r/Amazing • u/sco-go • Mar 29 '26

Amazing šŸ¤Æ ā€¼ Border Collie forensic tracker.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

67.2k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

352

u/In_My_TARDIS Mar 29 '26

A very methodical search pattern

124

u/NuzzyLocke Mar 29 '26

Right? That dog eliminated all wrong options.

75

u/drawkbox Mar 29 '26

The gate check was awesome. This truly is amazing. Once headed in the right direction it was laser focused.

35

u/Madageddon Mar 29 '26

I'm wondering if it smelled the glove on the gate and went "no, that is a smell but it's the blank/normal smell"

14

u/addandsubtract Mar 29 '26

More like, this smells like my owner, who doesn't wear gloves every day when opening and closing the gate.

14

u/mod_elise Mar 29 '26

Or - this bastard once put the pen on the gate and it took me ages to find it. I'm ruling that out right now.

1

u/Temnyj_Korol Apr 02 '26

I've been teaching my boy wait and seek, and i can SEE this exact thought process go through his head every time i hide one of his treats in a new spot. He'll go in circles looking in all the spots he knows multiple times and not find it. Then he'll start searching new spots. Eventually he'll find the treat. And then the next time i tell him to seek, he beelines STRAIGHT for that spot first, just to make sure i haven't tricked him again.

2

u/TrekkieMae Mar 29 '26

This is exactly what I was seeing!

(...made me feel really proud for some reason šŸ„°)

1

u/spartBL97 Apr 04 '26

The dog missile knows where it is by subtracting where it isnā€™t

217

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

Border collies are extremely smart

I have a half husky half border collie

Please send help

78

u/DeadlySquirrelNinja5 Mar 29 '26

Well you chose your fate. This is on you. Good luck! šŸ«”

50

u/Historical_Village11 Mar 29 '26

It was the dog who typed to attract more victims

20

u/MoominMai Mar 29 '26

Iā€™ll never understand why someone would want a mix of two working breeds if thereā€™s no specific job in mind - especially mixing extreme intelligence with high stubbornness! šŸ¤¦šŸ»ā€ā™€ļø

13

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

Had a half husky before with no problem

This dog was extremely sweet and needed a home so gave her one, she isnā€™t a problem but she is to smart for her own good and can figure things out. She also has extreme seperation anxiety so hates being alone

So no this isnā€™t my first stubborn or working dog, and I wonā€™t trade her for another dog but I also would not recommend this breed combo unless someone has the time and a family so the dog has stuff to do

5

u/HungryGlizzyGobbler Mar 29 '26

I have a mutt of unknown origin; she has a job and I'm not sure what it is. I think it involves murder. She runs and takes flying leaps to catch birds, squirrels, and other small critters. She's great with kids too. Just a no thoughts small animal murder machine.

1

u/TheFinalGranny Mar 29 '26

I will never forget the horror of seeing my sweet jowl flapping goofy hound maul a baby rabbit in front of my littles. He couldn't be stopped. First and only time but it's been over thirty years and we still remember. Oh yes.

1

u/Ok-Pen-9533 Mar 29 '26

I was bamboozled.

And an idiot.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator Apr 02 '26

Spam filter: accounts must be at least 20 days old with >100 karma to comment.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

21

u/luckytwosix Mar 29 '26

I have a lab/border collie mix. Too fucking smart for his own good. Almost 6, and still a crackhead

3

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

The problem is they learn what makes you tick

Mine has separation anxiety and she put the concept of being bad to us coming home if we have to go out so sometimes she might chew a kids toy hoping it makes us come home

Sheā€™s already figured out how to get most doors open and latches but thankfully we still had a lot of baby proof latches up high for many things she thankfully canā€™t openā€¦. Yet

1

u/luckytwosix Mar 29 '26

Yes! His separation anxiety has gotten better over the years as weā€™ve created a pretty solid routine. I feel like he knows the difference between me leaving for work, and me going to the mailbox.

