Finlee’s Growing Up

Lena’s litter from January is all busy growing up and learning their jobs on farms, including the little pup we kept named Finlee. While our English Shepherd Lena is a tri-color, Finlee is a rare coat variant known as “clear”—fawn and white with no black hairs. It turns out that his name comes from Gaelic and means “fair-haired hero.” How fitting!

One of the larger puppies from the start, Finlee has been growing like a weed, following Lena about and learning how everything works on the farm. His big, brown eyes are always watching, taking in the surroundings and what’s happening. He’s eager to please, but he’s still learning the “how” and “what” of his working dog job.

Finlee is also showing his own penchants, including retrieving. Lena has never had much interest in retrieving (after two throws losing interest and wandering off to find squirrels to chase). Even as a small puppy, he would pick up leaves, pine cones, sticks—anything to carry around with him. Now Finlee has a stuffed duck Kara calls “duck toy,” which he’s eager to fetch and carry about. If the duck toy is near and he sees you approaching, he’ll pick it up by the neck and wag his tail, waiting for you.

The duck toy is a great companion during play times or when traveling in the car, but it doesn’t come to “work.” Work right now means hanging out at the barn, learning the typical happenings of chore time and not to be afraid of big sheep. It’s important for him to learn to stay close while we’re working, so he’s on a long tether until his attention span can keep up with the activity. As he continues to mature, Finlee will learn to stick close on his own and listen for us calling him in case he’s needed to guard a gate or herd a loose turkey.

With bigger bones and stockier legs than Lena, Finlee is already as tall as his mother. His puppy roundness is giving way to a “big dog” look, with longer, coarser fur, a more classic English Shepherd shape, and bigger teeth. He still has a puppy temperament, though Finlee has always been a relatively calm dog. These days, he reminds me of that lanky teenage phase when you’re in an adult-sized body but still feel like a kid inside. He bumps into things, thumps with his tail, and wriggles like a worm when he’s excited.

Of course, it’s important for Finlee to have all kinds of new experiences for socialization. The other day, we took him over to Steve’s family cabin on Moose Lake to romp in the woods and explore the dock.

English Shepherds are definitely not water dogs (whenever we’d go off for a swim, Lena would be quite worried about us and want us out of the water, prancing about on shore in distress). Finlee hadn’t seen a larger body of water before, but he was eager for a drink. The ripples were too far below the dock for a quick lick, though he tried. This meant wading in from shore. So far, the adventure included wet paws but no splashing or swimming.

Inside the cabin, we built a fire in the fireplace and had a picnic supper. Finlee had never met an open fire before, so he had to learn it was hot and that he shouldn’t go near it. This puppy has an impressively long tail, which flops about, knocking things over. We didn’t want that tail to end up in the fire either!

The cabin was full of all kinds of good sniffs—from mice, other dogs, spiders, and people who had visited. Kara played fetch the duck toy with him for a while, until he finally tuckered out and lay down on the wood floor. That was a pretty big day for a puppy!

I have no doubt that Finlee will continue to grow and get bigger than his momma. Soon he’ll find all kinds of jobs to do—already he’s showing some interest in how poultry move in response to him. There will be lots for him to explore and learn through the “dog days” of summer. See you down on the farm sometime.