Border Collies: Fill & Download for Free

Yes, but for the most part what they said would be very basic - “Park park *ball*” sort of thing. Except Border collies and poodles. There’s a Border collie who understands the names of many hundreds of objects, and understands concepts like “A is the same shape as B even though they are different sizes”. Even a Border collie wouldn’t have the genes which enable us to construct complex sentences, so you couldn’t discuss politics with one, but they’d be able to say things like “Sleepy now - where my blanket?” as a human toddler can.

A few years ago, I had a husband (ex now) who worked from home and along with our two children we had two dogs. One was a Border Collie/Springer Spaniel mix and smart as hell and the other was a tiny apple head chihuahua. The border collie mix was older and she was very motherly towards this chihuahua that wanted nothing to do with her. The chihuahua was very friendly and sweet, but she was a little afraid of the size of the border collie. The dogs had a doggie door to the backyard, which was fenced, but with wrought iron. The chihuahua was small enough to get out, but usually just stayed in the yard. One day, while I was at work, our border collie planted herself on her butt in the doorway of my husbands office and stared him down until he asked her “what do you want?”, he was thinking she wanted a treat. She then nudged her face (and her eyes!) towards the window, which was on the wall on the other side of him and so his eyes followed her line of sight towards the window and saw the chihuahua making her way down the street! SHE WAS TELLING ON HER YOU GUYS!!! Of course my hubs calls the chihuahua back home, who slowly came back knowing she was caught. The border collie did get a treat for that! It’s one of my favorite stories. Both dogs have since passed as they were older when this all transpired. I miss them both! “Lady and Jessie”EDIT: I forgot to mention that Lady would follow Jessie outside every time she went out. So I’m sure that when she saw Jessie slip through the fence, she immediately ran in to tell on her. I posted an old pic of these two…I sure do miss them.

Border collies are bred to be problem solvers. The problem they are bred to solve is “Why are the sheep not with the human and how can I get the entire flock there?” or a variation on that theme. Border collies are bred to work at the command of a person, but to also do the right thing when they are 400 yards away with sheep and the shepherd is over the next hill, out of sight. Border collies are meant to be in tune with their person, but also to be aware of the movement of the sheep.Freya, my border collie, can learn a command in just a few tries. I’ve seen her learn stuff in just two repetitions.When Freya and I are working sheep, even when I make a mistake, or am out of position, Freya will frequently do the right thing, despite my error. She knows what I want and how to get it done. Don’t get me wrong, she is, from time to time, a jerk when I make a mistake, and she will let me know it by cutting in and splitting the sheep.Freya has two sets of toys, an inside set and an outside set. She knows the difference. If she had an outside toy in her mouth when she comes to the door, she will drop it before being let in, and vice versa. A friend with a Havanese has been trying to teach her dog this for 2 years and there is no recognition of the differences in the toys.Border collies are definitely unique dogs and, while some will say its hard to measure canine intelligence, my experience with border collies (and herding dogs in general) is that they tend towards learning quicker and solving doggie-problems in creative ways.