There are love dogs and Love Dogs. This morning, just after dawn I brought Red and Lenore out to the pasture to do some sheepherding. The original Love Dog is always incredulous watching border collies work, as if she cannot imagine running around chasing sheep amidst the bugs and the heat.
Lenore loves to sit in the pasture, come along and watch Red work, as she loved to watch Rose. Her own work is collecting some pasture biscuits and throwing them some of them up later, preferably in my bed. Red was more focused this morning, more firmly in command of the sheep, and they had a lot more respect for him. I keep forgetting they were not dog broke. Red is taking care of them. I love working with him, I love herding again, touching something deep and beautiful within me. In all the post-breakdown chaos, I lost my love for that, and then Rose got tired and sick. I am grateful to Maria and Karen Thompson for bringing this beautiful thing back into my life, and to do it with a dog like Red is magical, spiritual.It is good for the body, good for the soul to work with these amazing creatures. Lenore reminds me not to take it all too seriously.
Red meditated with us this morning, sitting quietly by my side. Maria and I have begun daily training exercises with him – first so he won’t become responsive only to me, secondly to continue the obedience and calming training (always happy, easy, positive) that we want to do every day. He wouldn’t leave me to come to her at first, but she perseved and he was coming to her easily after a few minutes. We called it quits. We always end on a high note.
