OLD JACK

       I grew up in the 40's and 50's on the Saskatchewan prairie. At that time quite a bit of the land was not developed.

      Most farmers had a dog...a farm dog. This dog was supposed to do work for the farmer by herding cattle. Very few dogs herded cattle because they had not been trained. The farmers didn't know how to train the dogs. Most of them were border collies. 

     The other thing the dog did was to act as a guard dog. They were hit and miss at this job too. They barked like crazy when the neighbors came on the yard. They sniffed all four tires and then left their own stink to be taken home by the car to the neighbor dog.

         These dogs stayed outdoors all the time. Some farmers had a dog house for the dog but most of the time the dog looked after itself. Most of the time they slept on the step. These dogs did not come in the house. As kids we thought it was ridiculous that a dog would be in the house. 

       We had a great old border collie by the name of Jack. An uncle gave us this dog and he had trained it reasonably well. But Jack had some issues. Jack would chase every rabbit on the farm. He would go bounding through the brush yelping as if he had been only half shot. He would come when called from this activity.

     You just had to say the word car and Jack was at the car door. Jack thought that any vehicle that moved on the yard meant a ride for him. He liked riding on the tractor all day. Why? When a rabbit bounded up in front of the tractor Jack leaped off the tractor in a dangerous way to chase the rabbit. One day Jack didn't quite make the leap off the tractor. The tractor ran over Jacks hind end. He was yelping for a different reason. He was very sore and in pain for a few days but he survived. Fortunately the soil was soft and he was not injured badly .

    Of all the farm dogs we had Jack was the best.