Wayne's Custom
Leather & Leaning
Tree Cattle Dogs and
Quarter Horses
Leaning Tree Dottie
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Jake
ABCA 288799
Smooth Coat Black/White Male
DOB 8-30-06
Breeder: Pete Carmichael, Timber Lake, SD
Placed 12th at the 2011 National Cattledog Finals
My Dog Jake
He’s my right hand,
always up for the chore
Whether moving the sheep or corralling the hog
Sometimes he complies but others he defies
I ask for left and he might give me right
We work day and night, to get it all right
As time goes by the right outweighs the wrongs
The day comes to soon, the day of the test
When we work as one to complete a new task
I wait at the post, for the cattle to be set
I send him come-bye, rather straight to I get
The rest is a blur, he goes this way then that
I feel like I’m hanging from the tail of a fast cat
This just wasn’t our day, I question myself
Is he as good, as good as I had hoped?
On the way home we ponder the question,
Is this all worth the time and emotion?
It maybe time to throw in the towel
The trial was too much, just too much for me now.
A stop at a friend to discuss our debacle
Maybe my dog is just not meant for cattle
Go bring in my heifers, let’s see how bad it is;
Why would I try, it is what it is
But what the heck, I might get more confirmation,
That my efforts are not yielding even close to my expectation.
I send him come-bye, he’s off on his way
He stops at the top and crisply rolls in;
Walks up like a pro, commanding his cows to go in.
The cow’s make a challenge to the feeder they go,
My dog slides left forbidding their goal.
Come – bye then Away I get him dialed in,
Then Stop and Walk up and take them straight in.
They balk at gate not wanting to go,
Old Jake hits them hard, oh how they wish they had gone
The cows disappear through the gate at the end
He holds in the gap until I can get there to finish the pen
But tonight it is different then earlier that day,
No cows will get out, with Jake guarding this gate.
The task is complete, my dog at my side
At that moment I realize, how special he is.
It’s not what he does when pitted against others,
It’s the real work we share that counts and most matters.
There will always be days that he knows better then me,
I may say here, he may say no way;
The truth of the matter cannot be denied
I now have to ask, was the failure all mine.
Back to work we go, day and night,
Working real hard to get it all right
The work is no longer to win at the trial but
To develop a true working bond between me and my partner.
