A few days ago, I wrote that our wonderful breeder, Karen Thompson, suggested that Fate could be sent off for herding re-training for 30 days, and Maria and I thought about her suggestion, made after I said we might need another dog because Red was getting older.
Maria did not take to the idea, and after some discussion, Karen agreed. Maria and I are very pleased with Fate, we love her to death. She is a happy, grounded and very busy dog. Karen feels I may have encouraged Fate’s herding issues by letting her run around too much near the sheep.
I take everything Karen says to heart, but I also believed – and still believe – that Fate is not drawn to confrontation or any kind of aggression, as Red and Rose and Izzy and Orson and all of my other border collies were. I just don’t see it in her, and while I recognize I might have not trained her properly, I believe in communicating with animals and I believe there does come a point where I need to accept and respect the true nature of a dog.
Every dog is different. Fate comes from an accomplished line of herding dogs from Wales, and her siblings are working beautifully with sheep. For whatever reason, it didn’t work out with Fate, but she is such a great and fun and loving creature, we could not be happier with her.
Fate is an unusually submissive dog, especially around dogs and other animals. Red and my other border collies were not. I’m happy to take responsibility for this, nobody knows more about border collies and herding than Karen, but in fairness to Fate, I don’t think she’d benefit from going away for a month and training with sheep in small spaces.
She is, as we intended, very much Maria’s dog, and Maria could care less if she herds sheep or not. The two would warm anybody’s heart, they love one another and hang around with each other all day, except when Fate is running around with the sheep.
And in the final analysis, Maria would have strangled me if I tried to send Fate anywhere for 30 days. As it should be. I discussed this at length with Maria, and I told her even though some people might find the idea of sending a dog off for re-training, it isn’t cruel, it is often a great gift to the dog, especially working dogs.
Contrary to popular belief, healthy and grounded dogs do not get homesick or suffer from separation anxiety, especially if they are working dogs with new things to learn. It was not a bad or ludicrous idea, just not, I think, appropriate for us now.
For me, there is no real point to it, especially as Red regains his health. And I am not at all persuaded that Fate would be able to do this work, even in the hands of a better trainer. She has never shown even the slightest inclination to challenge the sheep, even before she started running around.
The herding work Red has to do is generally light, and with his preventative care, he is no longer struggling to run or work. In a few years, we will confront the issue again. For now, Fate is going nowhere.
