Useful dog in the Ozarks

My Dad wrote some notes about his life - most all of it spent near Flippin, AR in the Ozarks.  Thought I would put a few of his stories, in his words on this web site.  As told by Ike Linck (1919-2006):

 Dogs

 We always kept some dogs around the house.  Some I can remember their names, and so forth, and what they were good for.  We had one called Dash.  I think he was a Shepherd-Collie mix.  At that time we raised our own chickens.  The roosters ran outside with the hens, so the eggs were usually fertile.  Our breed of chickens was a dual-purpose chicken, called Rhode Island Red.  I know this has nothing to do with dogs in general, but Dash was a chicken protector.

 When the chicks were hatched, usually in the spring, they ran outside and were a favorite food of the hawks.  Ole Dash, for a reason I'll try to explain, would run around under the sailing hawk and bark.  I suppose it was because people sometimes ran around yelling and clapping their hands to scare the hawks away.  Anyway, he probably saved a lot of little chicks for us.  Eagles weren't saints either.  They have been known to raid even grown chickens.