colliemadcraig Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 We all know how extreamly clever the bc is,just thought it would be fun to hear everyones replys on just how clever they really are!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheri McDonald Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 Cleverst thing...hum. They do so much and are with me all the time so it's hard to pick one thing. Rob's is probably his fishing sense. He loves to sit and watch the pole tip for a bend and it didn't take him but one trip to learn what comes out of the lake when that happens. I can be down at the lake with him and need to go to the loo or the camper, which is just up the hill. He will watch my pole for me and howl if I get a bite. He has even pulled the pole out of the holder and started dragging it back up the hill. Too bad he can't reel it in. He loves fishing! Briar's thing is she knows her colors. The basic ones anyway. She has different colored rubber balls and knows them all. Just say Briar Blue Ball and she brings that one. The funniest thing is laying them out in front of us and telling her to pick each one real fast. Red, she picks up the red then drops it and grabs blue as soon as you say blue. (She knows Blue, Green, Red, yellow, pink, white, purple, orange and black) :eek: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snook Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 Moose knows exactly what look to give us to get out of trouble, get what he wants, rule the universe... You see my point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistntag Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 Tag knows the difference between all of the farm equipment and what each piece of equipment is used for. If you tell him to get on a tractor, he will... but then if you say "we are going to feed the sheep", he will get off that tractor and go get on the tractor with the chuck wagon attached to it. Tag also "calls" the sheep and beef cows at feeding time. Husband tells him to call the cows and he howls and yips for them until the come running to be fed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinKate Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 We had a hotwalker machine on our old farm. It was Max's job to keep everyone moving. Could walk six horses at a time. For those of you that don't know, if one horse stops, the entire wheel stops. Well Max could tell which horse was holding up the works. He would go around and get him going without getting kicked, stomped, or pawed by the next horse in line. Pretty cool to just sit back and watch him think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tildy Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 here ya go..duchess sometime will leave the property...over 2 acres..when I go to look for her and she is too far away..she will circle around and go back to property and act like she's been there the whole time waiting for me...live in very rural area,,,but we have actually watched her sneak back on to property...the lil brat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistntag Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 hehehe Tildy, Molly does the same thing. Our dogs are not allowed to cross the road. Tag knows this and will go get on the tractor or in the skid loader bucket when he knows Daddy is going to go across the road to work. Molly will sneak across the road, and then when she hears my husband calling her, she will double back around behind all the buildings, through the pasture, and come up to our porch and stand there waiting for my husband like "G Dad, why have you been yelling for me? I've been right here where I'm supposed to be". Yeah, they sure think they're clever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miztiki Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Cheri, that's an amazing story about Rob Dog. Thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitch Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Hi guys, I am new to the group and I have *loved* reading everyone's posts! Good to know there are people out there as crazy about their BCs as I am! Dublin is a 10 month old male and my first BC and he is a handful (but cute so he gets away with a lot! He has done some pretty amazing things but the one that 'takes the cake' (literally) involves some cupcakes. I had signed up to bring snowman cupcakes into work for our holiday party and they are a ton of work. Basically you bake XL,med and small cupcakes and frost them with white frosting and cover them with coconut frosting and make tiny faces on the smallest cupcakes. I had most of the work done and saved the finishing touches for the morning. I have really deep counters so I pushed the tray all the way to the back (definitely out of Dublin's reach) and went to bed. When I came downstairs the next morning I was confronted with a snowman massacre! Body parts everywhere and a good portion of them just...gone! I couldn't figure out how Dublin had gotten to them until I noticed the chair...he dragged the chair away from the table (and neatly placed the magazines that were on the seat on to the floor) and pushed the chair a good 6 feet over to the counter! That's when I knew for certain I was in for a wild ride with this dog! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinKate Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 lol@ Kitch! That is funny! Welcome by the way! You know how when you go to someone's house you worry when their dog circles in back of you that their dog will sticking his nose in your butt? What do you do? Swat him, try and keep walking, pet him? Well Pete has figured out if he jams his head between your legs (back to front) it will get him petted! Works on EVERYONE that comes over! No one seems to want the dog's head between their legs, so they pet him!! lol He has it all figured out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karrie Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 currently at 10 wks... fuss in crate to get out to potty, steals shoes, steals papers, steals kids toys, and last but not least STEALS MY BROOM OUT OF THE BATHROOM FROM BETWEEN A CABINET AND WALL WITH A TOWEL RACK IN THE WAY then drags it out to the kitchen if I don't catch in the act soon enough... I put the broom away he waits and gets the mop....Theif! