I saw yesterday that Fate’s real calling is her love of people, and her desire to comfort and know them. And I have to be honest, I missed it. I’ve written lots of book about dogs and studied them for years, but I didn’t get the size of this beautiful dog’s heart.

For me, the key to wisdom is not bragging about what you know, but admitting to what you don’t know and need to learn. Fate is teaching me a whopping big lesson about animals.

I was taken aback yesterday when I saw how naturally,  safely and lovingly Fate did some first-class therapy work at the Mansion. I didn’t think it would work out, Fate was too active, too restless, too independent.

I was wrong, as is obvious.

She was able to do in a couple of sessions what I thought would take years to teach her. Once again, I realize how important it is to listen to the dog rather than project our own ideas and feelings onto them.

How could I have missed this? Why did it take four years for me to see it? I was convinced I would have to give us this work when Red died. Now, I see he will have a worthy successor to continue the great work he led us both to.

Fate is an intense, active, independent creature, she understands many words, intentions, and emotions.

She also has that gift of intuition, so critical for the best therapy dogs. And she loves human beings. She practically melts with joy when she sees someone walking on the street.

As I’ve said, again and again, the true therapy dog has to read the feelings of people, respect them and respond to them. He or she must be absolutely trusted. I saw great evidence of this yesterday. We have work to do, but I know now that we will get there.

Maria is overjoyed, she wrote about this turn in Fate’s life on her blog today.

It isn’t just about being petted, although that can be important. I am drawn to hospice and extreme elder care, I think that is for me the ultimate experience of a human being and a dog.

The most important part of therapy work – like sheepherding –  can’t be taught, it has to come from inside the dog. They either have it or don’t. True therapy work is just as complex and demanding as sheepherding you just don’t get to see therapy trials on TV and in movies.

To me, Fate just didn’t have the heart to nip a sheep in the nose. But she is all heart when she sees an elderly person in need of her attention. There it is, real work for a working dog.

But there was another message inside Fate, and I didn’t hear that until yesterday. “This is what I want to do. This is what I love.”

Fate and I have had a complex relationship. She was given us by Karen Thompson, the wonderful breeder and human from Virginia who gave us Red. We owe her a lot. Fate has every herding credential one might want. She is from Wales, the heart of border collie country, from a champion line of herders.

She has extraordinary athleticism and stamina and fairly explodes with the need to work. She is the smartest dog I have ever had as well as the fastest. She opens doors and is like an elegant jewel thief when it comes to taking delicacies off the counter. She leaves no traces.

And along with Lenore, she is also the sweetest dog I have ever had, including Red.

I tried for nearly a year to train her to herd sheep, while I saw her great instinct, it seemed to me she lacked the drive and intensity to compel the sheep to do what she wanted.

She loved being with them, running alongside them, and around them. But she refused to get in their faces, challenge them, stare them down.

Karen Thompson, who is an honest friend, thinks I didn’t really know how to train Fate. She might be right, Fate was too much for me. I remember her turning to me one morning, and communicating to me, in a clear and unmistakable message: “I’m not Red. I don’t want to do this.”

Even though I’ve successfully trained several border collies to work with sheep, I could not train Fate. It seemed to me she was the “Ferdinand” of border collies, she wanted to be with the sheep, but not herd the sheep or intimidate them, which the great border collies know how to do.

Red is a big mush with people, but he was tough as nails with sheep. They obeyed or go nipped. People loving to watch those herding trials, they don’t seem to notice that the sheep are not having any fun.

So I hear the message, better late than ever, and I saw it as well. Fate and I will undertake this next chapter of both of our lives together. Lots of people have asked me if I am going to get another dog when Red dies. You never know, but I don’t think so.

We can move the sheep with grain, and while Fate will always be Maria’s dog, we have a lot of good work to do together.