I am always a bit sad and frustrated when people pass by a perfect black tri and can only focus on the coat of the merles. This girl is a left over puppy, she was not supposed to stay because I did not want to raise a puppy at that time. She was for sale for 7 months and during that time so many people passed her by. I put time and energy into her, did all her vaccines and as she matured I started to see things I really liked. It was around her 6 month mark that I started to see her structure really change and I liked what I saw. I also paid attention to how small she was staying, around 15 inches, well within our new height for showing, that was a bonus since I expected her to go over sized. And then we took her to a pet expo March of 2023, she is a very unsocialized farm dog, has never been on a leash, never seen people outside of my house and the vet clinic, this was going to be culture shock, except she acted like this was what she was bred to do. She loved it and I was very much impressed by her very stable and sensible personality. At this point I was pretty sure she was staying. We got her home and the weather turned nice and I was able to have her out with some of our chickens and that's probably what completely sealed it for me. I have not had a puppy with this much natural instinct in a long time, since Eureka really. Most puppies with instinct like to make the birds move so they can chase them, they like the movement, this girl never once made the birds move any more than exactly necessary.  She kept them together calm and methodical and when one hen was determined to wander too far she quietly and calmly put them back in their enclosure without a word from me. I was absolutely impressed with her level head and calm working style that is well beyond her years, a lot of dogs many years her senior still like to make the birds fly just for fun.  With brains like that and everything else she has shown to me, she's secured her place with us.