Scott's Stand-In

Well, Scott Glen has been my mentor since day one. I am sure he tries hard not to laugh when I make boo-boos or worse yet, whack me on the ribcage when I do (yet) another stupid handler command. But luckily for me, he lives about a million miles away and I only see him a few times a year. By the time he shows up again, my bruises on my ribcage are healed.

 

Most of you know that I got his Open dog, Maid from him about 1 1/2 years ago. She is sure got down classed....most of us want to marry up but she married down...but, she forgave Scott for his transgression. Anyways, Maid is one of my two Open dogs and as it is, she thinks she is the Queen on the farm. Since Tess passed away, Maid has taken over her role and duties at the farm. She offers her opinion on everything, whether I want it or not!

 

When I used to work any of my dogs and Tess was loose, she would run and down the fence line until I told her to stop. Then she would just hop the gate into the other pasture and work sheep, on the same commands that I was using on the dog in training. When I would scold her, she would hop back over the fence and then work the chickens. Whatever.

 

But Maid hasn't learned this gate hopping trick yet, but she does the working chickens trick.

 

Then one day, I scolded her and told her to go lie down and quit bugging the chickens. I looked over and she is in my chair, giving me, yet again," her opinion of my training." I think Scott sent her to spy on me so he could get a good laugh at my special handling.

 

 

Either way, she quite enjoyed the view from her chair. She would lean to the right and then to the left, depending where I was in the field. It was fun watching her.

 

In her mind her thoughts were:

 

"Oh great, wrong flank, dummy"

 

"You need a better down on the dog...three steps later is not a down and we are not in reining class"

 

"Whoa there, missed that panel by a mile. I see you are wearing your new glasses...waste of money"

 

"I think Billie is going to hang up a new sign at her kennel- double shots start now"

 

"Really now, that's a new and novel approach, too bad it didn't work because it is wrong"

 

"Falling backwards on a sheep doesn't get you any extra style points"

 

"Can I get a bus ticket back home to Scott's?"

 

"I don't remember Scott teaching you that."

 

"How many treats will you pay me NOT to tell Scott what you just did?"