Furry fun in the sun

LACEY –– Greg Gustafson, founder of Border Collie International, talked to his two-year-old border collie, Reed, as he rolled around on the grass in front of a crowd of families and toddlers. 

“He’s being stubborn,” Gustafson said to the crowd. “Are you done doing things you know I won’t stop you from doing?”

The Oregon resident and his three dogs –– Reed, 6, Feta, 2, and eight-year-old Myra –– performed tricks for a crowd of families at Rainier Vista Community Park on Thursday, usually an event Gustafson does in various parks and venues in communities much like Lacey. While the dogs and Gustafson have fun running in the park, performing tricks and skits and interacting with the kids and families who come to their shows, Gustafson said he started Border Collie International and organizes shows to educate and entertain the public. 

“We hope that they learn something,” Gustafson said. “We use the entertaining to get their attention and then we educate them to know that working dogs are the smartest dogs in the world. You can learn how to make all that energy and smarts work for you instead of against you, which is what happens to a lot of border collies.”

Gustafson, over the course of 30 years, has created a career out of adopting dogs deemed unadoptable and given them a home they can live in forever. Just having that environment, Gustafson said, can bring out a side of the dog not visible in abusive or negative homes. 

“They start to act like a foster kid,” Gustafson said of bad homes. “Like, ‘You’re just going to give me away just like everybody else did.’ They need a job and they’ll invent their own job and get in trouble.”

These dogs are incredibly intelligent, Gustafson added, and high-profile canine organizations back him up. The American Kennel Club (AKC) credits the border collie with intelligence, athleticism and trainability, and that these dogs are happiest when they have a job to do. 

“Having a job to perform, like agility, herding or obedience work is key to Border happiness,” the AKC website says. “A border collie who doesn’t work must be provided with vigorous exercise every day.” 

While the treats the dogs are rewarded with for doing flip and frisbee-catching tricks are nice, the longtime dog trainer added, it’s really the interaction with other people and the crowd’s reactions to the dogs that really get the pups excited to perform and put on these shows. 

“They like to show off,” he said. “That is the treat, just like kids like it when their parents tell them they did a good job.”