Tied Down

When faced with the challenge of teaching your adolescent livestock guardian dog what it needs to be doing there are a limited number of strategies you can use.  Most people have more than one guardian dog and depend on the older dog to teach the younger dog its manners so to speak.  Some people choose to keep their young guardians in kennels located in the stock pens.  Other use the time honored tradition of the tire.  The dog is tied to a tire in the pen with the stock to literally slow it down.  It serves as a reminder to the dog as to where it is supposed to be and limits the amount of trouble it can get into.

Because of Bella's teen aged bad behavior she is the unhappy recipient of the tire treatment.  Under no circumstances will she go into a kennel and I don't have an older dog so my options were restricted.  Poor Bella has hurt feelings.  She is an unhappy puppy right now.  Before you start thinking I'm abusive and cruel, you need to understand that Bella's job in life is to prevent my sheep from being ate by predators.  Well Bella has recently taken to doing things like hanging out by the road and chasing trucks.  She has also decided the flower beds, you know the ones surrounding the house (as in not the corrals), make a great bed.  From where she barks madly even when no coyotes are howling.  This makes for an interrupted sleep for me as I repeatedly get out of bed, go to the door and shout at her to "get back to your sheep!"

Let us all hope for my sanity and Bella's safety the tire trick proves effective.