Project Hose - Update

In the past I believe I posted a story about one of our dogs and a "project" he has been working on. We call it "Project Hose". To him, it's a never ending 'Art Project'. To us, it was a never ending destruction project...that is, UNTIL we figured out something productive to do with it!

You see, Rhode (pronounced "Roadie") is an Australian Shepard, and ever since a giant snowstorm when he was just a puppy he's had this fascination (some might call it a fixation) with garden hoses. But these aren't your ordinary garden hoses, they're 100 foot long farm hoses we use to water cattle with. One year we had a massive snowstorm and I had to bring the hoses inside to thaw them out, all 1,200 feet of them.

The easiest way I found to re-string these extra long hoses was to put the hose around my waist, in about the middle, and drag the hose to where it needs to be, then straighten it out. Sounds simple right?, but when there's waist deep snow it's a little harder than it sounds. So, on this one particular day I was dragging the thawed hoses from inside to outside and back into position. One hose at a time. All of a sudden one of the hoses got magically lighter to drag. I looked behind me and little Rhode was bounding through the deep snow with one end of the hose in his mouth. Hey, a little helper! "Good boy!" If I only knew...

Now, Australian Shepard's are considered one of the smartest dog breeds, and Rhode is no exception. He was only about 12 weeks old then, but he only needed to hear that "Good boy!" one time and one of his "duties" in life was burned into that little dog brain of his like a Read-Only Memory chip. Ever since then he has taken it upon himself to relentlessly reorganize any, and EVERY, hose on his property! So relentless is he in his pursuits that the hoses will eventually develop holes and leak (not a good dog). Leaky hoses don't do anything but make a mess. So we had to find a solution.

Solution - Give Rhode his own hose, and tell him to leave the other ones alone. Well, this worked great. Rhode had his own hose to play with and, being the smart boy he is, he left all the other hoses alone (for the most part). This was 5 years ago.

New problem - Rhode really (and I mean REALLY) loves his "project hose". It's the greatest thing in the world to him, and serves as endless entertainment. It has to be arranged just so, and every new day requires a change to the way it is arranged (per Rhode). It's serious business too (in his diabolical mind). Pretty soon we noticed that Rhode's project was also resulting in the removal of large sections of turf around the house. So, once again, we had to find a solution.

Solution - Put "Project Hose" in a place where we actually want things torn up. One such location is the garden area during the off season. This dog is a four legged roto tiller! And, he knows his 'project' has to stay within the boundaries we set out for him, so he keeps it right where we tell him. Now, when planting season comes around, we just move his 'project' to another location which needs weeded or cleared, and he's happy as a clam! And, the act of moving his project creates a great big "to-do" list for Rhode and his endless art project. I guess it's like living-art.

And so now you know the story of "Project Hose"

LOL I was wonder about that "project hose".

I seriously need to find a major project for Oscar. We do a lot of little things, but he is very smart and gets bored. Which leads to him learning new things on his own.
Like last night. I thought he shredded a couch pillow, while I was out of the room.

Nope. Turns out he learned how to unzip it, THEN pull all the stuffing out.

At least it was an easy fix.

Always love reading your farm life stories
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