Border Collies & Their Charges, Ireland

Posted on 03 October 2018 by Isabel Gibson

On our recent trip to Ireland, we saw sheep everywhere.

3-photo collage of sheep jammed togetherWe saw border collies in two places.

4-photo collage of border collieBut still photos don’t do justice to the interaction between these two subjects . . .

 

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11 Responses to Border Collies & Their Charges, Ireland

  1. Mara says:
    07 October 2018 at 1:58 pm

    OMG, Isabel! We have a BorderCollie-AussieShepherd puppy and I haven’t watched anything like this since we got her in January. I now have a reason to go to Ireland! I’m so familiar with those Collie moves 🙂

    • Isabel Gibson says:
      07 October 2018 at 2:04 pm

      Mara – You could also consider Australia, which is the other place we saw these dogs in action. If I had one of these on my tail, I’d be doing my level best to comply with its wishes, too! There’s never a hint of ferocity, but there’s a whole lot of intensity.

  2. Jim Taylor says:
    07 October 2018 at 3:45 pm

    Herding seems built into their genes. We had neighbours with a border collie; it went down to the school bus stop and herded the children home every day. If the neighbours children weren’t on that bus, it would herd other children home instead.
    Jim T

    • Isabel Gibson says:
      07 October 2018 at 3:53 pm

      Jim – LOL. Excellent. Someone else’s kids delivered to your door! Or did the dog keep track of where everyone lived?

  3. Judith Umbach says:
    07 October 2018 at 7:34 pm

    The interaction is indeed marvellous to watch!

  4. Tom Watson says:
    07 October 2018 at 10:37 pm

    Isabel
    My Manitoba daughter and her husband have three border collies on their beef cattle farm. From seeing them at work I’m convinced they are the smartest canine breed there is.
    Tom

    • Isabel Gibson says:
      07 October 2018 at 11:08 pm

      Tom – I would not even consider challenging that assessment. If I understood the farmer correctly, he doesn’t really train the collies: they learn what to do from their parents.

  5. Alison Uhrbach says:
    08 October 2018 at 6:01 pm

    Our first dog was an Australian Shepherd. Let’s just say, the dog was FAR smarter than our combined intelligence. We always felt that she was running the show.

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