Sheep Herding
This is Farmer Gal's dog Grady.
Grady is one of the nicest, most jubilant border collies I know. He has a joie de vivre we should all have.
When you walk in the door, Grady greets you as if you are the most important person in the world. He has no doubt you were put on this earth just to be his friend. Carefree and happy are the two words that describe him best.
Unless he is sheep herding. Then intense and focused are the two words that best describe this bundle of energy. Grady loves to work sheep.
He is also an educated young man. He goes once a week to sheep college to work with his beloved trainer Debbie David.
Debbie teaches him important things like how to hold the sheep off the gates, how to drive them, how to gather them and how to get them to go exactly where you want them to go.
It's a fascinating thing to see. If you ever get a chance to watch a working dog do what it was born and bred to do, I would highly recommend it. Watching a border collie stare down a rogue sheep and give it "the eye" is an astonishing thing.
And the sheep know.
They know this small-ish black and white dog is in command. They know the dog and the handler are working together as a team. And they know the team always wins.
