I am an early morning person anyway, so being on a farm suits me. When Its cold and dark I sometimes feel sorry for myself having to get out of a warm bed, but with two dogs on a hair-trigger waiting for the alarm to go off, there's no putting it off.

There's animals to feed and a couple of other jobs. I take the long way home and run the dogs around the perimeter, and they are happy to flop and sleep when we get back and I can enjoy my breakfast in peace. This morning I came back in, opened the curtains to take in the view, set up my quite expansive breakfast - I fuel up in the morning – and was just enjoying the quiet time to….Jesus Christ! What IS that SMELL!?

At my feet is Kobbi, always nearby, happy to cadge just one more scratch. A suspicious grey, greasy ring is around his neck. I lean in and the smell hits me even harder. Oh….so vile! He has rolled in something long dead, but not forgotten. Bath time, Kobbi. When I come back my breakfast is cold, and it has taken me a couple of days to get the smell out of my nose.

Rolling in stinky things isn't peculiar to farm dogs, but certainly there is a lot more options on a farm! How has Kobbi adjusted to his new life?

His transition from a suburban pet who was no longer wanted has been tricky. He was so stressed when he arrived, and it was a couple of weeks before he settled and was eating well. He was very skinny, bare ribs, when he arrived. He's put on weight and is muscly and looks in his prime now. He's fitter….In a day they reliably get two walks, but they can also run with me out when I am working on something. They can clock up 10-12 km in a day if they have the energy. Initially Kobbi couldn't do the first 1200 metre walk. Now he blitzes that, takes exploratory detours and zigzags. He still can't do the whole day, and sidles up to the buggy cadging a lift, but he is so much improved.

He's a beautiful gentle dog with children, but an unpredictable monster with livestock. I can't work out what the trigger is that makes him chase them. I've learnt to clip him into the buggy if we are near the sheep. I won't go into details, but he has committed the ultimate farm dog crime with the sheep, and once with the cows. He's got it now that its not allowed, and the last time he started to chase them he stopped and came back to me when I started shouting at him. That's a massive improvement to what originally happened. On another farm he might not have got another chance…..

But I don't want him chasing them at all. I can't trust him. More than once we've been outside, all calm and controlled, and I have focused on the task to hand. A minute later I think…'Where's Kobbi?", and sure enough, out in the paddock the sheep are bunched in a protective ring with a tiny aggressor frightening them.

I think we'll get to a working arrangement eventually, its just stressful managing it at this stage.

So I can be prepared and take steps to make sure he's constrained when I know something is going to happen. But when it’s a surprise it’s a whole different story. I was walking them and a fox ran right across Fry the Kelpie's path and took off. Fry gave his usual halfhearted chase….he could easily run down a fox or a rabbit, but he mostly chases them off the premises rather than tries to apprehend them. He's a bouncer.

The fox ran back and forth, doubling back on its trail to confuse things, then Kobbi joined in. Off the three of them went, through the fence into the farm next door. Their riverfront is a long, deep unmanaged jungle of native forest and a lot of weeds. I get it…they don't get anyone coming into the farm off the river. No one could get through those blackberries alive! And it’s a home for echidnas, wallabies, possums, wombats, the occasional kangaroo. Also deer, foxes, rabbits, cats….

I watch my dogs and make sure they don't go in there. But failed on this day. After a couple of minutes Fry came back, at my call. He's a good boy and keen to please. He emerged from the bush 300 metres down the track and trotted back to me. There's a show of…"I can't possibly get through this fence" when he gets back, and I have to make a gap from him to crawl through.

But Kobbi was gone. Same size and coloring of a fox, on someone else's farm. Not good. No collar, no identification. I took it off when I washed him and it was still drying out. (I wasn't convinced it wouldn't still smell, so I was waiting until it dried and my nose recalibrated before I put it back on).

Jack Russell's are notorious for not coming when called, and Kobbi had demonstrated that applied to him quite often. I called for a few minutes, then sent Fry back. He's actually pretty good at taking onboard an instruction like" Go find Kobbi!"Off he went, and indicated where he thought Kobbi was.

A massive clump of blackberries, and it looked like some sort of entrance to a burrow. But no sign of him. He didn't come out when I called.

The trouble is, with his unpredictability with livestock, I can't just go and leave him to come home, but in the end I gave up, but went home, got the buggy and came back. The noise of the engine penetrated his hunting berserk, and he emerged from the blackberries exactly where Fry had indicated.

Once the spell was broken he came back. Again, I had to help him and Fry get through the fence, then we all got in the buggy and went home. They slept well after that adventure!