Blade is a four and a half-year-old Border Collie who we got as a pup from a very good breeder-farmer-handler in Western Ontario, Mary Thompson. Many Americans have a thing against “breeders”. But it is knowledgable dog people who also breed dogs that give us healthy and functional dogs. Yes, it’s great to adopt, but many dogs are in shelters because no one was paying healthy respect to what would really happen in the breeding process. Mary is a sheep farmer who keeps Border Collies as working partners to help out big time on the farm. She also competes successfully in sheepdog trails. She keeps a pup from any litter that she happens to have on her farm and sells others usually to working sheepdog homes. In our case, I was delighted to put my name in for a pup because I knew it would be healthy and have great working instincts. Her pups, dogs also have sweet personalities, so much the better.
I, of course, was looking for a pup who would become a good member of our goose control “team”. Blade sure has proved a brilliant goose control dog, sheepdog as well.He has done very well in sheep dog trials. The trials are a way to aceess the skills of a dog and of the humans too. We network at these trials and learn a lot from watching and talking to our fellows.
As a young dog Blade has done a lot already and completely enjoys doing all the things he does! Blade goes around with a huge “smile” on his face and will work with sheep, chickens, the farm ducks and loves his goose control work. He may well be the most athletic dog we have ever had. As a youngster, Blade would bounce around fields and woods like a rabbit and still today he will jet off and turn on a dime. Blade can be a challenge to work with because of his speed and love of it. But as we go along he and I are working together to get the proper “pace” to his work so sheep can be gently worked and wild geese worked with just enough pace as to get them to fly.
Actually, Blade probably is the most effective goose control Border Collie we have ever had. Oh, sure there are some holes in his game. There was the time Blade knocked the kayak over and I went swimming. When I sometimes send him on an outrun to fetch sheep or run around geese, he can at times not watch where he is in relationship to those sheep/geese. But that’s where I come in, and lend some direction, verbally. Blade can get geese to fly just with that amazing athletic movement and sheep to go quietly in the desired direction, with his determination and a growing sense of how to herd well. Of course, a lot of this is on me. There is much to learn about working with herding breeds,you could say we are learning together. Each Border Collie is a relationship in progress and as a handeler, you never stop learning.
Blade will work along ponds and lakeshores for goose control to convince geese to leave, and for one client with too many ducks, with enthusiasm. When asked,he will run into the water with mighty splashes to convince the waterfowl to leave beaches and fields. Blade will run wide “outruns” about geese in a field as to not fluster them at all but it gets them to think a predator is about, and the geese fly off. With our sheep at home he “holds” them away from me when I put down feed so I don’t get run over by the hungry woolys. It takes some good practice and persistence and some courage to do that last one. Sheep are very aggressive when I come to food. And we farmers expect no harm at all to come to the sheep no matter, and our working dogs must follow that rule.This rule carries over to how we work with wild geese too!
Blade has all this great talent and drive to put it in play, as most Border Collies do, and that great smile on his face. He lets you know how he and it is doing/going. Why at times we even howl together. He is so vocal at times. It’s wonderful to have a great working partner you can communicate with.