a tale of tails, tenacity, and tedium, as told by me, usually barefoot and bellowing

Monday, May 16, 2011

I Should Have Known!!!

I was hoping the little hot pepper, Ki-Anne, would not find her voice...no such luck.  Maybe, I thought, if she stole enough cat food, she would purr and never learn to bark.
The cat food is not working!
She joins TP in search of the elusive mystery creature.
The monster terripin should be here somewhere!
There it is and Ki-Anne shouts to the heavens, I have found my prize.  For a dog who bravely nips at cattle and horses without a sound, she is awfully loud with these small creatures.  She will run in to sniff and jump back as if it's a snake.  I tell her, No! and distract her.

One evening Ki had something treed right outside the door.  I tried to shush her but had to go out to see what terrible monster she had this time...a toad frog!!!  To listen to her, you would think it was a mountain lion.  Despite her small body and even smaller tail, this girl has a big voice.  I had hoped against hope, that she would never discover her voice since she had been a less than vocal dog up to this point.  Too late now!!  Again, I distracted her and placed the toad under the fig bush away from her.  Not to be put out from that loss, she immediately began to search for another monster. 

This little lady is smart and shows promise of almost having a Border Collie level of intelligence...almost.  She no longer charges at the cats, they have trained her.  Now, when she speeds by, they do not satisfy her with running but stoically stand their ground.  The roosters are learning not to scatter and she prances through them trying to show her power.  They, too, have begun to ignore her.  The cattle and horses have accepted her as just another irritation, like a cow fly.  They no longer participate in her puppy games.

Ki leads, sits, shakes hands, knows "NO!", does not jump up and greets me each day after work at my car.  We walk together to the porch and she curls up in her bed as I go in the door.  Ki is a farm dog in training but is very good at cuddling!

Next training project will be the command, "Hush!"

15 comments:

T. Powell Coltrin said...

Good luck on that! she's a cutie.

Country Gal said...

She sounds wonderful and very much the charactor like my Miggy she has alot of Border Collie and Golden Retriever in her and Miggy is a smart girl as well. Its amazing how much they fill our every day with funny happy times, Miggy still jumps up to even though she has the weeker back leg but nothing stops them from being them does it lol. Great post and photos. Have a wonderful day ! PS Miggy says hi to Ki .

LindaG said...

Haha. That's what I was thinking. Good luck! I do hope you succeed in getting her to be quiet when you want her to be. :)
Happy Monday!

Tamara said...

She sounds like such a sweetie and quite the watchdog. hahaha Getting them to stop barking is the hardest of all I think. It's like they just can't help themselves! hahaha Good luck :)

Empty Nester said...

"No barking," works on Tucker unless he's treed a squirrel. Then forget it! And it drives our bad neighbor crazy when Tucker barks so I don't usually discourage the noise. Oops! Did I just say that out loud? LOL

ellen abbott said...

what a character.

Dreaming said...

Well, if she is as smart as you say, then maybe... just maybe you can teach her 'hush'!! We are struggling with that with our Tucker. He insists on telling us when cats are in the yard, when someone is walking by the house, when he sees a motorcycle (and that is when he's in the car... it is painful).

Years ago we had a barky dog. Our trainer suggested that we teach him to bark on command and then he might understand 'no bark'. We never really pursued this line of attack.

It will be fun to read about your progress.

I love that Ki is a mighty hunter of all things big (?) and small!

Far Side of Fifty said...

She is a good watch dog! She just needs to sort it all out..when to bark and when to hush:)

Susan Anderson said...

Sounds like she is making big strides with her training, bark notwithstanding.

=)

DesertHen said...

She looks, lays (legs sprawled out behind her) and sounds more and more like a Queensland Heeler every day! Our Maggie has a big bark, but very seldom uses it unless it is needed!

Rudee said...

I love your sweet dog and the tales of her escapades.

Rob said...

I think half the fun of having a dog is teaching it things, it fun to be with them and rewarding for all as well. There used to be a guy live nextdoor who had a dog that never barked which seemed a bit strange. Tommy is a very vocal dog which can be a bit annoying sometimes because if you go and leave him you are never sure if he is barking and bothering the neighbours.

Rising Rainbow said...

If you figure out what works for the "hush" I'd really like to know. I have a pretty vocal dog here and so far everything we've been told to try does not work for her. To make matters worse, the darn dog talks back when she doesn't like what she's told.

Irene said...

I'm sure Ki is just an eager communicator. I guess she is very talkative and you need her to quiet down a bit. I suppose her enthusiasm knows no bounds and she wants to tell you everything in a hurry. I hope you can slow her down a bit. Just think of how fond she is of you.

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Oh my! I've been missing around here and Ki sure has grown up. She's not so little anymore.

What a smart she is girl, though. I've taught Dobbie the hush command because she can get going when excited. Hush works well, but then she gets such a hurt expression on her face, as if to say, "I was only trying to be a good job and help alert you to important stuff".

~Lisa

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