This is our border collie, Ayla. When I got married to my wife she brought a chihuahua and toy poodle into the marriage. Stupidest dogs I've ever had, the chihuahua in particular was impossible to train...just a royal pain in the ass with it's willfulness and lack of sense. The poodle was better, but not by much. I said I'd never do that again. I wanted a dog that was incredibly intelligent, among other qualities, and settled on the Border Collie. They are just an amazing breed all together. I love watching videos of them working on a farm, or watching them kill it in those agility competitions.
This is my favorite dog I've ever owned. Incredibly intelligent, there is no doubt...almost too intelligent. She'll pickup tricks in under 10 minutes, but she taught herself how to open doors in the house and when she was a puppy she figured out how to open the shoe storage so she could chew (We broke that habit pretty quick). Border collies do have a lot of energy, which is something you have to be mindful of as an owner, and they can act out if you don't provide enough activity for them. They also are work oriented and will find their own jobs if you don't give them one.
This has been the really cool thing: Ayla has become somewhat of a special needs dog for our son Landon, something that she picked up on her own. She's attached to his hip if he's home, it's really sweet. It started with simple things, like if Landon is home from school and I'm working she comes and nuzzles my hand off the keyboard. I follow her and she leads me to Landon in the living room watching TV because she smells he had a soiled diaper. She does circles, or she looks at me and then looks at Landon back and forth (The border collie stare) until I change him. After she figured out diapers she started getting him off the bus. She'd wait for him at the end of the driveway (We'd be on the porch), she gets him off the bus, and then she runs ahead of him and opens the front door (The bus drivers love her to death). She's also figured out his general schedule, like when it gets dark she knows it's about bed time for him and she'll do the border collie stare at my wife and back at Landon to let her know he should be upstairs
She comes to my office all the time to get my attention, I'll ask her what she wants, and then she'll lead me to her food storage container and open it with her snout to say "Hey stupid, the kids forgot to feed me!" She'll take me to the back sliding door and smack it with her paw when she wants to go out too.
I've had a lot of great dogs over the years and I love training them, but this has been my favorite by far. She's practically trained herself. We let her run around outside the house all the time, never have to worry about her leaving the property which has never really happened with past dogs. Even our Boxers, who are normally lazy as they get older, would chase after wildlife like rabbits if they came within the vicinity, even jumping their electric fences. We have no fences for Ayla, she knows the boundaries and never deviates unless she's on a walk with one of us. We take her to the neighbors during the summer when they have a firepit going and she just so happy herding all the neighbor kids, or she'll play fetch with them for hours. Never seen a dog just go, go, go like that, I've gotta hold her to give her breaks because otherwise she'd probably kill herself running nonstop for hours on end.
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Also, border collies will find their own things to herd if they don't have sheep. Notice how she tried to keep my son in check in the backyard a few years ago lol. Almost a perfect circle around his little project.
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