I grew up in TX and my highschool like many others had all the regular clicks.  I was an athlete, but in TX soccer doesn’t really count as a sport.  The football players roamed the halls with the confidence and bravado of youth.  I needed to exercise Kess and you just can’t walk far enough to tire out a border collie, and she wasn’t safe off-leash, so it was off to the dog park.  As I watched Kess interact with other the dogs I began to notice that she really wasn’t all that different from those highscool guys.  Kess was really competitive and while she didn’t start any fights, she wasn’t necessarily polite.  She’d race onto the scene zip by some unsuspecting dog and give them a big body check on the way by, just daring them to try and catch her.  Kess was sassy and obnoxious, her favorite toy was a kong on a rope which she would flail about so it would beat her on either side of her chest, making a loud wumping noise.  If a dog was too slow she’d let them keep pace for a bit and then turn on the juice and leave them like they were standing still.  Kess eventually discovered chuck-its and we would play for hours at the park.

I loved to watch Kess run.  She’s tall and lanky for a BC.  Her build is reminiscent of a greyhound, and she was FAST.  She could just run and run, and you just had to smile at this neurotic little puppy racing around the dog park without a care in the world.   So we became regulars at the park and knew everyone there as well as you can know a group of people you stand around with while your dogs cavort.  After a while people started asking me if Kess ever worked livestock.  So my mind became filled with daydreams of watching my loyal dog streak down the hillside to gather up the flock and bring them home.  I found a place for lessons and was introduced to the world of sheep herding.

Prior to this I had basically no dog training experience.  We’d always had dogs as pets, but we never really did anything with them other then play and pal around.  The herding world is still full of some very old school trainers, and I had the misfortune to encounter just such a trainer.  Our first day out seemed really promising.  Kess took to it like a duck to water and was circling and following nicely.  At only 8 months old everyone in attendance agreed that she would be a lovely working dog.  Lesson two went a little differently.  The herding instructor thought Kess was to pushy and the way to fix that apparently was to smack her in the head with a plastic rake if she tried to dart in at the sheep.  I think Kess took this as a personal challenge to see who could get to the sheep first, and the rake on her head was no deterrent when she had sheep on the brain.  It went on like this for many months and soon I had a dog that lunged at the sheep any chance she got, and was actually conditioned to charge the sheep at the phrase “that’l do”.  I didn’t know there was another way.  Then I decided to take a clinic.  I wasn’t used to quitting on things and I really wanted to make my daydream a reality.  The instructor at the clinic took one look at Kess, walked her and I out to the middle of the field and told me to stand on her leash until she relaxed and layed down.  He proceeded to have everyone work around us that day and several hours later Kess did kind of settle down and look away from the action occasionally.  Day two I struggled through the exercises, got mad at my dog and basically felt like I’d gotten zero for my hard earned money (remember I’m a college student at this point).  Around 5pm on the last day everyone was working in a medium sized pen just getting their dogs to work nicely and thoughtfully.  Kess true to form was racing around building up the perfect storm of sheep which she would soon explode all over the pen.  The instructor came over and asked if I’d like him to show me how to do it.  He walked in with Kess, whispered some things in her ear and proceeded to demonstrate the magic of soft handling and positive reinforcement.  He worked with just his arms and hands, moved thoughtfully and slowly, and kept his voice low and calm, and Kess worked.  She worked like she’s never worked and everyone in the clinic stood completely still and quiet and watched as the sun went down.  Afterwards the instructor could see my utter frustration at the fact that I couldn’t accomplish what he had in moments.  He patted me on the shoulder and said “well I have done this a time or two”  This gentle man has since passed away, but he taught me that there’s another way:

Lesson number 2:  You can catch more flies with honey.  I began to learn all I could about positive training.

Well I don’t want to leave you all hanging.  Kess continued to herd sheep and we found another instructor, who after several years was able to undo the damage done by the rake.  I did finally get to stand out in a field and send my dog on a 50 yard gather and pen the sheep.  Then I had kids and finding a sitter and driving an hour to herd sheep just wasn’t easy, or economical so we said goodbye to the herding world and started our journey into canine sports.

Sadly I have no pictures or video to share from all of our years of herding, but here’s Kess showing off her favorite squeaky ball.  The entire family would actually go insane if we let Kess have her squeaky all of the time as she will squeak for HOURS.  So the compromise is that a couple of times a week I let her have about 30min of squeaking.  As a side note she doesn’t like to squeak in the same room as us,  so I had to be extra sneaky to get this footage.