The phone rang just after lunch, it was Julie, a program director at a nearby assisted care facility . They heard I had a therapy dog and they would love it if he could come to their facility and do some dog therapy work. Many people in the facility missed their dogs.

This is familiar turf for Red and I, we have been to many nursing homes, veterans hospitals, assisted care units and dementia units. Red is skilled and experienced in this work, so am I. The call came one day after I decide to retire Red from active sheepherding. Another chapter for him, for me, and I will share the experience if i can.

The facility is looking for a dog who can visit regularly How timely.

This evening, I called Dr. Karen Thompson, the breeder and trainer and friend who sent me Red (and Fate). Karen is busy and checks into the blog every now and then, but she didn’t know the details. She knew Red got stomped by a horse.

There is no one on the earth I would rather talk to about getting a new dog than Karen. And it is clear now that we need a new dog, Red will not be able to actively work the sheep much longer, and Fate does not seem to be developing in that direction.

Karen and I had an honest and interesting discussion about Fate.

She said puppies are always a bit of an unknown, but she wondered if my letting Fate race around too much distracted her from developing her eye with the sheep. The sheep respected Red, she said, it was obvious from the videos, but they didn’t seem to respect Fate.

I’ve never had this issue come up before, but that doesn’t mean Karen is wrong. She knows her stuff. I appreciate her talking to me about it.

I said I appreciated the observation, the problem could well have been my fault. The herding instructors I invited to come to the farm seemed to think Fate didn’t have the eye, but both suggested working her in a smaller space so she couldn’t run so much but had to stand and develop her eye strength.

I told Karen Fate just never seemed interested in making eye contact with the sheep, even in closed quarters.

I’m going over that in my mind.

Fate is Maria’s dog now, and we never really meant for her to be a working dog,  and she is happy and so are we, so Karen and I agreed that there is no point in looking back.

Karen suggested that we look for an  experienced young herding dog who needs little  training for basic sheepherding.

She said I am unlikely to ever find a dog like Red, and I know that. But there are many great dogs beneath his level. And we can find a dog whose skills are known. She said an adult dog would also be much  easier for me physically, and that is a good point also. I could not nearly keep up with Fate.

We’ll see what happens. It could be in a week, a month, six months or years.

Karen seemed confident we could find a dog like that so that Red could retire, and Fate could live her life running around and hanging out with Maria. So it looks like I have another dog in my future, and it will be a border collie, my favorite breed of dogs.

Tomorrow, at ll a.m., we will visit this home and begin to expand Red’s therapy work, he loves to work and can do great good. You don’t have to chase sheep to be a busy and valuable border collie, though it does help. I got out his therapy tag, we are both eager to get to work.