After taking a month off from this blog, I intend to write about one of our Border Collies named Blade. Then I looked at our website and realized my last blog was about Blade. It was a long summer and Blade was a big part of it. Some folk may find it hard that we might have one standout Border Collie. Actually, we have a mixed breed named Nash as well. But when it comes to our farm work and goose control work and sheepdog herding Blade has been the standout. In the tradition that is working Border Collies, he is “a good dog.” I feel that every one of our “collies” is loved, respected, and given the life and thus the work they crave. But like in some classrooms and workplaces there is a standout.
If you’re running a business you know how valuable good employees are. They can make or break a business. Farming is no differnt. Maybe even more so, farmers, shepherds need hard-working and smart dogs. Grass-based farmers who use dogs Border Collies to tend their sheep or other types of livestock feel that these dogs take the place of several humans and that they could not get the farming done without them. Farming is back-breaking very low margin work and without good “help” you just would not make it. Border Collies keep the flocks safe by moving the sheep and other livestock with ease from pasture to pasture. However, there are “bad” Border Collies that could break a farm. The Nineteenth Century English author Thomas Hardy writes about one ill-trained Border collie who drives a farmer’s sheep over a cliff, killing them all. The poor farmer had to go out of business and become an employee of a rich farmer.
For goose control work, I sure want a good dog, but actually, good dogs for that work. Blade makes the work easy and is very effective as well as safe. But I feel I can count on all our dogs. But it is Blade that I can put in any situation, whether it is golf courses or schools or a factory, and get it done safely and effectively. Blade who will be 7 soon,has grown into this stature. I think most Americans have a picture in their heads of what a Border Collie is, but of course,these dogs are all different as individuals are. And that is ok because their people are different too! Blade and I happen to make a good team.
But what makes a “good dog” for farm work and goose control work, besides a willingness to get a job done. Americans think of Border Collies as “smart” but it is that and more. Smart can not get you far if you are not motivated and wise enough to know what to do and when. Indeed we talk also about a “wise dog” as a goal when raise and train herding dogs. I think it is also health and poise and great instincts which are built upon with experience,training,and practice.
Blade seems to check these boxes. And I am grateful to his breeder Mary Thompson of Western Ontario for the great work she does breeding and bringing these awesome Border Collies into the world. without good breeders, we do not have healthy, balanced dogs and ones with the instincts that we want to build on. Blade and I as of this writing have qualified for the National Sheep Dog Trials Finals in Virginia an experience that will only bring us more growth and add to our knowledge base and enjoyment of this way of life.