We've had another visitor dog for a few weeks. Minding him while his owners are away. He's been here before for short stays, and he is often here with them for a short visit. Everything is different here, but after a couple of days he has settled into our routine.

Yoshi is a happy chap. He's a very old Jack Russell cross, a bit deaf, eyesight not so good. Very independent, he doesn't need much patting or attention, but he watches me like a hawk to make sure I don't do anything without him.

My dogs don't really like him, but after a day or two they put up with each other. This time, I am surprised, Yoshi has pulled rank and started bossing my dogs around. I was astonished to see Yoshi snarl and grab my Kelpie, Fry, by the neck. He's almost toothless, so he didn't hurt Fry. I think Fry was more surprised than bothered by it. He shook Yoshi off and looked at me as if to say "Did you see that!?"

Its as if Yoshi is on a school camp. Whatever activity is on, he wants to be part of it. We go out in the buggy and Yoshi runs and runs. My dogs usually hitch a ride at some stage…Yoshi keeps going. For an old dog he is very fit and active. We feed our dogs twice a day, which is more than Yoshi is used to, but he hasn't put on weight, he burns it all off.

Run Yoshi, run!

He's not good with livestock. He actually isn't good with anything, really. He barks at birds and chases them, barks at the cows and sheep, barks at anything moving in neighbouring paddocks. He spent five minutes barking at a concrete mixer sitting unused in my neighbour's place, Having said that, he does usually respond to being told to stop. He does come back when he's told. In the time we've had him he is barking less, so he does adapt.

At his home he mostly does the same walk every day. He knows the routine and runs ahead, barking at you to keep up. At our place he is a bit disconcerted that we do different walks, and he tends to stick close or trail behind, but as he's become familiar with them he's branching out.

But he is an obsessive walker. We go out for just a walk at least three times a day, and often as many as five times. And I am out and about doing stuff during the day, and usually the dogs come with me. He treats each occasion as an exciting event. (Fry watches what tools I put in the buggy, and decides not to come if it’s a job he doesn't like. Pruning gear or the chainsaw and Fry disappears.)

So more than once now Yoshi has taken himself off for a walk. He's not our dog, he's old…I don't like it when he goes off by himself. The cows don't like him and they have a new calf. Best if he isn't visiting them unsupervised. And I don't want him to remind Kobbie how much fun it is to chase sheep. But last week he squeezed out the house gate and went out into the main paddock where the sheep are.

He'd been gone at least 10 minutes before I noticed and started looking for him. More than once he's been found sitting in my car hoping we were going for a drive somewhere, but he wasn't there. (We lost him for an hour when he first arrived, and he was found curled up in my visiting daughter's car in the baby carrier/seat.)

Because he is so white he is easy to spot from a distance. I walked around the house yard checking each paddock for a sign of him.

There he was! Out by the sheep. Not sure if he had tried to chase them, but what I was seeing was Yoshi facing up to the sheep, who had formed a group and were slowly advancing on him. He was standing his ground, but the sheep were spreading out and encircling him. Not sure how it would have panned out….

Deaf as he seems to be he heard me calling and came running back at top speed.

He hasn't repeated the exercise.