Jim came running around the geese on a ball field were kids regularly play. When we first started with this particular client, we would find many geese on our geese control visits. This day, Jim and his teammate for the day, Tara only had a few geese to herd-chase off. Jim does a great job with goose control work. And for a ten-year-old dog, he is in great shape. His arthritis is the only thing that seems to slow him down, and that is under control with a supplement. Our veterinarian says that exercise is great for arthritis. And like most working line Border Collies, Jim loves to work.
Jim wasn’t always free to work or run around, I am told. The first six years of his life he rarely got out of his kennel and seemingly wasn’t taught much. He was antisocial and hyper not just active. As the son of an English herding Champion, that is startling but sad for any dog. Jim’s second home was a rehab home. He learned to be social with people and other dogs and learned how to play. And he was taught the fundamentals of herding with sheep. Jim came a long way in that year from a middle age dog that had been languishing to a happy guy who was eager to play and work.
But I guess I’m like anyone who rehomes a dog, we think we have done something special, as in “rescue” the dog. But from what people tell me who knew Jim from when he arrived in his rehab home to now, he has vastly changed to a dog that seems comfortable and happy in the world around him. Jim will probably never full fill what his breeding would have been able to have him do. I am not positive, but I think that’s a result of him never getting much experience with anything until he turned six. His herding work is adequate, but if he was taught the proper techniques as a young dog, Jim would probably be a spectacular working Border Collie. As a result, he needs a lot of direction when he works as he gets mixed up which way to move sheep on our homestead. That said, Caleb, who is Jim’s primary handler has done a great job with him. Jim and Caleb placed third a couple of times at their level in sheepdog trials last year.
Jim and Tara and I walked from the field we had just chased geese off in New York. We needed to check all the fields at this school and then head off to Massachusetts. The Border Collies moved ahead of me, and when I caught up to them, I could see they were looking at geese on that next field. I called Jim and Tara to me as it works much better to start every job with your Border Collies next to you as you give a command, thus orienting the dogs to where they should go when herding or herd-chasing. I sent Jim to the left around the geese eating on the field and Tara to the right. Jim did a wonderful outrun and ended up on the far side of the geese. Then he with Tara’s help moved in on the geese., herd-chase mode. The geese got alarmed thinking something was hunting them and took off in flight. As the geese flew across the field, Jim tracked the geese, running almost under them as if they were sheep he was to move to another place.
Jim has great vision, and as a goose control dog, he excels. I guess goose control work makes sense to him. He is slowly getting better at farm work, and he did do well in sheepdog trials last year. But he sure seems satisfied with his goose control work. We all need something to make the world make sense to us.