Page 43 of To Bed the Bride
Emotions flooded her. Gratitude that Bruce hadn’t run away. Confusion that Logan was criticizing her. Joy that he was here and guilt because of feeling that.
“You’re right,” she finally said. “But he’s doing very well with other commands.” She listed everything that he could do.
Logan bent and scratched the puppy’s ears. “Then you’re a smart boy, aren’t you? Do you want to learn some things your mother can do?”
She watched as Logan led the way back to the bench where she’d been sitting. Once there, he waited until she again sat before joining her.
“Who are his parents?” she asked. “I suspect one of his parents is a border collie, but what about the other?”
He smiled. “No one knows,” he said. “You’re right. His mother is a champion herder, but let’s just say she went far afield. Bruce is the only one of the litter who looks like his mother. The others must take after their father. They’re coal black with white-and-black faces.”
When Bruce tried to climb his trousers, Logan gently pushed the puppy back down to the grass.
“This is a hand command,” he said, flattening his hand and showing the palm to Bruce. “He’ll learn this first. Then you’ll add the word to it.Down, in this case.”
He ran through a series of commands she was determined to memorize. One by one they practiced them with Bruce. Not surprisingly he was quick to learn, earning praise from both of them.
“Later on,” Logan said, “all you’ll have to do is whistle to get him to obey.”
“I can’t whistle.”
“Of course you can. Everyone can whistle.”
“I can’t.”
“Have you ever tried?” he asked.
“Of course I have.” When he looked dubious she repeated, “I have.”
“Whistle for me.”
“What?”
“Try to whistle.”
“How ridiculous, Logan. I’m not going to try to whistle.”
“You never know if you can or can’t do something until you try, Eleanor. Who knows, you might be an expert at whistling. People would come from all around just to hear you.”
How silly he was being and how foolish she was for smiling at him.
“I honestly never thought of giving him commands by whistling.”
“It’s how a shepherd controls his border collies from far away. A whistle travels farther than a man’s voice.”
“You know a great deal about being a shepherd without being a shepherd.”
“I’ve known Old Ned since I was a boy,” he admitted. “I learned everything from him.”
“Including how to train a dog?”
“That, too.”
For the next quarter hour he showed her and then Bruce various commands, including go left, go right, go far, and stop. To her surprise Bruce picked up the last two with little difficulty, but the first two needed practice.
“You’ll need to train him every day. It’s not something you can just do once or twice. Consistency is the key.”
“Do I really need a dog that’s trained to herd sheep?”
