Aspirat Primo Fortuna Labori

By
Christopher
– Posted on November 7, 2010Posted in: dogs

The Latin is from Virgil and says, “Fortune smiles upon our first attempt.”

Here I’ve collected some photos and videos of the border collie puppies’ first attempts to herd sheep.

Dublin making friends at White Fence Farm, 8 weeks old

I picked up Dubin on St. Patrick’s Day and here we are just a few days later at my birthday dinner at White Fence Farm.   Apparently this sheep was unimpressed with Dublin’s predator stare, and I can’t blame her, he was so damn cute I’d run toward him instead of away from him too!  He’d have to wait another two months before his real first time “working” sheep (because you have to call it work even when it’s play, them’s the rules!).

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Yes, you did hear that right. My father puts down Dublin and says “Now listen, I’m hungry, so go get me a sandwich” and later, “Chris, why don’t you try this at the singles bar.” Heh.

This was also young Celeste’s first time seeing sheep, mere days after we got her. She had just turned 9 weeks old. This was also the first time she had a new heavy collar on so she spent a lot of time trying to scratch at it, much to our amusement. The cuts are where she ran out of frame into the shade to work on getting her collar off.

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I also took my camera to Mercury and Gemma’s first exposure to sheep but since I was no longer a complete idiot around sheep, my instructor had me take the pups into the ring instead of me watching her do it. Thus my humble little camera was left perched on a chair.

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It’s amazing to watch that light go on when they first realize that they have power over the sheep.  You can see it, they are rather carefree and oblivious, looking around like this is any other dog park except with smaller pieces of poop on the ground, and in an instant it’s BAM, the instinct kicks in and it’s a different life from then on.

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About Christopher

Christopher Landauer is a fifth generation Colorado native and second generation Border Collie enthusiast. Border Collies have been the Landauer family dogs since the 1960s and Christopher got his first one as a toddler. He began his own modest breeding program with the purchase of Dublin and Celeste in 2006 and currently shares his home with their children Mercury and Gemma as well. His interest in genetics began in AP Chemistry and AP Biology and was honed at Stanford University.