Common ground, between the team and the border collie.

Gustavo has decided that Banksy isn't so bad. Sometimes. They made friends when I started bringing him in the roundpen with her, the way you start colts together as buddies. We all do some circle work. Then she does the circle work while Gustavo looks for escape routes out to get the cats. Then Banksy tugs and Gustavo runs around not in a circle and then everybody does some stays. The cats watch us through the panels. Those darn cats. Then I yell BREAK and we all are running again.

We could play this game for a very long time. It's a pretty good game.


Later we go back in the dog pen, where it's cool and shady, and Gustavo and Banksy roll around in the grass. They are the same size, for like 2 more days. They found some hobbies they both like, some common ground. Otterpop follows us everywhere around the ranch, but she would prefer not to play with Banksy. That's not really her thing. They share a love of fetching things, but I am waiting a while until I am sure that Banksy will only go for her own ball before we try group fetching. Otterpop is not a good sharer.

We all take walks in the pasture every day to teach Banksy how to walk good on a leash, today we went to see the new cows that moved in next door. For cows, they're little. To little dogs, they're pretty big. And they like to stare. Cows sure are starers. Only Banksy was cool with the cows. She didn't know that they didn't used to be there, so what's the problem? She would rather eat a flower, and then we all run back to the gate.