I had a thrilling moment this morning, Fate was out in the pasture with the sheep and they started to scatter, and I yelled “come bye,” the command for a border collie to do a clockwise outrun and turn the flock in a direction. The danger, since I don’t have a small pen or fence or space to work in, is that herding becomes a scattered chase. That is not happening.

Directionals are a key to controlling the sheep, and I have been marking Fate’s behavior – saying “come bye” when she goes around them in a clockwise direction, she got it this morning and went around the sheep and turned them towards me, as she is supposed to do. Once I can get her to slow down or walk up or lie down with the sheep between us, I will almost be there.

Fate is moving almost faster than I can teach She has that professional demeanor about her, she is full of instinct, bright and responsive. She has a lot of presence, like Red, she doesn’t need to bit or charge or nip. That takes a lot of poise for a puppy. She is strong and confident, it is joyous to see those instincts emerge. Sometimes you have to curb them, sometimes you have to let them go. Tricky. I have to work on the directions, “come bye,” and “away to me,” and there is lots more work to do in other ways, but I never imagined she would be at the point we are at now. Got to keep it slow and steady.