Day: February 2, 2015

When Red is working, he is unaware of the weather or of any people but me, he waits for my voice commands, screens everything else out. This is special stance, he controlling the sheep mostly with his eyes, but his body is transformed, poised to charge, back up, move closer or take off after a sheep. His tail is between his legs (not a sign of submission, but helping him to move quickly, his head is lowered, his ears are usually back. Every muscle in his body is tensed up, and he uses the authority of his entire body to signal the sheep that they must do what he says.

Red lives for this, it is the epicenter of his life, although he is coming to embrace the therapy work intensely, although not as intensely. It is always a breathtaking thing for me to see him work.

Storm’s end, late this afternoon.

Red came tearing into the Pole Barn when we called for him to help – the command I use is “that’ll do,” he always comes running, and he pushed the sheep away from the donkeys’ grain, then stood between them and the donkeys until everybody had eaten.  Red has that businesslike demeanor that the sheep rarely challenge.He didn’t permit the sheep to move an inch towards the donkeys, Maria and I were able to move safely in the barn.

Maria called out for help inside the Pole Barn, she was trying to bring grain out – a tense time with animals – and the sheep charged the Pole Barn and started fighting with the donkeys. A dangerous brawl to be caught in if you are a single human, the donkeys might kick out at the sheep, the sheep can easily knock a human being over. I called out for Red, he came charging into the stall where the grain is kept and drove the sheep out into the shelter, he stayed right there to keep them in place while Maria fed the donkeys behind him and was able to get out safely. This is the sort of thing there is no command for, it is something the dog intuitively gets or is able to understand from his human, or it simply can’t be resolved by a dog.

Red sometimes seem to know language, he just gets the situation. It is a wonderful thing to have him here.