Working with It

I've renamed my old Border collie, Saint Mickey.

Mickey's a nine-year-old who recently retired from open, or the highest level of Border collie competition. Up until six weeks ago, she was being handled by a 20-year veteran of sheepdog herding.

Now, she has me as my handler.

Her new job is to make me a better sheepdog handler. She takes it quite seriously.

She does what I ask -- even if it's wrong. If I say "Come bye" when I mean "away," she goes "come bye," or clockwise. If I forget to say "down," she continues circling the sheep.

Now, she's mastering my whistling.

When a dog is working at a distance or if it's windy, she often can't hear voice commands as well as whistle commands. Also, whistles are more precise and carry less emotion than the voice.

I've been practicing whistling in the car for several months.

"You've got to go out in the field and use them," my instructor says. "The dog will learn to adjust."

Mickey is still tuned into her previous handler's whistles. At the trial this past weekend, her ears perked up when she heard her previous handler whistling to another dog.

But Mickey is also tuning into mine and learning them.

My whistles still sound like an adolescent rooster at times. Sometimes the tone is bad. But Mickey is trying her darndest to learn them and follow them.

And I'm continuing to call her a saint.