Rogue has never been one of those pushy dogs with a never-ending need for action and play. But he’s always been game for any sport or work. Rogue and I had our first herding lessons with a border collie handler, who told me that Rogue was the first dog other than a border collie that he’d wish to own himself. When Rogue tested for his first professional wildlife detection job, the trainers from Working Dogs for Conservation weren’t sure about him because he didn’t show the obsessive ball drive that most of their dogs have. But he went on to train with the experienced dogs and ended up performing just as well as they during the assessment phase of the project. At seven years old, Rogue and Joan went to the AKC National Agility Championship in Reno. While they didn’t make it to the finals, they did make a respectable showing.
Rogue is nine years old now. He’s retired from agility and we haven’t done a herding trial in more than a year. But he is still the best working partner a handler could hope for. Yesterday Rogue and I went out to vaccinate our little flock of sheep that we keep at my Mother-in-Law’s place. We’ve done this chore so many times that he knows exactly where the flock will try to escape into the trees and he knows very well the pen in which I’ll want him to put the sheep. Rogue is also aware that once penned, he’ll have nothing else to do but lie down while I give the sheep their shots. So Rogue always takes the sheep to the pen via the “scenic route” which would cost us huge points on the gather if we were trialing, but I allow him this bit of fun without comment. In turn, Rogue lies quietly outside the pen without pestering the sheep while I work.
Today, Rogue and I left early to do a turtle nest search at a private residence on Thornton Lake in Albany, where I’m doing a turtle conservation project. As is his habit, he was a bit too playful during the first few minutes, checking out deer trails along the lake more than paying attention to turtles. But once I called him over to do some detailed searches around the house, Rogue’s tail drops, he slows, and I see him shift into work mode. I watched him air scent along a plume of odor that led him to a concrete planter, at which he sat and looked at me. His alert signal that he found a nest. I wonder what the heck he’s doing, but sure enough, inside the empty planter are a few old, shriveled turtle eggs. Good boy Rogue! He did a few more alerts on nests that had already been discovered and he passed by some turtle nests already found. I have to assume these are western painted turtle nests, not western pond turtle nests–the only turtle species Rogue has been trained to find. I have to remind myself to experimentally test Rogue’s ability to discriminate between the two species.
Rogue doesn’t get nearly as much training time as he did at the peak of his career, but these days he seems very happy to just accompany on my errands, do a couple of tracks each week, and visit the flock once in a while. I’m pretty lucky to have Rogue as a partner.
Rogue is Rogue Gaia Kuymal VCD1 CDX MX MXJ XF HSAs HTAD2. Bred by Peggy Richter.
