How I Got Interested in Border Collies

Before getting Savvy in 2002, I spent years swearing I'd never get a Border Collie. The ones I had met at trials were almost uniformly hyperactive, spinning, barking, dog-aggressive, ball-crazy maniacs with OCD who were emotionally cold and lived only to bully their owners into throwing balls hundreds of times a day. Yuck!

While living in England between 1999-2001, I initially became even more anti-BC. I belonged to an obedience club that consisted of nothing but dozens of BCs--some in muzzles due to dog aggression, and all encouraged to attack their tuggies between exercises. They acted so ballistic that formerly dog-friendly Piper started to snap at them out of fear. We were also very outnumbered by Border Collies at working trials, a Shutzhund-like sport that Piper also competed in.

In both sports, Border Collies were considered the only game in town for competition. In the UK, you can only advance from one obedience level to the next by winning your class twice, and the average BC is more likely to win than the average Basset, Terrier, etc. Because of this, a typical trial would have 400 BCs and fewer than 10 non-BCs. But this just made me more determined not to give in and get a BC.

The thing that changed my mind about Border Collies was meeting Derek Scrimgeour and his dogs. I went to the Lake District on vacation in 2000, and saw a sign advertising a Border Collie herding demo for $3, in a field outside downtown Keswick. Unable to resist a doggy event, I went and watched Derek flawlessly put his English National Team dogs Sweep, Ben and Lynn through an international style course, herded with two dogs at once, had Sweep herd ducks through a slalom course, etc. While watching, it finally hit me: Border Collies would be a lot easier to train for "Championship C" obedience than my terrier... I was already starting to "sell out"!

Hoping to learn more about these herding-bred (as opposed to obedience/agility-bred) BCs, I wrangled an invitation to Derek's beautiful 300 year old farm. I felt like a character in a Herriot novel as I watched Derek take out each of his trained dogs and put it through its paces for me in the training pasture.

Seeing the dogs follow precise whistle commands, I thought, "no wonder BCs always win working trials!" I had been spending three hours a day teaching Piper the 70 yard sendaway followed by a 100 yard redirect. I asked Derek if he could send Ben to a particular patch of grass far across the field and nowhere near the sheep. Using whistle commands, Derek effortlessly got Ben to lie down exactly on the target. He then redirected him to another target I chose, and Ben again arrived at the perfect spot.

Besides being able to do sports they hadn't even trained for, Derek's dogs were friendly (despite no deliberate socialization), didn't have any of the OCD or "weirdness" that I was used to in the other BCs I'd met. Though they spent much of their day in small cages, they didn't demand endless fetch games, spin, bark, or chase light beams: they just "hung out." There was no way to know if this was due to good genes, training, or being worn out from their hour a day of herding...but it did get me to thinking that the breed might possibly fit into my lifestyle after all.

In 2001, I moved back to the U.S. and bought my house on 10 acres in Missouri. I was more interested than ever in a Border Collie, though I was hoping to get as non-crazy a version as possible. A friend who owned both working-lines and show-lines Border Collies recommended that I avoid the high-energy working lines and instead get a BC from Australian conformation lines--that way it wouldn't herd Piper around, and would have good structure for doing obedience. So I ended up going to a conformation-oriented breeder who was producing puppies that were competing at high levels in several (non-herding) sports.

My friend was right that Australian-types are very mellow and undemanding in the house. Far from the BC "nightmare" I expected, Savvy is the calmest, quietest, sweetest, cuddliest and least demanding dog I have owned of any breed.

However, predictions were wrong about one thing. Savvy had herding ability in abundance, and began taking lessons as soon as he turned 6 months old. Though I have made many errors as a novice trainer/handler (such as not enforcing his "down" early on), Savvy has turned into a solid dog with a great work ethic.

I'll always remember our day at Killibrae as the true start of our fun herding career.