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Crazy Border Collie obsessions


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Hi,

I thought this might be a fun topic. It seems to me that Border Collies tend to develop funny/strange behaviors and interests and I'm curious what other people's dogs like to do. My current male BC LOVES leaves!!! As a puppy I thought he'd outgrow his interest but he is now eight years old and still loves to dance in the leaves! He twirls and barks at them and grabs them and will piroette on his hind legs to catch the ones that are falling from the trees. My previous male BC loved to skate rocks. My previous female loved to admire herself in the mirror and was terrified of hot air balloons. My current female is an obsessive ball retriever. What does your BC enjoy doing?

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Micah holds things down and plucks them, Gideon included. Gideon talks to his reflection. He also sits on his head and looks at me with this totally adorable look until I scratch his bum, then he roo-roos.

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So... I'm breaking all the rules and butting in my breed (Aussie) with BC tendencies. Lancer is also COMPLETELY NUTS for tennis balls, vain (mirror staring dog.. sigh), has an odd lengthy attention span to the TV (he can watch entire movies with me and gets all emotional and distraught if there is a sick/dying dog in it), and desperately chews up big rocks on walks.

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Nattie loves the plastic bottle to one brand of orange juice. I will give her the empty bottle and she will race around with it in her mouth and flip it in the air so it makes a racket when it falls. Sometimes we take the bottle away from her because she makes so much noise that we can't have a conversation.

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Nelson LOVES digging holes. He will dig with two paws and make sure he can completely fit in it, so he will be layig down in it, rolling around, dig from the other side... It's hilarious to watch.

 

Also, he has this weird obsession over childrens toys, usually toy cars or really anything that moves. When he sees them he does this weird high pitch bark, pushes it around, tries to dig around it (even if its a concrete surrounding) and just goes mental. He acts the same around traffic cones (!). We know this behaviour is obviously weird so we don't encourage it but it can be quite entertaining to see a dog running around the park with a massive traffic cone in his mouth.

 

Also, light reflections. You know when its summer, you grab your phone and the light reflects of it? Nelson wil try climing the freaking walls trying to get is.

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My departed Shoshone would only lay down on a smooth blanket. Samantha, also gone to the Big Dog Park in the Sky, loved to scratch up the blanket so it was all lumpy. Sammie would get a blanket all lumpy and bumpy, snooze for a while, then amble away. Shoshone would spot the vacant blanket, try her best to smooth it out, give up and woof at whichever human was closest. When the blanket was arranged to her satisfaction, she'd curl up and sigh contentedly.

 

Gibbs likes his physical affection in the morning only, thank you. He's very cuddly and huggy until around 11 a.m., sometimes a little later. Once the magic hour has arrived, he's all, "I need my space, human." He'll tolerate being petted, but he moves away as soon as you stop.

 

Buzz wouldn't eat raw bones. I gave all the dogs a chicken wing each once. Sam and Shonie devoured theirs. Buzz looked at the wing, laying naked and raw on the ground in front of him. Then he looked at me, then he looked at the wing again. Wouldn't touch it, even after I seared it a bit. Apparently it was Just Not Done. However, he loved uncooked pasta. Drop a piece of macaroni or spaghetti on the ground and it vanished.

 

Ruth and SuperGibbs

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Sara loves to uproot big plants. She grabs them close to the ground and pulls until they come off. She does it on command and would be a big help for a gardener that needed to clear the ground. We don't have a garden though...

Unrelated to bc's, but my cat, who is so picky about what is edible, loves uncooked rice.

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Callie is a compulsive sock thief, though she never chews them up. She also loves cardboard - we give her the cardboard tubes from paper towel and toilet paper rolls and she shreds them to pieces. It's like doggie chewing gum. She chews on the bits with her best camel impression and then leaves the soggy shreds on the carpet for us to pick up.

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We had two BC's that would not go anywhere near a storm drain inlet. It often made getting thru parking lots a little difficult. One BC was obsessed with tires even when a vehicle wasn't moving. On road trips he'd watch the tires of the semi trailers.

 

Our old BC mix was obsessed with chasing anything she couldn't catch. She'd chase airplanes in the back yard. She'd watch the shadows of the aspen leaves shaking in the wind for hours; wagging her tail the whole time. I know most BC people would say you shouldn't let her do that, but it wasn't bothering anyone and was not a distraction when she was working.

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Tex opens plastic bottles like its a magic trick. Cap's off...tada!! Then he walks away. Georgia will follow me around until I take my socks off. Then she stuffs them under a pillow. When Faith wants to snuggle...a rarity...she gets very awkward and sweet fumbling over herself to tuck her body into me.

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Celt is Mr Rise and Shine in the morning. Ever since he was tiny, he's so excited by the start of the day that any sound out of the bed that can be construed as me waking up, results in his coming around to my side of the bed and making sure I am awake and getting up.

