The Border Collie Chronicles Observations from (arguably) the World's Smartest Dogs; (but, without question, the bestest friends!) or, Life As We Understand It, as told from dad's shop. |
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Posted November 2, 2011 |
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Setting Goals (expectations and … realizations) by Gall (a Border Collie, hereafter referred to as BC) |
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Ain't that pretty!! It's Raining! (in 2007) Composing my next Story! The creation of this article! Just enjoying a bean! On the prowl for a rabbit! Look Out! Oooooh! Bad Bean! |
Definitions of
'goal' as searched from
ask.com
(noun)
1. aim
2. the end point or target in a race or game
3. single score in various games
I believe that goals are a
good thing for a “crew” (not “Team” – keep reading) to shoot for! Me,
my two sisters, my mom, and a brother try
REALLY HARD to meet goals established by Dad.
Fortunately, they are typically goals that are achievable – as you
know BC’s are often over achievers and we are always ready for an
“opportunity”.
When Dad
put in a tree nursery in the back trap, we were excited. We
knew that rabbits would be a problem – but we thought that we had it
all under control. We got seven rabbits in the FIRST
NIGHT alone!! We were ecstatic!! Dad
praised us … but the next day, he put out notice BC (that’s Border
Collie, remember) 123. Well BC-123 outlined his expectations that
we were expected to catch 21 rabbits – further, this was divided as
follows: Me (the star athlete) – 5 rabbits; Patches (a
crippled dog) – 5 rabbits; Annie (a 10 month old pup that has the
attention span of a rope) – 5 rabbits; Rooney (the Mom of us all and
who is on arthritis medicine now) – 5 rabbits; and Bubba (a boy who
is as slow and as clumsy as his name implies) – 1 rabbit.
Well, at
first, I didn’t have too much concern over BC-123 since I had
caught six of the seven rabbits on the previous night. But
then I got to thinking – Yeah, I know that Dad hates it when I do
that without his permission (but hey … I’m a BC!) – it didn’t seem
right that the crippled dog (that’s Patches) should be expected to
catch as many rabbits as me (again, I AM the
Star Athlete with the Prime
Territory)! The territory that she covers is smaller
than me … but there is not a lot in her territory to attract
rabbits. And Annie – yeah she is active – but her
territory is HUGE! She spends the bulk of her time
running back and forth (plus with that big rock patch in the middle
of her territory, there are just not many rabbits there!) Mom
(that’s Rooney to ya’ll), taught me all she knew about rabbits (and
that’s a BUNCH) she’s what you call Wabbit Rise (err … I mean Rabbit
Wise), plus, she’s got a pretty good part of the nursery … but, with
all of Dad’s activity – it’s starting to get built up and the
rabbits just don’t hang out there much anymore! And
Bubba – it goes without saying – despite how great I am – it appears
that HE is Dad’s favorite! Why only one rabbit??!! He
is much bigger than any of us – and
he’s got pretty prime rabbit territory (he may need to do a little
“baiting” – but I understand that that is legal!) All
this and he only has to catch ONE rabbit – what’s that all about??
I did some
analysis using the latest Rabbit Census Data (RCD) provided by the
good ol’ Extension Agent (you do know that they provide the official
data on rabbits per sector – whether they eat our trees or not) –
now, I didn’t go to any fancy-smancy school and I seldom wear a coat
and tie (I’m kind of what you see is what you get kinda girl!) but
if Dad, or even Mom (human – not Dog), would’ve asked, I would have
tried my dangdest to ‘splain (like David has always told me to do)
that probably the best approach to establishing these quotas would
be to INITIALLY have each of
us catch the same percentage of rabbits based on the good ol’
Extension Service data. THEN, before Dad set out this
expectation (because you know that as BC’s, we all strive to meet
his expectations – though sometimes we have to rap Annie on the head
to keep her attention) it probably would have been good for Dad, or
even Mom (the human again), to discuss their expectations with us. I
think that they would be surprised – because I would have told them
that I could catch more cottontails than jack’s if they would
combine my territory with Patches. Patch just ain’t
that quick (since she’s crippled and all you know) – but since she
is a bunch bigger than me, she can handle those big ol’ jack’s a
whole lot better – she is the Jack Master! So we have
kind of a symbiotic relationship that no one really knows about
because we are just trying to get the job done and we figure that
it’s easier to get forgiveness that it is to get permission!! Plus,
Momma Roo – she’s working with the “SweetSea” and can really
capitalize on that relationship – some of us don’t benefit from that
at all. Annie – if she can just get a little bit more
training and understanding from Dad – can probably meet her
expectations, it’s just that she might require a little more
attention. And Bubba – dear sweet little ol’ (actually
he is HUGE, a freak of nature for a BC if you ask me!) brother – I
doubt he can meet even this goal … but, he’s Dad’s favorite, and
Dad’s friends seem to like him pretty well too – so I guess I’ll
just have to keep picking up his slack. Really though
– I think that he should have his Rabbit Catching authority taken
away and be relegated to a “Porch Holder Downer” – but I still love
him, he’s my brother!
Anyway – I
‘spect none of us (except me of course, since I am the star athlete
of the bunch) will meet the established goals. This is
the realization part
of my story: In review, I (we) hope that Dad has the
realization that if he would have just visited with us – the ones
that do the tasks that he wants to accomplish – instead of sitting
in his shop drinking beer with all of his rabbit hating friends –
that we could have provided our, on the ground input and our gained
insights on the particulars of our different areas and we could’ve
helped him in developing the goals forour
pack where all of
us (including him) could’ve
been winners. But since he got that new “gimmee cap”
from the, I think … Studebaker dealership … he’s been almost
impossible to live with. It seems that he has all of
the answers and doesn’t even ask us anymore.
So, In summary , I’d like to address some points that I oversaw in
Dad’s AgLearn Training that he took last month (yeah – like ya’ll,
to accomplish it all, he takes stuff home to do on his NWD):
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