Border Collies were designed by the work they perform.  The breed was developed to manage livestock.   It is still used today for that job and it is considered the premier herding dog by many people.  Only recently in this country has there begun the sad separation into types or lines; one that works stock and one that is presented in conformation dog shows.  The authentic Border Collie can still do the job for which it was originally designed.  At DarnFar Ranch, we breed working Border Collies.  And, they can be quirky.

Herding work requires partnership.  There truly isn’t such a thing as herding if there isn’t a human around.  A dog that is “working” stock that is not under the direction of a person would most probably be referred to as a dog that is harassing the livestock.  So, at its core, the Border Collie needs to partner up with a human handler in order to feel fulfilled.  This is not true of all breeds.  The scent hounds, for example, can perform the task for which they were designed with little or no partnership with humans.   The little Beagle doesn’t turn back to his master when he locates the scent of a rabbit and ask, “Master, shall I follow this trail for you today”  The dog just goes and his owner better know how to keep up, if he wants to utilize the skills of his little hound.  But, herding dogs need leadership; someone to call the shots about where the stock will moved or how they will be managed.  A working dog wants to work.  If you are a Border Collie, that means seeking human leadership.

Herding work can be quite dangerous.  A nasty ram, an angry bull, a new mother ewe are all potentially lethal to a working stockdog, and an intelligent dog knows this.  When performing a job of, say, getting a few rams into a trailer, the dog relies on the human and the human relies on the dog.  It is, indeed, a joint venture.   If the handler makes an error at a critical time and tells the dog to go left when he meant to send the dog to the right, a clever dog may intelligently disobey as a way of alerting his human to the problem.  My own dogs have shot me the whites of their eyes in these sorts of situations.  I have felt that if they could speak they would have said, “are you bloody crazy, woman?”   It is as if the dog gives the human a chance to rethink the command and correct course. 

However, also a highly obedient breed, a Border Collie will be compelled to execute the command.  The dog stands ready to do what he knows is the proper move to accomplish the task while concerning himself that if he must take his handler’s command all hell will break loose allowing a couple of rank animals to charge or even trample him.  A Border Collie is bred to serve man and be obedient to authority but it also has the intelligence to contemplate challenging tasks and make autonomous decisions.  When working far from the handler or when out of sight behind a building or over a hill, the dog must make decisions about situations the human is not even aware.

So, the poor Border Collie is a combination of extreme traits.  It ranks very high (perhaps highest) in intelligence and the ability to perform autonomous tasks.  It is also designed to be extremely obedient, able to execute a command flawlessly and immediately without question and with intense precision and speed.  In some situations these two diverse attributes cause a conflict in the dog’s mind.  When the dog experiences such discord (a sort of short circuit), the fact that the breed is usually highly creative can result in some very odd behaviors.  These are the breed’s quirks. 

Life with a Border Collie is never boring.  However, it is a breed that not only requires physical exercise, it requires mental challenges that incorporate both the leader-follower (submit to authority) and partnership (let’s cooperate and get this done together) relationships.  Those relationships need to be developed and then maintained constantly, throughout the dog’s life.  Without maintaining the obedience to authority relationship, a Border Collie will feel lost and very unhappy.  However, once that is established, without some ability for creative expression and sophisticated collaboration with the human leader, the Border Collie will be bored.  A bored Border Collie is a potentially very unpleasant  thing!

Idiosyncratic, peculiar, eccentric, original; these are common traits of the Border Collie.  Even when existing in a healthy relationship with a human partner, a Border Collie is apt to display quirky behaviors at times.  This attribute makes them terrible endearing if one can avoid feeling overwhelmed or frustrated, instead.   People who can simply smile rather than attempt to figure it out or make it go away, are most likely to be able to tolerate the Border Collie’s quirky nature.