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoloRiver Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Solo understands mirrors and reflections -- seems simple, but isn't. The first time he saw the two of us reflected in a mirror, he stopped in his tracks, looked at me in the mirror, looked at me, then looked at me in the mirror again with this look on his face that said, "How can you be there, and there, at the same time?" Most dogs wouldn't have realized that anything was weird in the first place. Now that Solo's figured it out he can do things like use mirrors and reflections to find me. He knows the mirror isn't me and after meeting my eyes in the mirror, will come straight to where I actually am. This means he also understands something, not consciously but still, about reflections and angles. Solo does seem to have a basic understanding of geometry. He can apparently understand what angle he has to bounce a ball off a wall or obstacle for it to come straight to me. He has a basic understanding of physics, because if we are playing ball and he is uphill of me, he will stop short and let the ball roll to me instead of dropping it by my foot. He understands the properties of different substrates. If we are in tall grass, he makes sure the ball is very close to me because it won't roll even if he is uphill. If we are on hard dirt or asphalt, he will stop ten feet away or more and throw the ball in my direction, knowing it will keep rolling without impediment. He also does this thing where he bounces the ball once and then hits it with the side of his mouth so that it rolls toward me. He knows that he has a tendency to hit to the left, so he makes sure his left side is facing me when he does this. Solo is weirdly intelligent. I kind of think it might go along with being crazy. He has a Beautiful Mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinKate Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Karrie, I can't even get my husband to get the mop! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karrie Posted March 3, 2005 Report Share Posted March 3, 2005 Erin~ you want me to loan you Sam to show him up? I've resorted to hiding the mop and broom when I'm not using them. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fosher Posted March 4, 2005 Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 The cleverest thing Molly ever did was to get a wandering lamb down off a cliff face without injuries by applying just the right amount of pressure to keep it walking down the ledge but not enough to get it to jump. Or maybe it was the time that she gathered up 8 stray sheep out of a saltmarsh after we had gathered up the rest of the flock of 500 that had broken out and thought we had them all. The cleverest thing I've seen Tweed do is to shift a flock of 200 lambing ewes away, while leaving the freshly born ewes behind with their lambs completely unperterbed. Nap has a way of locating slightly sick sheep. At first I was annoyed with him because he would single one animal out of the flock while he he was holding them off grain. But then I noticed that within a week I was bringing that animal into the barn to treat it. Now when he shed out a single, I catch it and see what's ailing it. There's inevitably a weepy eye or snotty nose. Bess is the inverse of Tweed. When I need ewes with lambs shifted, she is the one who will do it. She gentles the lambs along and keeps families from getting split up. Truly amazing to watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sally Posted March 4, 2005 Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 Bill, that is absolutlely inspiring, what amazing dogs. The cleverist thing I've seen with our BC's was our now departed Rani (BC Kelpie cross) she had a special snake bark. She didn't learn it she just knew and by God if heard that bark you'd go running because everytime she's have a snake in her sights, and furthermore she'd guard it until someone turned up to deal with it, many times at what we thought was a big risk. Plus she knew a bath was coming two hours before we thought of it. I miss her. Sally Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted March 4, 2005 Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 When Celt has a chewie that Megan wants, she will go get a ball and bring it to me to throw. The moment that ball leaves my hand and Celt takes off to fetch it, Megan calmly pops over to the chewie, and lies down to enjoy her prize. As for stock sense, Bill's dogs do some amazing things. I only hope mine grow and develop to be half the dogs his are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcnewe2 Posted March 4, 2005 Report Share Posted March 4, 2005 How bout this.... Mick is only 14 months old and we have not started shedding yet. We were putting sheep in the barn, they were in a big group and we were gate sorting the hoggetts from the older ewes with lambs. When we finished the chore I noticed one of the younger sheep in the wrong place. Mick already knew there was a problem and was holding this yearling in a corner waiting for me to figure it out. I opened the gate and without any mess Mick pushed the young-un back through the gate and put her with the right group. He does all the chores with me and one is feeding the chickens. I have a broody hen who I made a deal with that I would deliver a handful of food for her if she wouldn't peck at me when I come in close. I think Mick made that deal because if she acts pecky he rears up on his hind legs (this hen is setting in a raised box) and bops her on the head. Yesterday the chicks hatched and they were out on the ground. Mick