I’ve rarely seen a more beautiful thing than Red and his magnificent outruns. If I didn’t have a fence, he might go all the way to Canada. Karen Thompson calls them overruns and has some voice commands that shorten them. I am getting some messages from some border collie people pointing out that they are too long and wide, and this is true. They are too  big by at least half. The concerns are legitimate because when he runs that wide, the sheep can just take off and leave the herder standing there until Red zooms around.

As it happens, they don’t take off but wait for him to get close and then they move. I love these outruns. They are inspiring to me, spiritual experiences all of their own.

I won’t try and correct his outruns. He has been superb in long and short work, and I am not an Irish farmer or, God forbid, looking for any ribbons at a herding trial. Red’s outruns are just like Simon’s bray to me, his love of life. His call to life.

I strongly believe in training dogs, and mine are mostly very well-trained. But it sometimes important to not train a dog out of a defining and elemental behavior. I have many close friends in the border collie world, owners, breeders, trialers, trainers, and there are some in that community who do not care for my philosophy. It works for me, and for my happy, loved and engaged dogs.

I love seeing Red take off on a whisper, soar through the fields, the embodiment of the animal freed, the dog left to do that rare thing, live his life. I have driven dogs nuts trying to correct some behaviors, and myself as well. I won’t inject that into our relationship, not unless it is dangerous to him, me or the sheep. So far, that is not a problem. Come and see this beautiful thing for yourself.