My Border Collie/Bernese Mountain Dog Mix

I’ve never really considered myself to be a dog lover. In fact, up until five years ago, whenever I would see a dog coming my way I would subtlely change direction. They are just a little too friendly and slobbery for my taste. Oddly enough, I’ve wondered what it would be like to own a dog. I’ve thought on numerous occasions that there may be a breed that would have the right temperament for me. Unfortunately, every time I would seriously consider owning a dog I'd see images of Jim Carey in the movie Bruce Almighty racing from his apartment complex with his peeing dog in hand.

Then one day it happened. I found myself owning a Border Collie mix. Not by choice, of course, it belonged to the woman I had just married. Now, my border collie mix and I have been together for about five years and it has been quite an adventure.

Our border collie mix is male and a mixture of border collie and bernese mountain dog. He is a little bigger than a purebred border collie weighing about 55 pounds. The big question on my mind back then was “Is this just another over-friendly, slobbery dog.” The answer was yes, but I quickly learned that he could be trained to not be too friendly or slobbery around me. After being trained he was only too friendly and slobbery to everyone else. Slobbery is probably too severe a word. He just likes to lick everyone to death.

The first question I had to ask my wife once I realize there would be a border collie mix in the house at night was “ aren’t you afraid of him peeing all over the place.” She told me that he had slept indoors every night for the past three years and never once “did his business” in the house. That was a huge surprise to me. My opinion of dogs, or at least this dog, was slowly beginning to change.

When it came time to take my new dog for a walk I was a little concerned because the path where we would walk had lots of dogs and I feared hostilities between dogs would arise. What I learned is that our border collie mix is very friendly towards other dogs. Unfortunately, not all other dogs were friendly towards him.

One day we encountered a lady who had two dogs with her. Neither of them were on a leash. One of them was a pit-bull. When the pit-bull saw our dog, he lunged at him and dug his teeth deep into his rear leg. I was momentarily startled but when I realized what had happened I became very protective of our dog and decided I was going to drop kick the pit-bull out of the park. It wasn’t until my sanity returned that I realized he could have come after me. I gave him a few good kicks and he let go of our dog and went on his way as if nothing happened.

I was annoyed with the lady and said “ you know, you should have your dogs on a leash.” She apologized profusely and said she would make sure this would never happen again. We went on our way, wondering if we should ever use that path again. Our dog’s leg had a chunk missing the size of a quarter and took about a month to heal. The experience did not seem to effect him negatively though. He continued to be friendly towards other dogs he encountered along the path that day and in the days to come.

One of the beaches we go to from time to time allows dogs. One hot summer day we decided we would take our border collie mix with us. When we arrived I quickly learned that he loves the beach but doesn’t like the water. Another thing I learned is that he doesn’t engage in all normal dog activities.

I realized this when a small dog came running up behind him. I thought “Oh no, a butt-sniffer.” I was wondering how our dog would react. Well, react he did and nearly had that little dog for lunch. I experienced a proud moment when I realized our dog does not approve of butt-sniffing.

While at the beach I wondered if it was sea water that our border collie didn’t like or just water in general. I got my answer when I took him for a walk one rainy day down a dirt trail. One thing I’ve noticed is that he loves running through shallow puddles.

As we were walking, he spotted a large puddle in the distance. He decided he was going to sprint right through it. When his feet hit the puddle, he suddenly disappeared. The puddle must have been five or six feet deep. Next thing I saw was him shooting out of the water like Shamu the whale. I concluded that he doesn’t like to be submersed in any type of water.

I knew that border collies had a herding nature and are used for herding sheep. What I didn’t expect was to see our dog’s herding nature come out at the dog park. When we arrived at the park, there was about 40 other dogs on the loose.

Our dog got a look in his eye that made me wonder if I should set him loose. I decided to take a chance. There were dogs running in all different directions at this point. Our dog apparently didn’t like the disorder and began to herd every dog in the park. It wasn’t long before he had them all running together in one direction with him guiding them on the outside.

My wife and I lead a weekly bible study at our home. One evening our dog was laying on the living room floor during the bible study. When it came time for prayer, different members would take turns praying. While one of the ladies was praying, our dog let out a belch which was so loud it probably was heard by the neighbors. Naturally, I was embarrassed but quietly waited for the lady to continue praying. Instead, she began to giggle.

It wasn’t long before everyone in the room was laughing hysterically. Not knowing what to say, I said something like, “he always has to be the center of attention.” It took awhile but eventually we were able to compose ourselves and finish the prayer time.

I’ve learned over the last five years that there are much more to dogs than just being too friendly and slobbery. All breeds of dog have different characteristics. The border collie mix turned out to be just right for me. Now, much to my surprise one of my most faithful friends is a dog.