Introducing Jess

Jess is a pedigree Border Collie, born 28 November 2003. She was the last of seven pups, born two hours after the first. Jess was a little girl with a strong blaze of white on her forehead, barely breathing but alive! She was the smallest of the litter.  When I decided I wanted a dog, it was not long after my first grandson was born. Was I clucky for a little one to care for? Co-incidence maybe, I don't know! I do know that dogs and little boys make playmates together and hoped for it in the future. The opportunity to have Jess presented and she arrived; a black and white ball of fluffy pup. Jess has a soft mid-length coat that is as soft as cat's fur.  I reasoned that dogs were more intelligent and faithful than cats, after some negative past experiences with cats.  Jess grew fast and soon endeared herself to the family. She showed intelligence and sensitivity from a young age.

One example was when she was four months old and we took her on a weekend away to visit family. This was our first trip with Jess. She was wearing a canine seat belt and excitedly enjoyed watching the scenery flash by through the car window, as if trying not to miss a thing. Jess travelled well. We arrived and she adjusted to sleeping in a bed made for her in the garden shed.

The next day, some people with toddlers arrived to visit.  I noticed the two children standing on the veranda watching as we threw a ball for Jess, who instinctively fetched it and returned bringing the ball for another throw. We were excited to see she didn't need much teaching to do this. After a while the children were standing on the lawn close to their parents, watching.

As the conversation continued, Jess was left alone with the ball for a time. Then she suddenly stood up, picked up the ball, slowly moved toward the children and rolled the ball toward them, then lay down and waited.  The children jumped back and recoiled in fright when the adults told them that Jess wanted to play with them. Their father told us that they had just been to a dog show in efforts to cure the children from their fear of dogs. We were not aware of this and as he spoke, Jess half stood, crept forward toward the ball still laying where it stopped. She then nudged it gently with her nose and then lay there waiting. To our surprise, one of the children picked the ball up and threw it. Jess immediately retrieved it and sensitively returned to the same spot some few feet from the child to drop the ball and nudge it toward the child. We were surprised to see such sensitivity in a four month old pup. The girls had been won over from their fear of dogs as a result of Jess's gentle wise interaction with them.