The Sheepdog Within

[CMP]

I've had many Border Collies but never one this young (I have had her since she was six weeks old). All of my previous BCs were retired working dogs - so I had some doozie situations over the years.

Having a puppy has really been an illuminating experience. Watching the emerging sheepdog is very fascinating.

She's been on crate rest so we invented some games.

One is called "hockey". It requires a dozen or so tennis balls which are rolled towards the dog at variable trajectories. The dog is the goalkeeper and I am the skater. The objective is to stop all the balls. It must be done from a full down position.

At first I thought she was just tired when she let one roll right past her without so much as a sideways glance. It hit her flank and rolled into her belly - a save. Then I realized she was not paying attention to anything she had determined would not get past her body - she was just waiting, poised, giving my hand a serious case of eye.

I know of no other puppy - none in my experience - with that sort of (a) spatial intelligence and (b ) self restraint.

So, okay.

Then I realize she is doing another thing. She is not paying attention to any balls that will hit another ball and veer out of play or hit her - but she IS paying attention to the ball that will be hit. She realizes that is the wild card.

She did not go after any ball until it had reached a point that would require her to move the shortest distance and as soon as she had it lined up, the eyes were right back on my hand, watching for the next one. She would gather it to her with her paw without taking her eyes off the next ball.

In a complicated way I am not particulary up for trying to put into cohesive sentences, this is very much the *type* of intelligence put into play when making determinations about stock movement. A dog needs to know when to apply pressure (and what that will do) and when to relieve pressure (and what that will cause).

I found it fascinating.

Anyone else have "I saw the sheepdog in my puppy today" stories?

[teresaserrano]

We don't work sheep, so I'm not sure what constitutes sheepdog material. I do know she thinks different from my other dogs.

When she was 3 mo, we where playing in the yard. She discovered by accident that if she took the tennis ball to the top of the stairs and let it fall, it would come stumbling down - with her in hot pursuit. So she imediatly did it a dozen times in a row, looking fascinated by the process. And then she never did it again. Next days, when I tried to encourage that game, she was like, "Yeah, yeah, that one I know. Old news. What about we find out what ELSE we can do with a ball?"

 

I don't know if this shows herding inteligence. I was sure it showed inteligence, and something else, a kind of curiosity and relationship to the world that was different from every dog I had before. A bit more complex mind, maybe.

[ourwully]

I don't know anything about sheep dog behaviours either but we have two cats in the house that came a week before Juno.

The cats were about 9 months and Juno was 10 weeks when she came home. We kept them separate unless we were in the room with them because Juno's behaviour was so exuberant she frightened them. Gradually, however, they have been allowed together so they are often roaming the house together, sometimes peacefully, but sometimes racing with Juno hot in chase. The cats are indoor cats but one of the cats, Calypso, is determined to go outside. At every opportunity she sneaks out. The first time she got out she wasn't far before Juno cornered her on the deck and held her there until my wife got out to pick her up. This happens frequently now and Juno never harms Calypso. At worst she will put a gentle paw on Calypso until we get there. She did a similar thing with a bird that hit the window and knocked itself out. She barked at it until we came out to look after the bird.

 

As an observation, Juno also has that 'what else can we do' attitude. She doesn't seem all that obsessive with anything except my watch which she ihas been determined to chew since day one. Even with fetch, she will get it a few times and then just lay down and wait for something new. I am going to try the hockey game. That should be fun.

Bill

[GentleLake]

Mirk used to play the Ball on the Stairs game, too. It was so much fun to watch. He'd often do it with 2 or 3 balls, lining them up between his paws. He'd gently nudge the ball several times before he actually pushed it enough that it would fall down the steps. It was definitely part of the game for him.

[Maxi]

A couple of my dogs also do the "nudging ball" game. If they think I'm not paying them enough attention, they jump onto the perimeter stone wall & wait for an innocent passerby. When one approaches, the dog with the ball nudges it off the wall onto the road and they both look at the ball & then the stranger until the person throws it back over the wall where one of them catches it. They then both jump back onto the wall & the catchee nudges the ball back onto the road towarrds the person.. the poor walker is caught before he/she knows it!