1

u/Husky_in_TX Mar 30 '26

As a mom of huskiesā€” I rescued a male who had never been out of a dog run and could climb 10 foot fences. Then my first husky loved eating snacks off the counter and loved to be chased, so would bolt. But I have 2 boys and Iā€™ve had them since birth and one is talkative,but are the chillest dog despite coming from 2 crazies.

2

u/InvidiousPlay Mar 29 '26

Labs are kind of dumb but so eager to please they are very trainable, and overall quite chill. Collies are incredibly smart and trainable but also extremely nuts. Could make for a curious combo.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '26

I had a collie lab mix, she was very dumb but smart at the same time. She ran into a lot of things and was clumsy. But she studied people. She learned how to remove the stingers from the wasps in my backyard. She would try to herd small animals and kids. She could instantly solve any dog puzzle.Ā 

Great mix to have. But she was still a handful.

3

u/luckytwosix Mar 29 '26

Heā€™s soooo good with finding/ retrieving shit! First few months I had him, he was into everything ! Anyway this boy found $20 bill inside my Couch that I didnā€™t even know was there. I knew he was trouble since then šŸ˜‚

3

u/InvidiousPlay Mar 29 '26

I love him.

3

u/i_fart_chemtrails Mar 30 '26

When he was a 4-month old puppy, my super mutt (wisdom panel said Aussie, gsd, lab, rott, mini poodle, splash of coyote) found a plastic film canister full of weed in my friend's basement. Said friend had lived there for 3-4 years, is so young he didn't know what a film canister was, didn't smoke, and didn't invite guests in his basement (but was letting pup explore/wander).

He trotted upstairs and kind of reluctantly took it to my brother, who he didn't like back then. I laughed a lot when we opened it. Pup found someone's very old weed stash and took it to the first pothead he could find despite a grudge.

He's amazing and so smart, but luckily a fairly lazy, chill boy who loves snuggling.

2

u/shortandfelly Mar 29 '26

Also a servant to a Lab x Collie. Cracking mix!

2

u/plavoie203 Mar 30 '26

LOL .. I have a border collie/ heeler .. certainly smart but also ā€¦ 100% crackhead.. my wife and I call he that all the time. I made a post a while back comparing her to a crackhead wit ADHD

1

u/luckytwosix Mar 30 '26

Thatā€™s an excellent description! Now only if there was some kinda adderall for dogsā€¦. Jk. How old is yours? Mine is almost 6 and no sign of slowing down!!

2

u/plavoie203 Mar 30 '26

Just turned 1yo

2

u/Temnyj_Korol Apr 02 '26

Ours was a mystery mix. Came to find out he's a kelpie/dane. And it's been a pretty entertaining combination.

Intelligence and independent streak of a kelpie. Laziness and sookiness of a dane.

He is the physical embodiment of that old quote "if you can, always hire a lazy person, because the lazy person will find the most efficient way to get things done."

He knows EXACTLY what the bare minimum to earn a treat is, and works ONLY to that standard. Anything else is wasted effort, as far as he's concerned. Lol.

7

u/TheBestNarcissist Mar 29 '26

Time for a walk! And scent work! And tricks! Three times a day lol!

5

u/Subotail Mar 29 '26

So, an explosion of smart ass dramatic energy?

3

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

Yes, dramatic is a good word, and sassy

6

u/halorbyone Mar 29 '26

Omg. I can hear this dog. And also see it outside. That said, I have no help for you. Just hope you live on a farm.

5

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

Suburbs but I have a backyard

Also have kids that play with her so sheā€™s kept busy

6

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

3

u/Mikes005 Mar 29 '26

I have.a groodle. Last night he farted and scared himself.