ran in the chicken coop and laid down at the new babies and continued watching them till I came in to relieve him. The hen is a rescue fighting hen so is mean. She was quietly sitting infront of Mick waiting to protect her chicks....we both breathed easier when Mick jumped up and ran out the door. He's never seen baby chicks before! I can only dream of the jobs Bill speak of. Glad Mick doesn?t know where Bill lives?he?d probably pack his bags for a bigger paycheck! Gotta love um! Happy Friday everyone Kristen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucysmum Posted March 5, 2005 Report Share Posted March 5, 2005 When we go to the beach with dogs and kids- they all head straight for the water and if the kids get too far out (with the little ones it isn't far- about knee deep on the kids) Lucy will swim out and drag the kids by their rash shirts and bring them back. She goes nuts when another dog goes near her kids and will stand between them. I think that is pretty great. Mandie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrokath Posted March 5, 2005 Report Share Posted March 5, 2005 Whisky knows the names of all her toys and can fetch them individually - not really that clever for a BC, but it seems to amaze any guests we have. I think the cleverest thing she does is the fact that she ignores a ringing phone if we are in the room or somewhere near, but will howl quite pathetically if we are in the bathroom. I've been alerted to the phone several times by this, because it is the only time I have heard her howl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca, Irena Farm Posted March 5, 2005 Report Share Posted March 5, 2005 Ben has learned to work bottle (well, bucket) lambs at the ripe old age of nine. The lambs stay in one pen at night and move to a larger pen during the day, and then they go back at night again. After the first couple of times he figured out what I needed and he'll pretty much do it by himself now. Working bottle lambs is not easy, but he has figured out how to make them respect him without doing them an injury. Specifically, he gets behind them and puts his nose under their butts and gives them a shove in the right direction. Ben's always been really good with lambs. It has always amazed me to watch any dog work a mother with great authority and then gently work with lambs. How do they know that lambs should be granted allowances they'd never give a grown sheep. A good dog will allow a lamb to bounce all over the place, bodyslam the dog, nurse on the dog (!), run away over and over, and generally act idiotic. The cleverest thing I've seen Jen do was hold a pair of crazed Suffolk cross ewes so we could catch them, when they were freaked out after being attacked by coyotes. Old Greg was capable of making sour sheep stay at the top until he arrived (being fourteen, that took a while), to execute a perfect lift every time. I still can't imagine how he did this. Random's cleverest moment was spinning the ewe. It wasn't classy, but I think it was pretty smart. Second would have to be the time he worked the strays out of the woods with no commands from me (well, other than HEY). He doesn't have a huge reperatoire of clever things built up yet, but that was pretty clever for him. This isn't all that clever, but my favorite moment with Rick was the time a sheep broke away on the cross drive and bolted straight up a hill towards the setout. She got about 150 yards before I gathered my wits and sent Rick for her. Rick did another 200 or so yard outrun (after the 400 yard one he had done about five minutes previously), pushed her in the direction he wanted her to go until she had committed to the other sheep. The other sheep meanwhile were bolting to the exhaust pen down near me (I guess thinking the run was over), so Rick had to come all the way around and get THEM back online - and do it before the first sheep decided to head back to the top again. Then he finished the run very nicely. But after the run he didn't want to put the sheep away!!! Slightly embarrasing to stand there with your dog preventing the sheep from going in the exhaust. I guess he felt like he had EARNED those sheep and darn it, he wasn't giving them up!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Jess) Posted March 5, 2005 Report Share Posted March 5, 2005 Originally posted by ErinKate:We had a hotwalker machine on our old farm. It was Max's job to keep everyone moving. Could walk six horses at a time. For those of you that don't know, if one horse stops, the entire wheel stops. Well Max could tell which horse was holding up the works. He would go around and get him going without getting kicked, stomped, or pawed by the next horse in line. Pretty cool to just sit back and watch him think. LOL that is funny! We have a hotwalker, maybe my dog can learn to do that LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Elle Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 What a great thread. I have been absent from the Board for a while and this is such fun to come back to. Cheri, your dogs are amazing! Melanie, Jester knows the same things about the ball, and does all the right things to get it to me on any surface, but I just never really thought about it before. It *is* clever, though, isn't it? Best thing Jes has done recently is get a frisbee out of a palo verde tree where I had inadvertantly thrown it. It was 'way too high for him to reach (I would have needed a rake to get it down), but he started jumping for it anyway. I intended to let him try a few times, then go get it for him so he would not have a discouraging experience. But he just kept jumping higher and higher (I had no idea he could jump that high!) until he grabbed a lower branch and hung on. The branch slipped out of his mouth, but it shook the frisbee loose and it fell farther down, whereupon he kept leaping until he grabbed it. I was in awe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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