Doggone It! Will these dogs ever tire?

Just a couple of years ago, I had a bunch of dogs. The number varied, depending on how many rescue dogs were in residence at the time, but I averaged about 10 dogs.

That's a lot of dogs. I know that a lot of breeders have that many, and more, dogs but I am certainly no big-time breeder, and that many dogs becomes an overwhelming part of your life.

Well, I don't have a lot of dogs anymore, although folks who have just one dog might think that my four dogs are a lot. But for someone who for the past 15 years has had quite a few dogs, four is almost like having one.

Carol Reiter -

The problem with the four I have is that three of them are high maintenance. Poor Kate, who is almost 12 years old, is the only one that doesn't spend her days, and nights, trying to outfox me. Kate just wants to sleep next to me, under the covers if possible, and lay by my feet in the house. She snoozes in the yard during the day, crunching her dog food and daintily drinking from her water bowl.

But Len, Jan and Peg are constantly trying my patience. Part of the problem is that they are border collies, and they are bred to be working border collies on top of that. They need a job, and sometimes they don't think that enjoying a nice yard and house is any kind of a job at all.

Nope, they'd rather be out running, hassling horses, finding the cats' hidey holes, and just generally being a pain.

I guess it's my fault. I chose a high-energy breed, a breed that lives to work, and loves to run. Jan and Peg are lean, muscled little dogs that can make jumping a 6-foot fence look like a piece of cake.

And even Len, who is bumping up against turning 9 next year, is still pretty athletic. He's agile and quick and even though he's a big dog, he can still jump like, well, like Peg and Jan.

I guess I should be happy with my dogs' desire to exercise. I don't have to worry about putting them on diets; they stay thin without any effort on my part.

Even Kate is still a skinny little rat. Hope and Meg, until the day they died, were thin and muscled. Ty got a bit heavy in his old age, but certainly not overweight. About the only one that really got fat was Ox. And he was born fat, and I'm not kidding. ..He was a big, fat puppy with a big white head. He looked just like a black baldy cow. From the time he was a nursing puppy until the day he died he was fat. No matter what I did, he stayed fat. But Ox was the only dog I ever had that got really heavy.

Unfortunately, Peg, Jan and Len all keep lean and athletic by doing everything wrong. But man, can they run. I would love to put Peg up against a whippet, because she is just muscle and bone covered with freckled skin. She is amazingly fast, and coupled with her ability to switch directions on a dime, has unbelievable speed.

Jan isn't quite as fast, but she's a bit bigger than Peg. She's just as fit, but I think that her extra bulk slows her down just a little.

To show how fast these darn dogs are, let me tell you about a morning this week. When I get up in the morning, I immediately let the dogs out. The three bad ones laugh at fences, and they are all over the fence and gone before I can even get the door closed.

But this morning, I didn't want them to go out and run. I was in a hurry, and I decided to keep them in the yard and get their food and water ready for the day.

So I opened the door, stepped out and let all four dogs out. I immediately told the dogs to stay in the yard, which usually stops them.

Not this time. Before I could get all the words out of my mouth, all three were over the fence. I stumbled down the stairs, and by the time I got to the yard gate, all three were just little black and white dots at the back of the five acres.

I was mad, but I was kind of impressed too. Although Peg outdistanced both Len and Jan, all three of them made it to the back of the field in less than 20 seconds.

Pretty amazing for a couple of little needle-nosed, big-eared dogs and one big, goofy dog with funny ears. By the time I had gotten close enough to the dogs so they could hear me, they had their tongues hanging on the ground and were looking for water.

I like to watch the dogs run, it makes me appreciate the breeding and athleticism that the breeders of my dogs' ancestors chose. They really are working dogs, even if they don't always do the work I want them to do. But at least they keep busy, and they get tired, and like my sister says, a tired dog is a good dog. On second thought, maybe my dogs haven't gotten really tired yet. Oh well, I can always hope.

Reporter Carol Reiter can be reached at (209) 385-2486 or creiter@mercedsun-star.com.