In Chile three border collies are planting seeds (2017)
ibtimes.co.uk
ibtimes.co.uk
This is just fantastic on a lot of levels.
I'd put some weights in it for walks and it made him feel like he was doing something
I guess the same is true for intelligent birds like parrots or ravens . Most people don’t understand the level of commitment these animals need.
Bunny, of YouTube and tiktok fame, has demonstrated remarkably abstract thoughts, and the fart/poop humor [1] was a revelation to me. Dogs are treated like automata or mindless things, but they are intelligent and emotional on a very human level.
Giving them voices and making such systems common and easy would radically change humanity's relationship with canines for the better.
The man is simply harmful, tho [1]. His methods promote aggressive approach where you take control by threatening your dog with your body language.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppLnTlF8s0k (huge number of dislikes, but talk to anybody who works with dogs professionally)
Someone i really look up to is Vanessa Bokr owner of the https://www.hellhound-foundation.com:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQijH4vvDMo
Sorry for being just in german.
It just seems like it is likely to make the dog see that as a way of trying to assert dominance, whereas in almost all other cases positive reinforcement (and negative attention from undesired attention) seems to be perfectly adequate.
Perhaps it’s only supposed to be something for the worst-case untrained dogs and has spread out from there?
She was trained to some degree, probably reasonable harshly, but just doesn't show the signs of wanting to be active and do things. (other than walkies). Running - a bit, like 10 meters, and then it's back to the trot. Balls, no. Sticks, no. General Dog play, no. Couch? yes.
We've fostered other collies, and they've been far more active. Even little pups will try to herd the cat (and sometimes succeed).
and that is what puzzles me - the ranchers kill and don't allow wolves reintroduction because it is supposedly hurting their herds when instead they could have just got herding dogs.
Yeah it's not a "just" they are not for free. But in north-Italy and Switzerland they are payed by the government and leased (the dogs have no problem with it since the family are the sheep's and not the human)
Border collies are not simple dogs who can learn tricks.
Border collies want task lists.
And as border collies often do, these three are accomplishing their task list better than I sometimes accomplish mine.
TIL I'm a border collie.
They know exactly what they are doing.
Edit: I really don't know why you are getting downvotes.
Seriously, as if they couldn’t smell the seeds in their backpacks.
We had one of the first houses in the Eugene (OR) subdivision where I grew up. The next lot up the hill had just had the trees cut down, so us neighborhood kids made tunnels through the fallen trees. We called it "the rough country" and had picnics under the branches.
If we walked another block or two up the hill, we were out in the uncut forest where we could explore everywhere, collect wild mushrooms and pine cones and what have you.
The lot just down the hill from ours had a house under construction, complete with a bomb shelter! Of course, this being the late 1950s, we had two main worries: getting blown up in a nuclear war, or polio.
But we'd gotten vaccinated, so the nuclear bomb was our biggest concern. We spent a lot of time in the bomb shelter, brought cookies and snacks, and conducted our neighborhood business meetings there.
The dogs, unfortunately, did not undertake this task on their own, but I thought that when I read the title- thinking maybe they were catching some in their fur or pooping them out while playing or something.
As an aside I love all dogs, but especially Border Collies. Never been lucky enough to have one. They are indeed super smart, and agile! They are often featured in working-dog competitions and obstacle course competitions! Oh and frisbee catching, I always see border collies doing that. I've always dreamed of having a dog that could catch a frisbee but of all the dogs I've had- while all amazing in their own ways, most could barely bring back a ball. I blame my poor training skills :( Lol.
I do see some collies who do simple retrieval at the park, but it requires their owners to be strict about the dog not playing with any other dogs and coming back immediately. Not a way I want to raise my pup.
My last dog loved chasing stuff so a powerful-enough-for-daylight laser pointer was her favorite toy. If she heard the click she got so happy. As a bonus she could run as fast, far, and hard as she wanted, and I could relax a bit!
I have no idea what kind of tree can grow from seeds that are simply scattered, although I suppose I have seen some willows that grew from discarded branches(!).
Maybe not in the first run/flight, but in the later ones, when a fire has been taken out almost completely.
And even when not using the fire fighting planes I think spreading the seeds with a helicopter would be much faster and more efficient.
Animals are the center of the article, but there's a reason why Chile is loosing every year more and more its resources.
In Chile, border collies are sowing seeds, bringing life back to forests (2017) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17435000 - July 2018 (25 comments)