Wednesday, June 6, 2012

A Day in the Life of a Border Collie

If a border collie doesn't herd sheep, what does he do? I can only answer this question for my border collie, Flash. Flash's day starts out with a visit to the kittens, making sure they survived the night in their crate. After I put the feed out and let the kittens out of the crate, Flash checks out each of the kittens and gives them a lick before coming back to the house with me.

The next fun thing is a run to the office with Dennis. This is what Flash loves to do more than anything else. All he has to do is see Dennis head for his bike and he is beside himself with excitement. For the next hour or so, he spends time in the office or runs around the property looking for things to do.

When Dennis comes back home for breakfast, Flash is given his breakfast, which he may or may not eat. Sometimes he likes to save it for later. I bought "Puppy Dust," a flavored sprinkle to enhance the taste and appeal of his dry food and he seems to like it.

After breakfast, it's back on a bike run to the office with Dennis. This time the office staff is in, supplied with dog cookies. Flash goes from one to another, performs a trick and gets a cookie. When the cookies dry up, he goes outside to play. Sometimes he takes a dunk in the pond, which keeps him smelling like pond scum.

If it's Wednesday, Flash comes out to the riding arena with me and supervises my lesson. I really appreciate his insight.  After the lesson, he usually goes to find his favorite person: Dennis. Some days he will spend all day out and about on the ranch until Dennis brings him back in the afternoon to have dinner.

At night, I usually brush him and pick out any stickers. We are like monkeys, as I groom him, he sometimes rewards me with a lick.

In between all the other activities, I will sneak in some training. Today we did a lot of "Look-Look," which we learned last night at the Canine Good Citizen class. He is so smart, it doesn't take too long for him to get it down. Sometimes he will make another trip to see the kittens. Sometimes we will play outside with his big purple ball.

In the evenings, Flash will lie down on the cool tile in the dining room and get some rest.

That's pretty much a day in the life of our border collie, although he is always ready to try something new or go for an adventure in the car.

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