“National Mutt Day” is coming up on July 31, and that got me thinking about our pure breed Border Collies and our “mutt” Nash. We started out farming with a mix breed named Chelsea who was a real love and a very good farm dog, though I never used her for herding. She never worked livestock but took care of protecting the animals the gardens and us; those were her instincts. That was a long time ago; our sons were young then, we are talking over 25 years ago when Chelsea came into our lives. I still miss her. But we have had other dogs fill our lives, five currently, and the modern-day version of Chelsea, Nash, has the same instincts and is also a love, just a little more intense. Nash was a rescue as a pup and lived with his first family for two years until he came to live with us. Nash was a bit too intense for New York City living.
Nash could be a mix of several breeds, no one knows, you can just tell that he is a strongly nose oriented dog and loves to keep rabbits out of the garden and fox away from the chickens, that kind of thing. We have worked “off” his instinct some too, and have had him herd livestock. His farm work is needed when most of the Border Collies are away from farm/homestead. He also can fill in as a goose control dog. It just takes a bit more time, handling to get him pointed in the right direction on the job. Nash just doesn’t have the Border Collie’ instincts for being biddable, working with their people, handlers.
Border Collies aren’t the breed as some people think they are. They are breed for instincts rather than the modern American trend of breeding for pet disposition and looks, ascetics. Working line Border Collies can range from 25 pounds to 65 pounds, be short coated or long coated all different colors, though black and whites are most common. The black and white color nowadays seen with some red is breed into Border Collies to help them herd sheep, and it helps with geese control. The black concerns sheep, geese, and the white can be seen better. So a Border Collie with more white in its coat may have to work harder to herd sheep or herd-chase geese. Border Collies had other breeds breed into it, like Grayhounds, Terriers, and Retrievers. Breeders wanted to add other characteristics into the herding farm dogs. What matters is that a Border Collie can herd well enough, be useful on the farm. Some people think the word Collie means useful in ancient Galic.
Nash is useful on our Homestead, and with the Goose Control, it took a lot of work with the herding and goose-chase training. But the other protecting part came naturally to him. The goofy part and the at times gonzo part as well as the “I love you so much part” comes easily to him too. But he is who he is, just as our youngest Border Collie Tara I think is part Tarrier, she loves to play nip and is very brave. And I laugh and say that our oldest Border Collie Jim must be part hound, he loves to hunt. And he is a pure breed Border Collie whos Dad was English herding Champ! Dogs are who they are. We just should realize what we do with them; they are in our hands.