I like to say that all our dogs, Border Collies or mix breed dogs we have lived and worked with, are dear and special to us. We currently have five dogs living with us on the Homestead.All these dogs go on goose control trips in New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, most participate in sheepdog trials and herding demonstrations at local festivals. We have now had eight dogs pass on. All these dogs are unique, loved and valued.They all have or had essential roles in our lives and work.
I used to manage farm museum programs which utilized the historical and rare breed types of farm animals, and yes dogs, inside an educational context. These programs were on Open Air or Museum Villages, think, Sturbridge Village or Colonial Williamsburg.It was great fun! We cut and processed hay with horses and oxen. We milked cows by hand or used oldfashioned machinery and collected and packaged historical and heirloom vegetable and herb seed for sale. But the working farm dog project on the historic farms was one of the most popular. We herded sheep, cattle, and pigs with the Border Collies. Our Families first dog Chelsea a mix breed rehomed female had great fun keeping the gardens and livestock safe back in the 1990s. Over the years dogs named, Merck, Will, Faith, Rhos, Ben, Tarr all worked with me at the Museums and on our Family Homestead (small farm).
So what about this dog Skye? Of all our dogs she is the only one from a litter that we have raised ourselves. Her dad, Ben, and Mom, Rhos, both lived here, were owned by us. It was an oops breeding. Ben was a “racial,” so you get the picture.But as is often the case with those type “events,” we got beautiful pups.I picked Skye out of the litter for us to keep, finding good homes for the other pups. She seemed bold and self-assured. But as Skye grew, she became a wild thing. As a young dog, Skye continued to be hyper. She often would not listen when asked and would rush her work and frighten the sheep or poultry. Living and working with Skye was a real adventure in patience. Her first years called for constant reminders that I needed to keep looking at the long-term goal. It can take a while for a pup or young dog to grow into an excellent working dog and companion. Many farm dogs will mature in three years or so.For Skye, she was rushing about no matter what I tried even at age five. A hyper Border Collie can be a big problem on a farm. Most farm Border Collies are not like you think, they can be calm and happy when they have the work they love. But like some people who take longer to mature she sure took her time to grow up.
As the old view of the “precocious” human girl manifested in the young adult Skye, she was into everything. Skye was a busybody, always wanting to take over jobs that may not have been hers and would burst out the door of our house almost at every opportunity to see if a marauding squirrel was at the bird feeders or a chicken had escaped from the poultry run.She is still very much like that at age seven and a half! But what has changed is, like me, Skye is a step or two slower. And there is a significant change in Skye. She has put the hyper worrisome spirit into an asset.She now has an eagerness which is almost always driven to do good work, to take care of the life on the Homestead and get the job done on goose control trips. Skye has become the mother dog, mama dog, of our pack-family, as Temple Grandin calls it. She is often concerned with keeping the pup, Tara out of trouble and always watchful that things with our sheep and poultry and on goose control trips are the way they should be. Wisdom and passion in dogs might not be scientific enough qualities to attach to dogs. But at this point, with Skye, it’s hard not to see her in those terms.