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Jackaroo  A few years ago I did a bit of jackaroo work. Every bloke that worked out there had a dog, and some of the big shots had two - a couple of dogs in the back of the ute was better than one. Every morning we would get the drum from the boss on what work we had to do that day. A lot of the time it was a shamozzle, a couple of the blokes dogs would take a disliking to each other and often an all in brawl would ensue. The boss's dog was the nastiest of the lot. We couldnt do anything much about it, all you could do was kick the bully when the boss wasnt looking, or chuck rocks at him out in the paddock. I had my dog, Bandit, sent out to me from town on one of the supply trucks. Bandit was a town dog I'd had since I was a kid. He had a bit of working dog in him, but the only sheep he'd seen where at the local dog trials. I knew that if anyone laughed at the old town dog, I could set him on the his dog. Bandit would make short work of any dog, he was a bloody good fighter. I spotted the truck briging Bandit from town and galloped my horse all the way back to the homestead to pick him up. My old mate jumped down from the cab, briefly peed on the trucks wheel, spotted me coming towards him and ignoring all the hoo haa from the station Kelpies tied up under the tree, came racing towards me barking. I jumped down from the horse and among the swirling red bull dust I greeted my best friend in the world. Next morning, when the boss's thug walked up to bully the new dog in town, Bandit bared his yellow old teeth, hackles rose and he let out a low, gravelly growl. The thug froze and retreated. This was the talk around the tea table most evening for ages after. For a few months, I didnt get much sheep work. The blokes with proven dogs got most of that, however Bandit enjoyed following my horse all day. When our turn came however, Bandit, having accompanied me on quite a few of those dog trials, seemed to know what to do. He went round, went back, spoke up and eyed with the best of them. Which goes to show sometimes old dogs already know the new tricks, they just need a reason to display them. |
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Another Wolf Web Solution