for sharing.


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