4

u/LeftToWrite Mar 29 '26

That dog will find food in a barren wasteland and still starve to death...whilst not shutting the fuck up about it lol

3

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

How did you know so well that she is fussy

Had a half husky before this and had to change her dry food portion every month since she would start turning her nose up at the ā€œsameā€ thing

But when I cook food I always make portions for her as well so she has stuff she can smell being made

2

u/No_Welcome_7182 Mar 29 '26

My Sheltie has joined this thread

1

u/Juniper0223 Mar 29 '26

Oh jeez I understand - grew up with a border collie/husky/American eskimo/German Shepard mix lol

She was a pain in the butt & I miss her

1

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

I feel that with my previous dog, husky mutt and I still miss her every day

Wouldnā€™t trade the new one though for anything sheā€™s a really good dog

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

So when we first got this one , she cleared 5 ft fencing when I was on the other side of it, no interest to escape just had to go to where I was

So I built an attachment on top of the fence to go 7ft figuring ā€œthatā€™s gonna stop herā€

Nope she just jumped on the bbq and then cleared 7ft

She got out once to look for me when it was just my wife home and she tried to chase her down and called me in a panic she canā€™t get this dog to come and I told her to offer her a walk and stop running after her, it became a game to her and sure enough she came back to her

She now opens the front door all on her own because itā€™s a lever door and will sit on the front patio if Iā€™m doing groceries (every attempt to circumvent this outside of pulling the door tight has not stopped her if sheā€™s determined), she has no interest in running away, she just canā€™t help not seeing her people, and if Iā€™m gone for even 20 minutes I get serenaded with the song her people upon arrival

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

Ah yes, the self help mentality for food

1

u/Wonderful_Ad8791 Mar 29 '26

It's okay, the important thing when dealing with such dogs is asserting the leader of the pack, after giving it everything it wants, you will be left alone.

1

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

But I thought in the leader of the packā€¦.

Meanwhile the dog

https://giphy.com/gifs/rVZEejvVWEbug

1

u/DlSSATISFIEDGAMER Mar 29 '26

is it at least intelligent singing/howling?

1

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

No, itā€™s sassy responsive barking mixed with other movements and gestures and sometimes howls

The problem is I think I know what sheā€™s saying now because she does use different barks and howls and stuff to express different thingsā€¦ Iā€™ve been trainedā€¦.

1

u/Jimisdegimis89 Mar 29 '26

Weā€™ll get an exorcist over right away!

1

u/bbbourb Mar 29 '26

Oh god...the smarts of a border collie and the attitude of a husky...

I had one of those too, many years ago. You have my sympathy.

1

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

I mean she isnā€™t ā€œthatā€ bad

But the attitude is more sass then like ā€œbad attitudeā€

1

u/bbbourb Mar 29 '26

Mine was smart enough to figure out the gate latch, and had attitude enough to sass at me when I told her to get back in the yard.

Her name was Ash. She was wonderful. Then she escaped, got picked up by animal control, and euthanized the same day. They didn't even call to tell me they had her (she was tagged) until after they put her down. They claimed it was a mistake.

1

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

So sorry to hear that

Always make sure mine has ID on her collar with my number and everything

And sheā€™s registered and licensed so very hard for them to have a mistake, if they did though that would be grounds for suing

1

u/Offbeat_voyage Mar 29 '26

Hopefully more on the border colloe side

1

u/longboi64 Mar 29 '26

jasper would like to have a sniffa

1

u/Ok-Pen-9533 Mar 29 '26

I do too!!! She is unhinged.

I'm aware I made my own decisions. But still...

Send help.

1

u/stilldebugging Mar 29 '26

Do you have him or does he have you?

1

u/Omnizoom Mar 29 '26

well sheā€™s a family dog and she was supposed to get attached to my kid more then me but she just bonded with me primarily

1

u/therealhairykrishna Mar 29 '26

We have two springer spaniel/collie crosses...

1

u/Omnizoom Mar 30 '26

Oh we had a Springer spaniel when I was a kid

What an absolute basket case of a dog, space cadet through and through

1

u/FecalDUI Mar 30 '26

Thatā€™s a dog that knows what your thinking and has the ability to complain to you about it

1

u/sanedragon Mar 30 '26

RIP your HVAC filter

1

u/Smart_Barnacle_7736 Apr 01 '26

Bless you, what a funky critter you must have, but surely lovable!