 

When he was younger, I'd hear him come around and if I "seemed" asleep, he'd touch my eyelid with his nose. Of course then I would open my eyes (whether I'd been asleep or pretending) and he's be all excited, "See, Mom, you're awake!"

 

He is a dog that does not choose to lie around in bed when we could be up and doing!

 

PS - The other two prefer to climb up on the bed and either go back to sleep or get pets and snuggles.

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Lady loves rubbing her face and writhing around like an earthworm on the floor after a good meal. She accompanies this behaviour with a lot of groaning and sneezing. Not quite sure what that's all about... :D

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My Effie is a compulsive hole digger and she loves to collect large rocks. :P I think border collies are so unique...every single one has its own personality and quirks.

 

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!

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Camden discovered digging this spring and is hooked. He'll run through his favorite digging field at top speed while simultaneously sniffing the ground for just the right mole hill. When he finds it he'll skid to a halt, sometimes resulting in a forward tumble any gymnast would have to admire, and go at it with both front paws and his mouth. It's handy that his digging field is also near a creek, otherwise my boy would only come home from those walks looking like a brown dog.

 

I don't know if this qualifies as an obsession but here goes... Camden has been taught to settle inside. He's actually pretty good at it for a dog who is so "GOGOGO". However, if I'm working at my desk (or anywhere really) and I even so much as shift my weight he'll be up and out of the room before I can blink. He is so eager to do stuff that he'll go from being sound asleep to excitedly waiting by the front door... simply because I decided to cross my legs or lean back in the chair. :mellow: It drives me sorta' crazy and I doubt I'll ever get used to it but I do have to admire his enthusiasm.

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Waves. Aed will go crazy running back and forth on the sand trying to catch whichever one he sees breaking down the beach. He hasn't yet figured out that water is a thing you can swim in, though.

He also loves shoes, plastic bottles, acorns, toothbrushes, and bubbles. Aed's version of expressing love is mostly to eat all of the above. That's fun.

By the way, I was under the impression that dogs do not pass the mirror test - that is, understand that it's themselves that they are seeing in the mirror. Am I mistaken?

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Thank you everyone for your stories. I've been reading them to my mom. She's in her 70's and stops by my house once a week when I am at work to let my dogs out. She loves them and always gets a good laugh from their behavior! She's enjoying the stories of other people's Borders.

Both my current two Border Collies and the previous two absolutely despise the vacuum cleaner. That is the only thing all four dogs have in common, the desire to destroy the vacuum. Needless to say, they are outside when I clean.

My rock crazy Border did mangle his teeth. By the time he had passed at 13 he had several split teeth and had also lost 2 incisors to a frisbee accident.

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It doesn't really amount to a full blown obsession, but Bodhi loooves to swim. He'll swim around in big circles just for the sake of swimming. There doesn't even need to be anyone around.

 

I adopted him in the beginning of August and that Labor Day weekend went camping with friends at a private, non-commerical campground where our dogs can run free. After a while when I thought I'd determined he wasn't going to go running off, I looked around and couldn't find him. He'd decided to go down to the pond, which wasn't far but out of sight of the campsite, and have a swim. He was just doing laps around the pond, all by himself, and having a grand time.

 

For several years my family has a reunion on Seneca Lake in upstate NY. Bodhi's allowed to wander the yard when I'm unpacking and settling in. Last year when I came out from the house I heard a call from the dock, which is about 30 feet below the yard level. . . . "Aunt Roxanne! Is Bodhi allowed to be in the water?" There he was, swimming in big circles, again just having the time of his life.

 

Sadly, the Boards aren't allowing me to post a picture. :(

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Max has discovered snow and loves. I don't think his previous owners ever took him out to play but he loves it. Throw snowballs and he's all over them. He sniffs the snow like he can't get enough. He does a happy prance when he gets to run around. I love watching it after he didn't have the best 4 years before us.

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I have a cordless mouse and mine hear me switching it off, even in a sound sleep, and jump up ready to go. They pounce on the vacuum cleaner with both front feet. And both are terrified of smoke when I burn something in the kitchen. They go crazy to get out and won't come back in until the whole house clears.

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Meg and Jess are both crazy about water. Meg worse than her big sister. Watering the pot plants is an interesting exercise for all involved. Especially when their mother the "fun police" gets involved. Meg will chew the hose long after you've turned off the water. But recently Meg and Zorro discovered a new obsession, the barn cat who's moved into the washroom. We keep the door closed for the kittens' safety. They will stand at the door, barking and pawing at the door with the cat cursing in the best cat fashion from the other side of the door. Then again Meg is in general obsessed with cats. She will relentlessly stalk our housecats, she won't hurt them, just stalk them.

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