Crazy Border Collie obsessions

[D'Elle]

Jester became fascinated with my little black and white cat the day he arrived as a six week old kitten, and it bloomed into a full-blown obsession fast. His default mode, if nothing else was happening, was to circle the cat endlessly and follow him wherever he went. I let it go on because I figured the activity helped to keep Jester young. But it had other consequences: the cat, although tolerant, was annoyed a lot, and Jester became a lot less interested in interacting with me.

 

So recently I decided to put an end to it, and have been telling Jes to Leave It. It has not been nearly as hard as I thought it would be to call him off. I allow him a small amount of time circling the cat and then tell him to cool it and he does. The result is a cat who seems more relaxed and more playful, and best of all I got my dog back. He now looks much more to me for entertainment and interaction.

 

Not an obsession, but a funny thing: I usually leave my computer on all day and only turn it off at night, so the dogs know when they hear that "Plink!" sound that a PC makes when shutting down, that it is time for Bedtime Potty and they rush to the door. When one of my dogs went to live with someone else, I got a phone call from her asking me what I had done to the dog. Apparently she was having computer trouble, requiring restarting the PC multiple times, and each and every time, Boo would jump up and run to the door when he heard that "Plink!" sound.

 

And, My Kit dog does the rubbing around on the carpet thing after eating, too. I have always figured that this is her way of using a napkin.

[Gideon's girl]

Mine think the dog in their reflection is a strange dog in their house. They growl like crazy.

[brookitar]

 

Oh Yes, Nelson collects rocks too. Are you ever afraid of their teeth? When I am at the beach and people are playing with rock, he thinks it's a game of fetch and will go after the rock, dive under water with the head and paws and get the rock back to shore. Then digs a hole and keeps collecting until its time to leave.

 

Fascinating dogs we have!

 

Sorry late reply! I was more afraid of her accidentally swallowing one. Luckily she knows the "drop it" command now and "leave it"...but sometimes at night time she sneaks a few when I can't see. The next morning we will see a little collection of rocks next to our apartment door. I would try to stop the rock obsession before it gets too bad for the sake of their teeth or it getting swallowing. Now she has decided she likes to stick her paws in the water bowl and splash...I can live with that.

 

We had a cat once that decided foam nerf gun darts were tasty. It was not a cheap vet bill...I can only imagine what rocks could do.

[EmilyM]

Don't know if it's an obsession, but Rhett loves to torture play with large bugs. In the house whenever we get a cockroach or a giant cricket, he'll go "fetch" it and lay down with it in between his paws. He must have a real gentle mouth, because he usually ends up carrying it over to the rug, carefully putting it down, and letting it crawl away. Then he captures it with his paw as it gets too far away, picks it back up with his mouth, and repeats the process. He'll do this for 5-10 minutes watching it try to escape and stopping it... eventually the little creature loses some limbs or wings and no longer tries to escape, to which Rhett puts it out of its misery and chews it up.

 

It makes for some entertainment among us. The bugs probably don't find it as entertaining though.

RIP bugs.

[moosikins]

Don't know if it's an obsession, but Rhett loves to torture play with large bugs. In the house whenever we get a cockroach or a giant cricket, he'll go "fetch" it and lay down with it in between his paws. He must have a real gentle mouth, because he usually ends up carrying it over to the rug, carefully putting it down, and letting it crawl away. Then he captures it with his paw as it gets too far away, picks it back up with his mouth, and repeats the process. He'll do this for 5-10 minutes watching it try to escape and stopping it... eventually the little creature loses some limbs or wings and no longer tries to escape, to which Rhett puts it out of its misery and chews it up.

 

It makes for some entertainment among us. The bugs probably don't find it as entertaining though.

 

RIP bugs.

 

When Callie sees a bug, she sits with a really weird posture. Normally she can sit upright and look really dainty with all of her paws in line, rump lined up with her head, etc. (normal sitting posture). But when she spots a bug, regardless of how far away it is or whether it's moving or not, she sits with her head craned way back. She looks like a seahorse. Eventually she gets tired of staring at it (she stares for 20+ minutes sometimes before she'll act) and she'll go do the same thing with it until it croaks and then it's a snack.

[CptJack]

Molly jumped into my kitchen sink while I was making lunch.

 

I'm missing tupperware that was in the dish drainer. I have torn this house apart and have no idea where those bowls are. I am 200% sure she didn't eat them though, because that would be a ton of plastic.

She also turned up with a toy I have never seen before.

 

Apparently she's got some kind of barter system going with someone, and manages to run it while I'm peeing. Because that's the only time she's unsupervised in the house.

[aschlemm]

I hiked a lot with my first Border Collie, most of the time he was off-leash. Once he showed up with a toy he had found. I was thrilled and gave him a lot of praise. He never seemed obsessed about it but throughout our many years of hiking together he came to collect quite a few things, tennis balls, baseballs, frisbees (some really neat ones), shoes, hats, socks, floating retrieving toys and sunglasses. One time I am sure the couple sitting on the bench had a pair of sunglasses beside them, next thing I know Cory is giving them to me!! Ooppss!!