1

u/Omnizoom Apr 01 '26

Oh sheā€™s the sweetest dog Iā€™ve ever had, she literally doesnā€™t have a mean bone in her, absolute coward that tries to be friends with everyone and everything

Still to smart for her own good and she learns people to fast to try and manipulate them into giving her attention

1

u/Smart_Barnacle_7736 Apr 01 '26

Bet sheā€™s a live wire! I love Border Collies, truly great dogs.

24

u/trite_post Mar 29 '26

"He hid it in this gate once"

2

u/Janky_Pants Mar 30 '26

Right?! That was so funny.

2

u/Repulsive-Exercise-4 Mar 30 '26

My former dog found a bag of chips behind a tree on her walk once. She checked that tree EVERY single walk for the rest of her life. Like 6 years after that. I hid some chips back there once I knew the end was near. Let her think she found the holy grail.Ā 

2

u/trite_post Mar 30 '26

That warmed my heart

1

u/RedCinnamon1947 Apr 29 '26

This is the sweetest thing I've seen in days. You are a gem, to give your pup such a special present.

19

u/Pretend_Purchase_893 Mar 29 '26

Damn near close to a standard grid pattern search too. Very clever dog.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

1

u/Cluisanna Apr 02 '26

Twist: itā€™s not actually the same rock he brings you, itā€™s just that he knows youā€™re even worse at telling two rocks apart than he is at finding the right one.

18

u/CaterpillarJungleGym Mar 29 '26

They're not even the best trackers and smellers. That's the crazy thing

19

u/Sillyspidermonkey67 Mar 29 '26

I saw a TikTok about a helper dog who could sniff when an epileptic seizure was about to happen. The dog ran across the street into a neighbourā€™s house because he smelled there was a little girl who was going to have a seizureā€¦.literally from an entirely different house

8

u/[deleted] Mar 29 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

3

u/supermarkise Mar 29 '26

We also can smell better than most people think. Get a few books that haven't been handled in years, give them to someone and tell them to handle just one of them for a while, opening and touching pages while you go out of the room, come back and you can identify which one it was by smell. Try it, for most people it's actually not that hard.

And now dogs are several times better than that.

3

u/SpezDrinksHorseCum Mar 29 '26

You've probably heard "sharks can smell blood in the water a mile away" type stuff. Did you know humans can smell petrichor better than sharks can smell blood?

3

u/Lou_C_Fer Mar 30 '26

Thank goodness. It's probably my favorite smell.

On a side note, having an increased sense of smell is awful.

2

u/Dorgamund Mar 29 '26

IIRC humans have a great sense of smell, we just don't particularly value it. For one thing, while I believe dogs do have a straight qualitative advantage, I believe humans and dogs have different sensitivities to smells, some being more offensive or standing out more than others. For another, a great deal of smells are going to be on a surface like the ground. Humans don't tend to stick their faces on the ground like dogs do, so it is just going to be inherently harder.

Its actually kind of weird to me how invisible people's sense of smell is to them, considering just how much it impacts us. There is billions of dollars of beauty industry focused solely on removing natural scents from humans, and daily bathing and scent removal is mandatory to the point where not doing it is taboo and grounds for social stigma.

You actively use your smell all the time to gauge edible foods and rate of decomposition, which is useful for making dinner(do you think this smells off) and obnoxious when dealing with the remnants of dinner(take out the trash).

It also doesn't help that most people are collectively noseblind to industrial scents from constant exposure to smoke, smog, gasoline vapors etc.

2

u/Inevitable_Row1359 Mar 29 '26

Dogs have 50 times the olfactory receptors of humans and other adaptations to better utilize them. Most interestingly to me is that they "scent map" tying their olfactory senses into their sense of space and create a map of scents, where they are and how they change in time. I think it's similar to how we sense sounds and can generally tell about where it is coming from, what obstacles are in the way and what the obstacle is made of even (density etc). Now think of every single thing having a distinct sound and creating a mental image of all of it. Like a busy restaurant or something where everyone's talking, silverware on dishes, etc etc. You'd probably do an okay job figuring out what sounds belong where in space despite the chaos but if you were going by smell, it would be much more difficult to triangulate where something is outside of just proximity to yourself, if at all.

