Jeff's Story
Jeff was my first border collie , I had him almost 30 years ago and I like to tell stories about how good he was , HERE IS ONE ....

Online Veteran Posts: 106 Location: Bristow OKlahoma

When I was young , my good dog Jeff , got caught by the dog catcher in Broken Arrow , Ok.. At the time they didn't have a pound so they kept the dogs in the dog catchers back yard . Well , they took Jeff to the people jail . When I got there , he was on a bunk eating a hamburger from a plate and watching TV. I hate it when the cops get my dogs , they always spoil it , and then try to make you prove ownership by calling it to you and the dog just sits there. I don't blame the dog for wanting to stay , but i always feel like beating em when I get em home from that . It is best , ( my direct experience ) to go armed with your own hamburger ! Jeff understood bout every word I said to him , and he wouldn't let ANYONE near me when I was asleep. If I wanted a cow , I told him what color , that was the cow he brought . ( really ) I was working for Jake Casio in Estancia NM in 75 on his brood mare farm , I left the farm for the day , I had a 2 mares in heat and a stud " from the track " get out of their stalls . The gates were open to the road as well . When I got home late , one mare was in the run , one in the round pen and the stud was in the hay shed , and Jeff was in the middle of the barnyard run holding them till I got there. After that , I knew everything was going to be all right when I came home. That , to me , is work ethic . And priceless. I didn't breed Jeff and I didn't remotly know how to train a border collie back then . I got him when he was about 4 years old . They just told me how to down him and send him and stand by the gate I wanted the stock to come through and told me to be ready to get out of the way . He would work for anyone ( almost , unless they were stupid , he had no tolerance for stupid). He would do about anything , so I took him to the bar alot and won beers with him on various stunts . He was good in a fight to , he backed me up more than once. It's hard to beat me when you have a good border collie hangin off your ass! ( all this happened  in my youth mind you ) A dog like him would be worth so much now , I can't stand to think about it , I had no idea of what he was when I was young and now I work so hard to get that dog consistenly . AND he was not one of Genes best examples. A man named Gene Harvey in Estancia NM bred and trained Jeff . I called recently to a dog person in that area , and ask about him , she said Gene was still alive and she had one of the dogs from his pack . It was a good one , she said. We also had a little Aussie on that farm ( she belonged to Gene ) , she hated fire and would put out fires by rolling on them . I came home one day and there was a big black area in the hay shed , I looked for her and found her with about half her hair burned off! ( Waggin her Tail though ) I suppose that is work ethic also . I would like to breed for that quality and sell pups to firemen , get rid of them stupid dalmations ! ( Sorry if someones good dog is a stupid dalmation , I thought that was a safe thing to write here. ) Nowadays , it takes all my pack , to fill the space in my heart that was left after Jeff was gone . He was just that good. I will never name a pup Jeff or ( Tweed ) - Jeffs father. Any way , I hope everyone that keeps dogs , gets to own at least one really good one , so when they swap stories with other dog people , they don't have to lie. John Keim @ crossroads bordercollies

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