An Intelligent Dog

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Border Collies are the workaholics of Dogdom. They are always badgering their owners for entertainment or, even better, some work to do. One of my colleagues when I was working for a pet publishing company had four Working Sheepdogs/ Border Collies (Working Sheepdogs being Border Collies who don’t quite make it into pedigree circles) and one of them was on its way to becoming an Obedience Champion. The rapport she had with her dogs was truly amazing! This breed is highly intelligent, and leaving such dogs to their own devices amounts almost to cruelty. Anyway, this is the preamble to the following story: I was walking across the local park yesterday when I saw a lovely Border Collie with his owner. He was playing the usual Chase the Ball game. I don’t think this collie was in the running to become an Obedience Champion, as he didn’t want to give up the ball. He retrieved it, came up to his owner, and then ran off again, complete with ball. He then did that characteristically collie belly-to-the-ground flop, waited until his owner had nearly caught up with him – and then ran off again. His owner was beginning to lose patience by this time, and her friend was coming towards him from the other direction. Obviously, different tactics were needed. Stopping by a tree, our hero dropped the ball, turned around - and peed on it! He’d obviously realised that this both claimed the ball as his and that, though he had no objection to picking it up, his owner and her friend might have one or two qualms. Now, that’s an intelligent dog!