"Shit is not a command." – Dianne Deal, scatologist and border collie/people trainer/handler

I worked Jayce this last weekend in P*trick's fields and in Dianne's.

One thing P*trick had told me, a capsule of wisdom that in my system, like most pieces of good information, takes…a minimum of 3 days to dissolve and be absorbed, is that,

"With Jayce -you need to set her up right."

That is "up <space> right". As in correctly. Not upright…as in on her back legs, which, by the way…she can do. She's very agile.  She's also just a touch lacking in confidence.  Which is why I SUPPOSE P*trick meant that maybe I shouldn't try to do a 300 yard outrun with her starting 100 yards behind me.  (EVEN standing on her back legs…)  Because she tends to go a little wide.  As in County-wide. I feared for sheep in other time zones.

She is very nice, though. She is easy to correct, softly, and she is both quick when she needs to be and slow enough the rest of the time that I have an opportunity to think…and sometimes I do. 

Sometimes I think about other things, though, and insteading of issuing a command I might be contemplating new footware or if the Indians called 'corn' 'maze' what did they call 'corn mazes?' and….we find the sheep racing back from Dianne's neighbor's field into the open gate of her small pasture.

"SHIT!" is ….not, apparently, a command.