_ Annie teaches me the virtue of patience. She has certainly tried mine when I didn’t understand her ways or what took her so cotton pickin’ long to perform a chore. She does not understand rushing and is incredibly patient when moving livestock. It is hard to believe she’s Tucker’s daughter.

In the evenings when I send her for the sheep, I stand at the pen gate and wait. Sometimes it seems I wait a good while before I see them rounding the bend and heading for home. Occasionally, there is no Annie with them and I get a little exasperated, wonder what she’s up to, and stomp off to find her. Then I’ll spot her gently bringing up a small bunch of lambs that were probably sleeping under a tree. On the other hand, maybe I don’t see her at all and start calling. Then I hear a faint, high-pitched yip and have to follow the sound to find her. She is often watching over a lamb that is trapped or has collapsed and won’t get up. “Good girl, Annie, you take as long as you need because I know the job will be done right.”

Her best buddy is the BFL ram. They’re a goofy pair. She pens the sheep and puts them in the shed and he stands beside her as if he is helping her keep them in there. He loves her to lick his eyes and ears and she loves to accommodate him.

Annie’s Pedigree

Annie’s Working Evaluation

_ Tucker believes in speed. He says, “Listen up, sheep, we’re going home now and we’re getting there fast. Don’t you see Diane up there waiting at the gate?” We have spent a lot of time teaching Tucker to just slow down.

He is unusually patient with young, fragile or small animals. He never hurries a lamb or kid goat. His favorite herding tactic with a group of lambs or kid goats is to circle around them, bark in their faces and then head to the barn. For whatever reason, they follow right along behind him and he leads them right into their stall.

Tucker, one year, had charge of a small group of bottle kids that I bought from a dairy. He went out with me for each feeding and got to know them well. When the weather warmed, they spent their days in the backyard with Tucker. They would all be snoozing together in the sun on the back deck. Then a trespassing squirrel would get Tucker’s attention. He’d charge after the squirrel with seven baby goats running along behind him. It was Sheriff Tucker and his Posse.

Tucker’s Pedigree

Tucker’s Working Evaluation

_ Shane is our Indiana dog; we are so pleased with what we see in him. He’s a quick study, very biddable, responsive and shadowy, always right at hand. He looks into your face and tries to read your mind. He is more reserved and suspicious of strangers than Tucker and Annie are. He loves puppies!

Shane possesses good stock instincts and is somewhere between Annie and Tucker in strength and speed. That cock-eyed ear has a mind of its own and it used to drive me nuts to think he would always look a little off balance. Now, I’ve come to love those ears.

There is more about Shane on the “Farm Pup in Training” page.

_ The question’s asked around the earth,
“Just how much should a dog be worth?”
I do not know, how to be true,
So I will here be asking you.

There’s a neighbor, George, a one-armed man
Who does his work the best he can,
And chasing cows is not the fun
It used to be when he was young.

He bought a young black Shepherd dog
To help him through his daily bog.
Now when George has his supper ate,
Shep and the cows are at the gate.

Would thirty-five sound rather cheap
For a dog that works just for his keep?

Jolly Charley, across the way
Was cultivating corn one day.
You should have seen his troubled look
When he first missed his pocket-book.

He walked and hunted round by round
Until he covered all that ground.
But his long search was all in vain,
So he went to plowing corn again.

One time he glanced out to the south,
Saw something strange in his dog’s mouth.
And when he gave the second look,
He was bringing him his pocket-book.

Would Tig be worth right on the spot
What he brought in, on just one shot?

_
When I was just a little lad,
It was the bestest dog I had.
For every boy so rich and free
Enjoys that kind of company.

I never walked far from the home
Unless I took that dog along,
Of fear the Giggums might be out,
Or Wonks, Jim Riley talked about.

I always kept my dog nearby
‘Specially where the grass was high.
I walked along beside his track,
With my hand upon his back.

Slowly we two would trudge along,
Watchin’ fer the worst to come.
Just one strange move or some weird sound,
Just one ‘sigum’ and one bound,

The poor things always met their fate
By just one snap right at the nape.
Some a bunny, or a rat,
And often times a neighbor’s cat.

But do you think that you could buy
Those memories of my dog and I?
A few miles down the road from me
Lived such a pleasant family.
They had three girls and just one boy.

It was their hope and constant joy.
With some reverses they had met,
And were struggling with a little debt.

But what I want to tell about,
The man went to lead the sire out-
And quick as a wink the poor man found
That he was struck down to the ground.

And with the vengeance of a mob,
Went on to finish up the job.
The helpless man began to fear
His end on earth was very near.

But just in time and in the rough
Shep made one bound across the trough,
And set his teeth in that beast’s heel,
And Ferdinand began to reel.

Battered and bruised with ruffled hair,
Joe crawled across the manger there.
What price, dear friends, would you think right,
To have Daddy in the home that night?

Would a thousand dollars sound too dear?
No, figures I don’t want to hear.
I could not tell for all the earth,
Now, really what a dog is worth.