Something has changed with Bud in the past couple of days. As Red becomes less and less mobile, and no longer can move to keep up with the sheep, Bud seems to have moved in. Sometimes, like this morning, it seems he has taken command of the pasture.

I may have to stop calling him a Pain In The Bud.

He doesn’t have Red’s attention span or focus, but he is moving the sheep more distinctly and regularly. He doesn’t have the border collie eye, and his focus seems short and distractible. He doesn’t have their stamina, but he does seem to  have the speed he needs.

But today, after checking on Red, he stayed close to the sheep.

When one of the sheep drifted far away from the others, Bud went right after them to bring them back. The sheep pay no attention to Fate but they are paying more and more attention to Bud.

He usually breaks off several times to check something on the fence line, but now, he almost always returns. He looks proud and content out there, and he seems to be in command when he wants to be.  I am not doing any training here, I am just waiting to see where it goes. Something is happening.