I just felt like devoting a post to him. Whipper is a Smooth Collie, now about 8 years old. I got him in Michigan just before I moved here. He was about 4 months at the time, and came from a show breeder. He is the best dog I've ever had.
Whipper is the guardian of the place. It's mostly a night shift job because his main nemesis's are raccoons and coyotes. Since I fenced the backyard, the birds and rabbits are completely protected from either of these predators. He has a cozy doghouse on the porch with a thick bed in it, but I bring him inside on cold mornings (I'm up stupid early).
What prompted me to write about him is a behavior I occasionally see. Smooths are rather rare in this country. In the UK where they originated, they were the working collies where the Roughs became the more common companion dogs in the US. However, Whipper doesn't have much opportunity to display his heritage as a herding dog here. Except sometimes.
When he gets riled by something, he tears up and down the yard barking. What does he get riled about? Noise in the forest. Often instigated by the neighbor's dogs (who run loose), but sometimes he starts it. Any crashing noise in the woods puts him on high alert. It could be a coon scrabbling in a tree, or coyotes running through the underbrush, or maybe even a bear. I've never seen a bear but I've seen scat so I know they are there. I can put him on alert by saying "Coon!". He's so sensitive to this kind of noise, even chainsaw work sets him off. Branches or trees crashing down, it's all the same to him. Something is in the forest.
When he gets fired up like this, that's when I see what I believe to be his herding instincts. As he's running up and down the yard, he makes a quick little jog at whatever chickens are in the vicinity. He lowers his head at the bird, and to someone who doesn't know him, it might look like an attack. I think he's actually herding them to safety. "Run to cover!". He swings away from the bird as soon as it moves out of his way.
Most of the time, he ignores the birds, and I'm not the least bit worried he will hurt them. They don't fear him and will peck the ground all around him when he's laying in the grass. There was a time this summer when a rooster was annoying him while he was relaxing in the grass. The bird kept trying to peck his front feet. I don't know why the bird was so fascinated by his feet. Whipper bared his teeth and swung his head at the bird, but that was all it was...a warning. "Leave me alone, you annoying little chit."
He's not what I'd call a guard dog in regards to people. He doesn't bark when someone comes up to the house, although I wish he did. He might bark at a passing car but not all the time. We don't get much traffic back here other than the people who live here, so he knows who belongs and who doesn't. The mail and paper carriers are the only other daily traffic and he doesn't react to them either. Unlike the neighbor's dogs who are kind of stupid that way. They chase my car, and the mail and paper carriers...pretty much everybody but their own people.
If there was one thing I don't like about Whipper it's his intense fear of thunderstorms. I blame it on an incident a couple years after I moved here as he had never exhibited this fear before. That July, the neighbors were shooting off fireworks. Whipper wasn't confined to the yard, I hadn't put in the fence yet so he had the run of the place, and he spent a lot of time over there. I didn't like it, but tying him up wasn't a good option so I didn't. He actually learned his guardian skills from their dogs (different dogs back then), so it was good in that respect. Anyways, he disappeared for a day and half. I don't know where he went. I looked for him but didn't find him in the area. When he came back, whoever had him obviously meant to keep him. They had given him a bath. I could smell the shampoo. I was so happy to see him again (couldn't help thinking "Lassie Come Home".), I tried tying him up, but that just doesn't work very well here. It was shortly after that I invested in the fence. And ever since, he's terrified by thunder, and gets anxious about gunshots. I don't allow him to become a "velcro dog" when he gets like this because it just makes me tense (I don't like violent thunderstorms either). He goes off to his "cave" under the back deck. I don't know why he feels safe there, he gets wet when he could stay dry in his house on the covered porch.
Whipper is showing his age a little but not so much I think about the day he's gone. He's getting a little gray about the muzzle and looks a bit stiff after laying down for awhile, but other than that he's pretty spry. I try not to think about it.
tnt
