When things go swimmingly for a farm dog, the CV can include managing the farm from atop a vehicle, flitting between houses and, in true Labrador style, enjoying tummy rubs as much as enjoying pizza crusts.
“She's not a working dog, she’s a freeloader,” says a candid Jo Gibson about Betty Sunshine, her four-year-old Labrador who patrols the family farm in Nanneella and is worlds away from the property’s two occasional visiting working dogs Max and Ginger.
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We met Betty Sunshine as a form of shaky movement deep into a thick paddock of broad beans, satisfying her curious nature.
At her call, the caramel-coloured head pops out like a swimmer’s and she doggy-paddles back, neck deep in green foliage.
Jo and husband Alistair retrieved Betty Sunshine as a pup from Adelaide four years ago.
“One of my cousin's best friends had a litter and because we knew where Betty had come from and I knew who was selling her, they had a bit of a history, so I thought, oh, too good an opportunity to miss,” Jo said.
“She hasn't skipped a beat the whole time — just living her best life. Wow!“
Betty Sunshine soaks up some love with Pippa, Jo and Adelaide Gibson.
Betty Sunshine flits between the two houses on the farm — the other being occupied by father-in-law Harry — and ‘hangs out’ at the robotic dairy where the Gibsons manage 350 head of cows.
Although she has her own bed next to the fireplace, Jo insists that Betty Sunshine is ‘not all that fancy’ and is a typical Labrador, given her habit of coming indoors at tea time to vacuum up extraneous pizza crusts and making Jo her unofficial bestie: “I reckon maybe because I feed her.”
Jo said that daughter Pippa keeps a ‘real connection’ with Betty Sunshine.
“She tries to teach her tricks, puts a blanket over her, gives her treats and spoils her rotten,” Jo said.
“Our youngest daughter Adelaide isn’t as much of a dog person but still loves her.”
Betty Sunshine also dominates the farm’s Kawasaki (all-terrain vehicle) MULE.
“She rides in the MULE; she’s got a prime spot on it when you go out and do jobs.
“Harry calls her the farm manager because she literally just sits up there on it like she's got the most important job in the world.”
In addition to overseeing the farm’s wheat, vetch, lucerne, silage and corn crops, Betty Sunshine has become an ‘excellent’ guard dog in the past six months.
“Her bark is vicious, but as soon as you come up, she'll lick you to death; however, she’s good at alerting us when people drive in and out of the farm.
“She just loves tummy rubs, likes to be part of the action, just always sort of not wanting to miss a beat; but then in saying that, though, she's very much a home dog.”
Betty Sunshine is also very farm-centric, and on trips to town can become very anxious.
“But she loves other dogs as well, she’s very sort of sociable. The other two won’t come out here but she will and just run around like a lunatic.”
Or as we found, wade though an ocean of beans.
Betty Sunshine was delivered from Adelaide.
Betty Sunshine assumes her position in the family's all-terrain vehicle which she has made all her own.