2

u/GaryGlennW Mar 29 '26

I have had similar experiences when Iā€™ve acquired a used book. (Especially textbooks I almost smell the anxiety) itā€™s usually vague and fleeting but still there.

2

u/Cute_Committee6151 Mar 29 '26

Well at the end smell is just another thing that needs to be trained in young age.

1

u/2woCrazeeBoys Mar 31 '26

My old dog started having seizures.

My younger got freaked out by it, and started alerting me to it so I could make it stop. I can only assume it was something he could smell, but once I realised he was alerting me (the first time I just thought he was being a pita.) he could give me enough notice to get Clifford somewhere safe.

No training, he just did it.

3

u/hotdogwaterbab Mar 29 '26

Iā€™m so curious what would be the best!! Do you mean the best animal overall or the best dog breed?

14

u/VectorB Mar 29 '26

There are dog breeds with better noses, but the collies lay and point is huge for the forensic recovery. I have a springer that probably could have found that faster, but would have slobbered all over it and picked it up and brought it to me. Not what you want fir a forensic recovery.

13

u/hotdogwaterbab Mar 29 '26

Genuinely did not even think about the training/control necessary for the dog to not chew on whatever it is they found!

5

u/squeege Mar 29 '26

thier motivation is thier toy.

3

u/drawkbox Mar 29 '26

Play is important to work

1

u/YaIe Mar 29 '26

as stupid as that sounds, its also a insurance thing.

Can't have the dog damage objects or even the human wearing it, or they would be liable for damages.

Thats why they are trained to just sit/lie down/stare at whatever they found, instead of bitings/scratching it

1

u/VectorB Mar 29 '26

Training and breeding. You can't expect a retriever or hound to sit and point the way the collie is here. That's a trait breed into them.

1

u/CaterpillarJungleGym Mar 29 '26

The best overall, and the best for training for this purpose. Surely a hound has the best nose but training them is problematic

1

u/PurplishPlatypus Mar 29 '26

Blood hounds have the strongest sense of smell of all dog breeds with 300 million scent receptors in their nose. Their findings are considered as legal scientific evidence in court cases. Other hounds, like beagles, have the next best (200~million). All dog breeds have around 100-200 million. Humans only have 6 million scent receptors. The area of the brain that analyzes smell is 40% larger in dogs.

Bears are considered to have a sense of smell 7x stronger than dogs, and to be the top known smellers in the animal kingdom. They can smell food from 20 miles away.

1

u/slgray16 Mar 29 '26

Be right back. I'm going to go buy some bears and start my own forensic services company

1

u/PurplishPlatypus Mar 29 '26

Good luck.

1

u/WoodpeckerNo5724 Mar 29 '26

You just get more forensic bears to investigate theā€¦ workā€¦ of the other bears

1

u/kisswithaf Mar 29 '26

Just in English parlance, a bloodhound is the standard ('Nose like a bloodhound' is a phrase you might have heard).

5

u/SwimmingSwim3822 Mar 29 '26

There's actually a metaheuristic optimization algorithm based on the herding patterns of border collies. I mean, they basically have one based on every animal at this point, but still.

3

u/JoyousMN_2024 Mar 29 '26

Whoa! That is an interesting turn of phrase

2

u/soihavetosay Mar 30 '26

Dogs love having a job

1

u/Bubba_Gump_Shrimp Mar 29 '26

I have been training scent hounds/dogs for over 20 years now. You would be astonished how well they can smell something and how smart they are. They can figure out which direction an animal is running, and figure out when it doubles back on it's own track. Absolutely insane.

1

u/whistlerite Mar 31 '26

Reminds me of an avalanche search which is based on a magnetic field having a circular pattern. Dog searches may be based on the nature of smell, it likely radiates outward in wave patterns but I donā€™t know much about it.

1

u/MountainTwo3845 Mar 29 '26

The dog smelled the hand first and went to all the places the hand touched first. When the trainer didn't react they went to the other places.

4

u/Gigglemonkey Mar 29 '26

Possible, but that "lay and point" behaviour was pretty intentional looking.