 

But more importantly for me, if I need to catch a young lamb, one of my bitches will use her front legs to trap it & then does the same nudging action by putting her nose under its belly so she can push it in my direction. Very endearing & highly useful at the same time (the other dogs I've seen catch lambs tend to just hold them until the shepherd reclaims them). So I would say these nose nudges/front leg catching actions are also part of the general herding instinct.

[GentleLake]

So I would say these nose nudges/front leg catching actions are also part of the general herding instinct.

 

I've seen other non-herding dogs do this, so it's not herding breed specific behavior.

[chene]

This is really cool to hear. There is one thing I can think of that I know is pretty normal but it's really cool for me as a new border collie owner to see. We have this small stuffed dog that we attach to a long string and we run around holding the end, swing it around and such. The precision and thought that goes into him catching it is just so interesting. The way he instinctively knows to head it off or exactly when to pounce. And the way that he stays so perfectly still and alert when it freezes, just waiting to pounce when it tries to make a run for it.

Maybe not very impressive to BC folks, but to me it's amazing.

[Maxi]

I've seen other non-herding dogs do this, so it's not herding breed specific behavior.

 

 

thanks for pointing this out ..perhaps I should rephrase it as 'the way my dog uses this nudging behaviour with lambs demonstrates that it is also a useful shepherding behaviour'

[Sue R]

"Herding" behaviors are really just modified and developed predatory behaviors, so they are not unique to any particular breed. However, they are much more highly developed in those breeds that have been developed to work livestock.

 

The book "Dogs" by the Coppingers excellently explains the "steps" in predation and how you can see those steps in the behavior of many sorts of dogs. Sometimes the steps are enhanced or strengthened (like "eye"); sometimes they are reduced or eliminated (like "kill" or "consume"), and sometimes they are simply modified - all to suit the task at hand, whether it's working livestock, guarding livestock, hunting game birds, etc.

 

It's fascinating to read and fun to watch in our own dogs.

[ourwully]

Last night I was so proud of Juno. Calypso, our young cat escaped but this time she really took off so I told Juno to get the cat. First she found Calypso at the bottom of the yard under a bush, then she flushed her out and chased her closer to the house. Calypso is fast but outside Juno is much faster. Juno just kept pushing her from one bush to another and blocking any attempts for her to get away, all the time getting closer to the house until eventually she got Calypso right to the back door. I couldn't believe it! And throughout all this Juno never harmed Calypso at all.

Bill

[Root Beer]

Bandit has discovered that if he actually lets go of the toy once I have my hand on it, it gets thrown. Now he can toggle between bringing it to me for a game of tug and giving it to me and letting it go.

 

This is probably more "the adult dog within" than anything sheepdog specific, but I was as pleased with his discovery as he was.

[CMP]

LOVE those eureka! moments.

[wal2]

Mae @ 16 weeks is certainly showing sheepdog/herding traits. She is from working stock but has never seen a sheep or witnessed working dogs...she came to us at 8.5 weeks and we are city bound.

 

She's worked out that there's no point trying to keep up with her ball fetching faster doggie friends so will run out 1/2 way, hunker down watching them quite intensely and then spring up, turn and chase as they come back.

 

She's also worked out that there's no point chasing her faster doggie friends that like to run around in a circle, simply cut straight across and you've got them.

 

She also hunkers down and creeps up on them just like I've seen working dogs do as they approach a sheep/flock.

[CMP]

Cool Molly (who is mostly called Boo, weirdly) used to do the hunker down and wait thing - knowing she couldn't run with the big dogs - it was pretty interesting to watch

 

Yesterday I caught her creeping my mother as she gardened. It was pretty hilarious.

[Pavlov]

My dog's still a puppy and can't keep up with the big dogs at the park when they all chase each other. So instead of running around the perimeters with them, he'll go through the middle of the park to cut them off. It's fun to see some of the boxers and labs freeze in surprise when he appears in front of them.

[wal2]

Sounds just like Mae.......BC's are certainly the brains of an outfit