Leadership and Mangement on the d1

When I am driving down the road in my truck with my stock trailer in tow and my three dogs tied up in the back of my truck, I look like a pretty punchy dude who could ride 10,000 acres gathering any long eared calves that came into view. Well, looks can be deceiving. I have a nice truck, trailer, and horse but my dogs are far from winning any stock dog competitions. On the driver’s side of the truck Mojo leans over the bed, filling the side mirror of my truck. On the passenger side, Roo peaks his nose over the side of the bed cowering as if we were driving through the back streets of Baghdad.  And then there is Sammy, who sits in the middle starring up into the sky pissed off that she is not riding in the front seat. We all look good driving down the road, but when the tailgate drops the bullshit stops.

I have been working a long time on creating some dog power, but instead, I have resorted to studying the astrology of my dogs before I gather cows.  Every time I move or gather cows I wake up in the morning thinking maybe today is the day my dogs will work great. Once, on September 14, 2014 at 9:00AM they worked well together for a while.  It was a great day. Mars and Juniper were aligned and it was a half-moon, but unfortunately, I will not see that alignment again until 2030. The other day I ran into a neighbor and he said “I knew you were ups there the other day gathern, cuz when you are yellin at them dawgs  it sounds like you want to take their mothers to Fuddruckers.” I am just glad his hearing is not that good and he just thinks I am weird for yelling “Ducking Ditches” every time I am moving cows.

                                                                       Roo

 

 

Let me introduce you to my pack. Roo is a 10 year old male Border Collie who suffers from bipolar disorder. I diagnosed his bipolar disorder when his horoscopes were not matching.  Roo is a Gemini. So one morning before going out to work cows I read his horoscope:
Volunteer to take on an extra task today. When someone declares that there is a bit of extra work to be done, don't be afraid to jump on it. Doing so will put you in good favor with your superiors and will lead to big opportunities down the road.

Well none of this came true, in fact he thought it would be better to run back to the truck so he could spend the rest of the day decompressing.

 

                                                           Mojo

 

 

 

 

 

Mojo is an 8 year old male McNab. He has great athletic ability, very muscular, and has the ability to cover a lot ground and never get tired. The only problem is that he has no herding instincts. My wife really likes Mojo, and she constantly makes excuses for him and thinks that he is just a late bloomer. Every time we go out to gather cows, I tell my wife if Mojo gets a head of the cows, he can sit at the dinner table and eat a steak. It was always a confident bet for me, but one day on September 14, 2014 he got a head of the cows. I debated the incident and insisted that a ground squirrel had lead him to the front of the cows. Well he did not like sitting at the table but he sure liked that steak.

 

                                                        Sammy

 

 

 

 

Sammy is a 4 year old female Catahoula cross. Sammy is the best cattle dog I have and she is very good at stopping cattle but after that, she does not understand the phrase “that will do” or “get behind.” Sammy is ok most of the time, but not very consistent, which brings me to why I think cows can communicate between one another. If cows could talk I think there conversation would go like this: “ok number 120, you stay back 3rd from the lead, when they send the dogs, and that tri colored dog comes by you…start a fight with her and that will start carnage and confusion…then it will give the rest of us time to run into the brush, split up and then we will all meet back here tonight.”  Even though I like Sammy, my horse hates her because he usually has to run up and down hills to fix the carnage she starts.

 

I am a true believer in that there is no such thing as a bad team only a bad leader. So I will continue to study the moon and stars, anticipate the cows’ strategy, and continue to help my dogs succeed at their job.