Barbara Ray - The Bridge

In 1980 I was gifted my first border collie pup, Tuxeda, which I dearly loved and hoped would help me manage the nearly 300 commercial ewes I had at the time. Having no knowledge of the breed I was amazed at how fast she learned basic obedience. But soon she started to show interest in the horses and sheep which caused my opinion to change.

In those days there were no training clinics or lessons from professional handlers nearby. In fact there were only a handful of handlers in the country and I knew none of them. It was my impression a good dog would figure out what job was being done and pitch in to help. After all I had watched Rin Tin Tin and Lassie do this every week on TV as a child.

One hot summer day the farm help and I attempted to get the flock to clean new pastures which involved crossing a slatted bridge over the river. The task was difficult. The usual method of shaking a bucket of grain and running like hell to avert the stampede had failed.  Managing the sheep over the bridge meant shoving the crowd every few inches where they could clearly see the flowing water below. They surely imagined death was imminent as their feet might slip between the slats with every stride. Oh I forgot to mention, the bridge had no sides, so pushing too hard might cause some to plunge into the river some 25 feet below. Perhaps pushing a loaded tractor trailer with flat tires up a hill might have been easier. Two of us worked 45 minutes shouting and shoving the sheep on and nearly all the way across the bridge when my eager young dog appeared on the other side of the flock to flatten our efforts. The little devil swam the river and thought she could help. Colorful language echoed off the mountains. Tuxeda proudly caused all the sheep to break past us and land off the bridge on the original side. Holy high blood pressure! Just another day on the farm.

I like to think I have learned something from my really dumb days. That young dog could have most likely been shaped into a fine farm dog had it passed through the hands of a knowledgeable trainer. But I gave her to a disabled gentleman as a companion where she could no longer harass livestock.