When Logan was a puppy we were hiking in a park and when he came running toward me I saw he had something in his mouth. It was black and covered his bottom teeth. I called him over and told him to "drop it" he did, and that was when I realized it was a kids mouth guard!!!!! He sort of had it in his mouth correctly.

[Anijosdad]

My 7 mo old Ani has so many things I will probably miss some, but reading this has actually comforted me some that it's not just mine that has odd traits. So here goes:

 

Digging. Especially in soft snow.

Right this moment she is barking at the fire in the wood stove. One of the first times I started up the wood stove this season, she came up behind me and bit the back of my arm pretty good when I struck a match.

She tries to chase flying birds. She isn't allowed off-leash yet, but I worry she would chase crows especially, until she died from exhaustion.

She DOES NOT like water. Especially being wet. Especially moving water. Doesn't like going out in the rain. Will NOT step in the water in a puddle, stream, ditch, etc. We even have a somewhat hard time getting her to drink. That actually worries me a little. BUT she WILL drink out of the nastiest, muddiest, slimiest puddles, ditches. Loves eating ice cubes and snow.

Also wipes her face on the rugs, bed, couch, recliners after eating. But not after drinking.

Wont really go lay down and chew on chewy type toys. Must play fetch with everything. But she prefers to fetch an item and play keep away with it.

Chews on her legs and feet. Not to the point of chewing the fur off or breaking skin. I don't mean just nibbling but whole leg or foot in her mouth. This seems to happen mostly when she is tired.

When the furnace comes on, she jumps up and runs around the house chasing the sound of the water passing through the baseboard heaters.

If she and my wife are in the house, and Ani is laying down, quite often when I come in the house, from doing some chore like bringing in wood from the woodshed, Ani will jump up and race around as if to show me she is "on the job".

[Shazmnldb]

My Lilli refuses to play fetch unless she has at least two or three things in her mouth, even if it is a busted up flat football, half a squeaky sheep toy etc. Also when she plays fetch, before she give the ball back she must run a circle. She will come up to me look at me, run her circle then give the ball back. It cracks me up.

[Steffie]

Caitlin has at least 4 major obsessions:

1. Balls, the bigger, the better. She has a Chuck-it-kick-fetch ball that she takes to everyone in the dog park and demands that they throw or kick it for her. First, she just gives the the border collie eye, but if that doesn't work, she has an annoyingly shrill bark that usually gets their attention. She is relentless, and manages to train at least 80% of the people she approaches. If another dog has a bigger ball (like a basketball) she steals it if she can.

2. Ceiling fans. If she enters a house that has one over the table, she leaps onto the table, whether or not it is set or has food on it. She goes from room to room, demanding that fans be turned on or off so she can bark at them. She will stare at a moving fan for hours.

3. Vultures (or any large, black bird). She can spot them when they're a mere dot in the sky, and races after them, barking her head off and leaping into the air as though she could actually catch them.

4. The gas-powered garden cart that goes around the park emptying trash bags. If she sees it, she abandons her ball and races back and forth along the dog park fence. She chases it, barking maniacally, as it drives around the dog park

[Don Billard]

Well, my girl attacks trees and strips the bark off. Gotten me into trouble with a coupla people.

[pushne]

Spike is scared of little dogs. He makes a fool of himself every time we see an chihuahua. He goes crazy for birds too.

He likes to jump on the bed but he doesn't jump directly from the ground. He wants to jump from the futton to the bed. So he sits in the futton crying until someone moves his futton next to the bed. 

if he hears the word "walk" , he follows me everywhere. Even if it was someone else who said it. The whole family thinks it's hilarious how he hears "walk" and stares at me with his head slighly turned. I am getting a lot of walking thanks to them  . He is adorable and difficult to resist 

[maeflower]

Well after reading through everyone's dogs' obsessions, I can almost say "All of the Above" about Rylie! Probably his strongest obsession though is TUG! Anything! If he has something in his mouth and I have part of it in my hand, he will tug! He never gets enough.

Talking about the mirrors and reflections, we just had new windows installed and for the time being, have no blinds or curtains up in most of them and the furniture is not in front. Well at night when the lights are on, he barks at our reflections in them when we move around. I guess he's protecting us from those strangers!! 

A few things I haven't seen mentioned: 

1. My printer will run a self-clean and check for updates about twice a week. When it starts and makes it's weird sounds, Rylie goes crazy barking at it. It doesn't matter where he is in the house, if he can hear it, he goes nuts! Luckily it never does the self-check in the middle of the night!
2. Anytime I might be standing at the kitchen counter or in front of the stove, he will lie down right behind me usually touching some part of my legs or feet. He never makes a sound getting in position and I'm just waiting for the accident of falling over him!
3. He does something similar in the yard. I can be walking away from him to get a toy or just moving away so I can get some distance to throw something and I'll glance around to see where he is. I'll look over my shoulder left then right and not see him anywhere. When I then turn around, he is RIGHT behind me close enough to touch me with his nose. Again, I never hear a sound and often I jump out of my skin he startles me so!! It's like he's a ghost!