I don't often feel sorry for Barnaby Joyce but I did the other night. There he was, mid-interview with 7.30's Sarah Ferguson, rarely a comfortable proposition, when he let fly with a percussive "SIDDOWN!"

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Sure, it was directed at his dog, barking from under the deck. But few couldn't help wondering if, after a week explaining, deflecting, correcting and clarifying his party leader's gaffes and missteps on her European summer sojourn, there was a buildup of deep frustration. That perhaps, deep down, there was a desire Barnaby couldn't voice. That Pauline Hanson should sit down. And shut up.

But the staffy-border cross pooch - a devilish combination if ever there was - copped it. Live. On national TV. A barking mad viral moment that made instant headlines, bounced around the internet. Another instance of Barnaby's storied eccentricity.

After the week he's had fending off questions about Pauline's trip - the Taormina resort, the Dolce & Gabbana fashion show, the Stephen Yaxley-Lennon podcast, the White Australia Policy, the revelations about the loopy opinions of One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts and the persistent rumours of cracks in his relationship with Hanson - it's no wonder the intrusion of a yapping dog pushed Barnaby over the brink.

And you have to hand it to him; his recovery was instant, despite Ferguson snapping at his heels from the studio.

This was no planter box episode, which tooks months of time out to put behind him. It was no cringeworthy Pistol and Boo biosecurity dogfight with Hollywood superstars either. Barnaby might have recovered from Johnny Depp's putdown of him on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016, when he said the then agriculture minister "looks somehow, like, inbred with a tomato". But I'm not sure I have.

Every time Barnaby loses his bottle, I'm reminded of Depp's other comment, that he feared Joyce "might explode".

Which brings me back to why in this instance I felt sorry for the New England MP. Quite apart from wondering whether he now regrets throwing his lot in with the chaotic One Nation, whose messes........

© Canberra Times