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Cimarron Doorco Copper

Copper now lives in Beautiful Scenic Door County WI where he has Holsteins to boss around like his uncle Shooter!

Just thought I would write quick and let you know Copper got home to the farm and at first wasn't to sure of running around the barn, but got braver the longer he was in there. AFter about 1/2 hour in the barn Austin climbed up on the boxstall door and a calf about 2 months old came bounding over from in the pen and Copper started barking at the calf. We thought, well the calf startled him or something, but later Dan and Austin were bottle feeding two calves in a different pen and when Copper ran down by them and saw the calf right next to Austin he started barking again at the calf.

This morning Austin went into a pen with a brand new calf from during the night and Copper ran in and was barking at the calf. When Bridget(9 yr old) was later feeding the newborn he didn't like that either, and just before we came in all three kids were in the pen with the newborn and Copper was barking at the calf. So, looks like the instincts are already kicking in!! He did give us one scare when the kids were walking down in front of the cows and Copper was in the back alley he decided to jump right thru the cow stalls and get by the kids, the cows never moved----good thing. Well, gotta run, get to start washing all those cows today for classifying ....yippe!! :)

The kids have been loving him and today was some more great signs from him at this early age. We are right now switching 4 cows to milk, and we had moved two of them and Dan was letting down the two heifers, when one of them deicded to go up front, so Dan went after that one and the heifer that was coming down the back alley towards me, Copper was following. When the heifer stopped and decided to turn around, Copper started barking at her, knowing she wasn't suppose to be doing that. She stopped and just stood there until Dan came walking behind her with the other heifer.

Hi Erin,

Sorry it took me so long to answer back, but we've been awfully busy, between trying to get things done inbetween the rain and being at the softball diamonds with the two girls.

Copper is doing great. He tries to do the right thing most of the time with the cows. He does like to go at their heads sometimes, but usually we can call him back. He does really well when he goes to the bull farm with Dan. He, like Shooter, keeps the bulls back if Dan has his back towards them. With the bulls he likes to use his feet on their heads some, but he takes no crap from them, and does his job. Even after getting kicked, he gets right back at them. This week the girls started walking/jogging their show pigs for the fair, to build the pigs muscles up, and he is trying to help with that too. I haven't seen it yet, but the girls say he likes to hit them on their backs with his feet. When they don't move fast enough for Copper he runs at full speed and charges right into them with his head. :-) He is a cow dog much more than a pig dog!!!

I haven't taken any pictures of him with the cows or heifers yet, but when I get some good ones I will get them to you or your mom.

Julie

Hi Elaine,

Sorry it took so long for me to get back to your email concerning how Copper is doing. Seems like we are always running, between the farm and the girls in sports it doesn't leave much time.

Copper is doing good. We can tell he is in the teenage years, sometimes thinks lately he doesn't need to listen, but most of the time he is good. He tends once in awhile to get to fast with the cows and heifers, but will back off most of the time when we yell for him to slow down. He does like tails! If we don't watch him with cows, bulls or heifers he likes to grab their tails when he is moving them.

He knows right away he does wrong when he grabs them, he stops and looks at us sometimes before we can even yell "no tails" at him. He loves going to our second farm where we keep all the bulls with Dan. Without even being told when Dan goes into the pen with all the bulls, Copper corners them all into one corner of the pen and keeps them there while we are in with the bulls. If all the bulls behave and just stay there Copper will bark at one to get it to run out just so he can chase it back. When we let out cows or are moving the heifers up the lane to their pasture he knows the command to "speak to them" and will bark at them to keep them moving.

As far as people coming to the farm, some he barks at and others he could care less about. I think when there is no one here he is a little more skeptical of them being here. Most of the time he just wants attention from anyone who comes.

If you will send me your postal address, when I get some good pictures of Copper I can send them to you. I am not a genius yet on this computer, so to get them on here and to send them would take some doing, so right now mail is still easier for me. :-)

Thanks,

Julie