Dog training is always a reflection on human adaptability, patience, and ability to learn. I’ve been working for a good long time on getting Fate to stay, and it is perhaps the trickiest and most challenging part of our training work. Fate is an explosively instinctive dog with an enormous amount of drive. She reacts instinctively, as well-bred working dogs do, and when she hears the chain a gate, for example, she shoots forward, out of her stay and lie.

In the pasture, her lie down is great, the stay command is the hardest for her. Fate is very different from Red, he is eager to please and instantly responsive. He has spoiled me in a way.

Fate has to be trained differently, as you can see in the video I took this morning. When I tell her to stay, she does, when she hears the gate, she moves forward but does not run through it. Invariably, on the second try, the stay command works, she lies down and stays. That is because I’ve already opened the gate and she doesn’t hear the sound of the chain.

This is the thing with intense border collies, certain sounds and movements trigger their explosive responses. Red stays whenever and wherever he is told to stay. Fate has trouble containing herself, and I need to remember, she is only six months old. So I’ve decided to go with Fate and not push too much against her instincts. She has to stay, but she can move forward a bit around the gate. Nowhere else.

I am understanding that Fate is not Red and will not be Red. She is very much her own dog.  Fate is coming along beautifully in the pasture. She is giving more eye every day and the sheep are beginning to sense her power and let her move them. Patience, patience, patience. Good training is as much about us as it is about the.  Come and see.