The "Perfect" dog

 If I were going to use one word to describe Kolt, it quite possibly would be "perfect".

 He's smart, biddable, loves to work, even tempered, happy, focused.

He takes stuff in stride, people like him.

And he's rather handsome, too.

Part of this is genetics. Part of this is, well, me.

 Kolt, as Border Collie #4, is the happy recipient of the  knowledge gain by working with my other three.

They weren't exactly perfect. Second hand Border Collies can come with issues. Fear, reactivity, cat obsession. Freight train pulling and no focus, ADD. But, in their imperfections, they were my teachers.  They made me work and learn. They showed me what was possible.

Their imperfections were part of them and, while it was not at all fun dealing with some of that stuff, I wouldn't change it for the world.  I learned to "read" dog behavior. I learned to be proactive. I learned to expect more from myself than I did from my dogs. I learned that perfect dogs are created by good owners.

I feel incredibly blessed to have a 10 m/o puppy that has been a perfect fit for me and is shaping up to be a "perfect" dog.  But I was just as blessed to get the "imperfect" dogs that tried hard, adapted to a new life, accepted me as a new an imperfect owner and taught me how to be a "dog" person.