I have never been big on people who are proud that they never change their minds. I change mine all of the time, I have never known a truly intelligent person who didn’t. I hear and see the slaves of the left and the right all of the time, people who are proud to  cheapen their minds and intellect with simple-minded labels with pre-determined thinking, mostly so the media can make all life an argument and make some money distorting truth and reality.

I am happy to not be one of them.

So I have changed my mind. I do not have the heart – neither does Maria – to deny this amazing dog the opportunity to work with sheep, which she is very keen to do. We have started training, and have made the most miraculous progress in just a few days. She is working off leash for short periods, running with the sheep, testing them.

I work on sit downs and lie downs in the pasture, the beginning the process that will enable her to be calm, as Red is, and respond to me, even when she is in the herding  fever. I am mixing that with free time where she can move, and I can move and the sheep can move, it is a ballet, we are all in it together.

It will take time and patience, and it will take trusting my own instincts, I believe in them, and they have worked well for me.

Red is, as always, an amazing and generous helper and teacher, he watches over the process but keeps his distance and gives Fate some freedom to move and work and learn. She got a bit crazy at the end, a reminder to me to keep our sessions short and focused. She has also begun obsessing on sheep droppings, as young border collies will when their drive is racheted up. You have to let them do it, they will grow out of it. If I yell at her, she will just get more aroused.

I keep a long lede on her for now, so that I can get my foot on it if she loses control, which will happen with young dogs. But I didn’t need it this morning.

The person who trained Red understood the importance of calm, and my herding instructor friends also emphasize the same thing. A border collie who cannot be calmed cannot, in my mind, be trusted to work with livestock of any kind. The biggest thing I have taught Fate so far is the lie down, it is the calming and control position, she is really getting it.

So a turning point, a joyous thing to see and be a part of. Sheep will not be Fate’s entire life, any more than they are Red’s entire life, but they will be a part of her life, as they are a part of hers. Border collies with a real job to do are happy dogs, and also good pets, I have found. It is a joy for me, great fun and a thing of deep meaning. After herding, she happily went off to Maria’s studio to be with her while she makes her art. A life in balance, as Red have, as I seek. I’ll keep you posted.