Maybe . . . A pup out of Shiva or one of her pups would have a real probability of being an excellent, social family dog. She's a year old now, and she's still a big sweetie. I'm going to give her a few more months to mature and then see about getting her certified as a therapy dog at the University of Tennessee. It's impossible to pass by her without a pet or, more often, a big hug. She's just the most demonstrably affectionate dog I've ever seen, but she's still a great guardian.
Something out of Kharma would definitely give Ripley - and especially Dakota - plenty of work! I can just imagine Kharma and a Border Collie competing to see who would herd who!
Oh, you'd have laughed at me Tuesday night! We had to haul some calves to the stock barn Wednesday morning, so we went over to Charley's cousin, Bob's farm to borrow his cattle trailer. He had a half dozen new heifers in the field where the trailer is stored, and he'd warned us that they would try to follow the trailer out. So . . . my job was to keep the heifers inside. We took Shiva, thinking she'd be calmer and easier to handle than Kharma (since Kharma's a herding fiend - she doesn't want to stop until she's got everyone into one group exactly where she wants them to be), and I just kept her on the leash with me to intimidate the heifers. We got them down the hill from the barn, in a group, and then had to figure out how to keep them there when Charley started pulling the trailer out. Shiva stood beside me, and I just stood there, slightly crouched, and stared at them. They didn't even flinch! I didn't look away, so when Charley got the trailer out and the gate pulled close, he had to yell to tell me he was done. He commented on what a good job we'd done keeping the heifers in one place, and I got the giggles; it suddenly occured to me that I made a very good Border Collie - using 'The Stare' to keep them from moving! (rofl)
