My belief when it comes to knowing what dogs thing is the scientific biological guideline. We can know what is on the outside, what is on the inside is pure speculation,  We can see and test what is on the inside, but since feelings are spoken, not seen, we just don’t know what dogs are really thinking, no matter how much we insist that we do.

That is the arrogance of the human, who hates the words “I don’t know.” I love them, they are the key to learning. I don’t know what dogs are thinking, I don’t know what Bud is thinking when I see Izzy out in the rear of the pasture and shout to Bud, “go get that sheep,” and he tears off a high speed and confronts him.

Izzy was startled, and I think, bewildered at the sight of this little monster bearing down on him. He stood his ground at first, causing Bud some consternation. He seemed flummoxed.

What to do if they don’t run?, he seemed to be asking himself.

They stood nose to nose for a bit, and Bud persisted, recovering his mojo, then barking and getting close. Bud backs up, but he never backs down.

Izzy took him off the hook by turning and running to the rest of the flock, something sheep do when in doubt.

Red watched silently from the top of the hill, I can’t imagine what he was thinking. Bud came running up behind Izzy, who is a large Romney sheep who could stomp him into the ground of he wished.

Bud came running up behind Izzy and came running over proudly to me, expecting a treat. He got one.

Is he herding sheep? Is he learning from the border collies? I don’t know. But I am having a blast watching, this is something I have not seen before, and did not ever expect to see.

I’ll try some more specific commands.  If I can get him to sit behind the sheep, they will move instinctively. That’s how I would train a border collie.

Wouldn’t it be a riot of I trained Bud to do something Fate, my border collie from Wales, has refused to do and that I was unable to train her to do: herd sheep?