Today started off early for me with Anna and Nessa having moo-ing fits. (I'm sure the neighbors loved me.....yikes!)
Last night at milking time, Anna was fidgety, fast tail flinging/swatting (with aim--I was getting warned, and yes, I noticed and tried to ignore it) and after a whopping half a pint milked out, Anna decided to do the 'roundhouse' kick, not once, but twice. (The second one was retaliation of me smacking her for the first one and was aimed.)
And the spigots promptly shut off milk after that--she was the Hold Up Queen. Try as I might, all I got was dribbles/drops out of any quarter. I refused to give up and let her win. She had to know I wasn't going to be scared off and give up just because she was being a pill! She didn't offer to kick after that, but the tail wringing kept up.
So after some stanchion time-out (oh she was not a happy camper) while I fed the turkeys and hen with chicks, I brushed her thoroughly all the while telling her to throw a hissy-fit all she wanted, that was all the good it was going to do her. All she wanted was out of there, and I wasn't going to do that. Not until *I* was ready!! That meant her normally short routine turned into 45+ minutes and no 'special alfalfa treat' for a job well done either! Then I let her out of that area and left Miss Naughty Nessa locked up for the night.
(Oh Terrible Evil ME!!)HA
I wasn't going to coddle her--she has a job to do. It's not even a hard job, either! ;-) Honestly, how hard is it to stand there calmly for roughly 20 minutes (out of a 24-hour period) to get milked?? Nessa can't drink all that is produced, so the empty udder should make her feel relief.
We've been milking a month now, and sure a bad day is expected, but I don't want bad habits turned into normal routine.
But this morning Anna was back to Good Cow. She came in promptly and settled into the routine like normal. No tail swishing, no fidgeting and stood still like any normal day. Hopefully she just had a bad day yesterday. Not sure if she learned anything except I have control, even if she's happy, grumpy, pissy or whatever. I can make her bad day a lot worse....or a good one even better. :)
She must have gotten over me being Ms. Evil, as I went back out later to let them graze, and neither Dolly nor Anna wanted to get up. Both just laid there as I talked to and patted them. Maybe they are tuckered out from a rough night--Dolly from listening to Anna and Nessa! HA
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