gentle soul

Sophie, as a puppy, was known every now and then for throwing around some attitude. In typical Border Collie fashion, she could be stubborn, willful, overly excited and, sometimes, just down right impossible to deal with. Once in a training class, when she was about 7 months old, acting like a crazed beast and my patience had reached a breaking point, an instructor came over having witnessed our circus act. She knelt down in front of Sophie, held her head in her hands and peered into her eyes. After a minute, she stood up and said to me: "No worries....you both just need some practice. She is a gentle soul." She was right.



Sophie and I have come a long way since that day...a day when I was starting to question the true nature of my dog, as well as my ability to train her. Those words from the instructor made all the difference. There are still days when Sophie is overly rambunctious and inattentive, still days when I start to question my training abilities....but there has never been another day when I have questioned her nature. I look in her eyes and know her soul. And she knows mine.