The Farm Experience

On Thursday we went to a stable to have the dogs meet some farm animals. At first we met them at a distance in the ring and watched them riding around through the fence. Her Royal Highness (HRH) Berkeley was fine with that. Then we went through the stable where the occupants peered over there stalls to see who was visiting. HRH looked back at me to see if these behemoths were for real.


As we got deeper into the stable, HRH managed to look up into the horse's face and make eye contact.



We soon left the horses and wandered over to the pot bellied pig pen. Last year Bingo had wanted nothing to do with the pigs. This year, however, HRH found them interesting and went right up to the fence and sniffed. She stayed there for a bit looking at the pig curiously.



Then we moved on to goats. The goats were very standoffish and this was as close as we got, which seemed to be fine with dogs and goats both.

Overall, I think the experience was out of the ordinary for her, as in her daily travels, she will most likely not meet a goat, pig or horse, but if she does, she now has a frame of reference for them.

Barnyard Friends

Bingo had his meeting at a riding stable this week. He got to make some new friends. At the beginning though, he wasn't quite sure about the whole deal.

However, as you can see in this photo, he is very interested in the Shetland pony. They later touched noses and it was quite cute.

I'm not sure if it was a size thing, but when it came to the smaller animals (pygmy goats and Shetland ponies), he loosened up quite a bit. Watch his tail in this video.

Bingo got off lightly with those pygmy goats. Other dogs weren't so lucky. A couple of dogs got head butted by the goats! Fortunately, Bingo went for making friends with the pony and left the goats for a lost cause. I would like to think that I had something to do with that as I have an irrational dislike of goats. Well, it isn't really irrational. There is a perfectly reasonable explanation that harkens back to a petting zoo and a straw hat and straw purse. Suffice it to say, goats are evil! I think Bingo understood that he would have better luck with the pony.
He did not want to have anything to do with the pig. Flat out wasn't interested. Little porky wagged his tail, but Bingo wasn't buying it. Something about that snout wasn't right. Perhaps he had had enough strangeness for the night.