My family and I have been living with and working with dogs, mostly Border Collies for close to thirty years. That seems like a long time! But there are people who, like our sons who grew up on farms with working dogs and have lived with them all their lives. It is a great experience living with these intelligent, motivated, and active dogs. You do have to stay motivated yourself! Farming is not an easy life and we see fewer people living traditional ways.
My point is that when it comes to living on a farm and with dogs as partners, experience matters. It takes a lot of practical experience with farm animals, also known as livestock to get a real grip on doing things right. This is true with working and living with livestock dogs, herding breeds, and guardian breeds. And it does help to be in the environment these dogs were bred to be in to really “get” what they are about.
I do know people who have had successful and happy lives with Border Collies and other motivated breeds who don’t live on farms. These people have done their homework. I did not do so when I started with my first Border Collies at the farm museum I managed years ago. I thought it was going to be easy to work with the collies. I found out differently and almost quit. I took lessons and started to work diligently daily. I read and asked questions. After a few years, my collies and I and my family were happily enjoying life and work. For Border collies, life and work go together. And that is true of traditional societies too! In pre-industrial lives, there is no real division between leisure and work, or those concepts just don’t exist.
I feel that we are pretty good at our goose control work because we are happy together, the dogs and us. We have one rehomed mixed breed. We enjoy and I think understand each other. We respect and care for our livestock, both the dogs and us humans. Our Border Collies know how to correctly work with sheep, chickens, ducks, and wild geese. It’s about, how to correctly herd, without stress. What a joy it is to get the job done well. And how satisfying it is to live in connection with these dogs and with the other species too, sheep, wild geese, poultry.
People have been living with dogs for tens of thousands of years. I think it is a natural way to be. Dogs descended from wolves in some way and ended up living with humans to guard and share and hunt and care for the farm animals. There was and is a large part of the globe that calls for non-plant-based food to be a staple of the human diet. And though modern thought can call for nonanimal farming and only plant-based diets, maybe it’s in the how we do things. Maybe it’s how factory-based we are. Maybe it’s how traditional, or how close we live with nature. For me, living and working with these dogs, wild goose control, or farm work is only natural.