Boss Man
“One good dog is worth three in the saddle” — and that sure is the case with Boss. He is a Border Collie-Kelpie cross with a little Heeler, and a long-time fixture at the ranch. Back in 2013, one of our summer employees from a Ten Sleep ranching family, told us about her aunt who bred working ranch horses and stock dogs. At that time we had several dogs, hounds and Airedales, but no dog bred for working cattle. That winter we took a trip down to Ten Sleep, took the litter of young pups on a walk to get a sense of their personalities, and chose Boss.
For over a decade he's been a big part of the ranch, hard to imagine how we ever did it without him. He's (usually!) a big help moving the cattle and gathering any strays out on the F.S. lease, helps bring them in from the pastures to the corral, and gets right in the alleyway to move them to the squeeze chute.
When Boss was only a couple months old, we took him out on F.S. lease to move the cows and he did really well. We taught him a couple commands but he naturally had the right instinct to work cattle and not be too aggressive. We felt lucky! Then — the next summer he hit his “terrible two” era. We had a bunch of yearling heifers along with the neighboring J-9 ranch and for some reason Boss would just chase them in circles and there was nothing we could do to stop him. Karen had to get off her horse and loop her belt through his collar to lead him away from the heifers, and, unfortunately, back to the truck where he waited for us to finish the work. Thankfully, that was a one-time-deal and we never had much issue with him not minding after that.
He can still run as fast as any youngster but is smart enough to conserve his energy when there's no work to do. His muzzle has a bit of gray now and he spends a lot of time curled up in the shade or by the wood stove. He always seems to know when it's "go" time; he's ready to jump in the truck as soon as he hears it start up. Hard to believe that Boss is almost 12; it seems like he has no plans to stop anytime soon! He’s a top hand.
