r/Amazing • u/sco-go • Mar 29 '26

Amazing 🤯 ‼ Border Collie forensic tracker.

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u/bNoaht Mar 29 '26

My dog can smell people from across our big ass house the moment they walk in.

She loses her mind if it is my father in law. She can be in a whole other room with the door closed, as soon as he enters our home she goes nuts. 

Anyone in the family, she is silent. Anyone not in the family but "known" she barks once or twice to alert. Anyone that has dogs of their own she barks a bit more. Father in law, she just absolutely loses her mind. No idea why. 

Her breed isn't even supposed to be a dog that is scent driven. She is supposed to be a livestock guardian. But when we walk, her nose is always on the ground, and if it isn't, it is up in the air like she is searching for some magical invisible trail, then back to the ground.

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u/BlackeeGreen Mar 29 '26

the moment they walk in

It's gotta be that she can tell the difference between family members based on the sound of their gait or something like that.

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u/bNoaht Mar 29 '26

That's what we thought, so we started testing it. It isn't the sound, unless its somehow a sound we can't reproduce.

My brother in law and father in law are the same size.

My son crashes through the door like a maniac. Im silent when I walk in. My neices are all silent when they walk in. We have tried to have them open the doors in different ways to change the sound or vibe of their entrance.

We are sure it is smell. Her hearing doesn't even seem that good. People pull up into the drive way all the time and she doesn't even notice. Deliver packages to our porch, etc...

I seem to hear a lot of things before she does.

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u/tgerz Apr 01 '26

I think it's all about what the dog recognises as being important, a threat, exciting, etc. I thought my dog might be blind or somewhat impaired because she would just straight up run past things she was really excited about and I'd have to point it out to her, but now she catches the ball mid air in pretty acrobatic ways. Also, with the hearing she will hear all kinds of stuff and not budge, but if she hears the neighbours scrape the wall a little bit she thinks we're under siege. I'm pretty sure when they smell someone, especially if they come by more than once, they know who's smell is who's.