“This is her hill. I mean this is her hill. Anytime we’re working out in the yard, she’s with us. So if we’re on the tractor, she’s on the tractor with us,” said Britney Bishop, owner of Lucy, the MFBF 2022 Farm Dog of the Year.
From tractor rides to watching over her three siblings to minding the chickens, it’s almost like Lucy, the lab mix, picked the Bishop family herself. That or maybe a little divine intervention.
“It was raining, and she was just in the middle of the road with three other brothers or sisters,” Britney says. “We stopped and picked them up, and we were able to find homes for all of them but her. So, we kept her.”
BJ and Britney Bishop began raising their own chickens after their daughter, McKenzie, suffered a severe allergic reaction to red meat from a tick bite. Now, they raise chickens, turkeys, and quail, nearing 100 in all.
And that means more work for Lucy, but she doesn’t seem to mind.
“Only thing I taught her was how to sit, stay, lay down, like that type of stuff, but she learned to protect the chickens really just by herself,” said Mason Bishop, the eldest of the three Bishop children. “Whenever a chicken would make its noise at you or come at you, she would stand in front of the chicken.”
“She really works hard on the farm, and when I say work hard, she helps protect all of our animals, because this is how we survive,” Britney said. “We actually have our own meat here from the chickens. She has really helped keep them safe. She also protects the kids. She’s good at alerting for snakes.”
Lucy is even camera ready when she needs to be. All in a day’s work for this special member of the Bishop family.
“I was a big supporter of starting the Farm Dog of the Year award because of dogs like Lucy,” MFBF President Mike McCormick said. “Lucy is going to be the ambassador for all the farm dogs around the state, and she’ll be a good one.”
“She means a lot to me,” Mason said. “I didn’t know a dog could be your best friend until I met her. She is really my one and only. She stays with me everywhere.”