Living with dogs has been one of the blessings of my life. Working with these dogs on our little farm, homestead, has been joy with lessons in life, nature and about myself. My family and I have had dogs as long as Lori and I have been married, that is now past 30 years. Our first dog was from an ASPCA where we lived in Rhode Island. Chelsea was a wonderful dog to live with and fitted into the small outdoor farm museum I ran. She kept the fox away from the chickens, mostly and the many groundhogs out of the fields and gardens. She moved with us to The Berkshires and our sons played with her and she did the same helpful work that mix breeds can do at my new job, another “historical farm.” She began to age and before she was 13 we made that sad decision.
Chelsea was the first dog in line of what has become mostly Border Collies in our lives. I call their life span “part of the deal”. I live with and work with the dogs we have, care, love and respect them all and dreed their final days. But the bonds and joy we have through our years together I am completely grateful for. As someone who has “bought into” farming with herding dogs not to mention working with them with goose control, the Border Collies are an indispensable part “of the crew”. Traditional sheep and cattle farmers will say that these dogs, guardian(for predators) dogs too make their operations possible. These dogs do the job of tending sheep and cattle, we herd our poultry in and to pasture, better than many humans and save the very little margins farmers have.
So here we are in 2022 and we have 5 dogs, one is a rehome mix breed. Our family just “lost” two dogs in the last months, very heartbreaking, one to old age. Jim was on his third home here, living with us for seven years. Independent Border Collies can be a mouthful to live with and work with. Modern Americans think of Border Collies as being intelligent and maybe hyper. Both those qualities are as in most things, only part of the story. And individuals in a breed add on their own stuff. Dogs personalities are so important to understand. It makes for a happier life together and is utmost when training/teaching dogs. Border Collies and other working dogs are born with instincts that “drive” them. It is important to understand each dog’s instant set and understand the individual dog as well.
On one hand I was not ready for a new dog or puppy in our lives or to train for the farm and goose control. Jim and the other dog Skye who passed late last year left a hole that needed healing. But I looked at the work ahead of us this year and for the years to come and decided that it was unfair to put that all on the individuals in our pack/crew. We needed a keen dog I decided. A Border Collie who might fit the mold of Skye, Jim had been retired earlier last year. Keen and Sensitive are two simple ways to describe personalities in Border Collies and for me it is great to have that mix of attributes.
So the search was on for a pup or young Border Collie to fit that “role”, that need. Working Border Collies and other working dogs are different than pet breeds. They are driven and happiest when they get “work”, handled well. Therefore moving from one home to another is not unheard of for the right reasons. Just like we humans that may need a better situation this is true of some Border Collies I know that have “started” in one home and moved on to a happy home that is a “better fit.”. A happy goose control dog and farm dog is given the lessons it needs to be a successful “working dog” and then at the end of the day a good cuddle on what we call the “dog couch” in our living room.
We welcome our new young Border Collie that we just decided on after a lengthily visit with us. We all feel she will be happy with us and over the moon about the work with wild geese control and with sheep and poultry. And her name is Tru.