Some years back Red and Delaney, my granddaughter, went to Hagerman and bought me a Border Collie pup. I have always thought a man should pick his own dog out of the litter, but these two wanted to surprise me so they picked a pup and brought her home. I named her Molly. This is the most affectionate dog I have ever owned. Molly is a stock dog, but you don't need to train a stock dog to work stock, that part comes naturally to them. The first thing you teach a Border Collie pup is the property lines. You walk your pup around and show her where you live. You don't want your dog leaving your property without you. The neighbors don't want your dog at their house. The next thing you teach your dog is that she works for you, not for herself. You don't want her out in the stock when you are not home. I worked for a guy one time and he had a new Border Collie that he had been working with. He asked to bring his dog here and put her in with the sheep to see if she would follow his commands. She did a great job. A lot of guys prefer female dogs because they are not as hard headed as the males, all males. I have never seen anyone kick a Border Collie, ever. There are two reasons for that: A Border Collie is smart and you just talk to them, also a Border Collie is quick and you will never land a kick anyway. Molly goes to work with me everyday. We are working at the Morton house across from Carl Miller Park. I bought that old house by accident and now we are fixing it up. Somedays Red will bring lunch and we will sit out on the front porch, have lunch, and watch the world go by. Molly never begs. Border Collies are high energy dogs so sometimes during the day I take Molly outside and throw the frisbee so she can run and burn off some of that energy. Molly is my dog so if Red tells her to do something Molly will look over at me to see if it's alright. This makes Red crazy. I guess there is some debate on who is the alpha female around here. Red says that when I am not home Molly will herd her around. This also makes Red go wild. I just grin and tell her that they need to work that out. Life is good.
