My dog, Tully, is neurotic. Sensitive, jumpy. He’s a working dog, a koolie cross kelpie, but in our forest homeplace in northern New South Wales he’s underemployed. My teenage son brought Tully home, unannounced, nine years ago. I didn’t research his breed before acquiring him as a scrappy pup, and we’d never had a working dog, so I wasn’t aware of their tendencies. Watchful, obsessive, loyal. Stick and ball enthusiasts. Pattern recognition experts. Tully will form a habit in a couple of days. Once formed, his habits are hard to extinguish. In older age, his behaviour has become somewhat obsessive-compulsive. He will only get in and out of the car from a particular door. If you do not immediately put his lead on when walking, he will stop until you do.
As a pup Tully had a skin condition which required weekly injections at the vet. In no time at all he had a full-blown vet phobia. The treatment went oral, the vet visits ceased. Tully gets snappy if he thinks you are searching his fur for ticks. In fact, if you look at his fur too intently, he gets agitated. He enjoys a gentle pat, an idle scratch behind the ear, long and loving eye contact, but if he senses an ulterior motive (medicine, tick search, bath) he quickly becomes uncooperative.
