Stevieo
Royal Spin Doctor
Border Collies are my favourite dog by a mile, I've had three now. Not pedigrees, in fact there wasn't even such a thing when I had my first one, but proper working style Collies. My first one came from a Welsh cattle farm and had a fantastic herding instinct. He'd often 'herd' bigger dogs by nipping their heels. Hardly ever went on the lead. We even went to Cambridge for the day and on arrival realised that we'd forgotten his lead and just didn't worry and headed off into the crowds, knowing that he'd be fine.
Same with that one - never used the lead for years. Only ever went to the same places in the same way, so never necessary. She liked it that way and so did I.
I'd have another. Only thing is, she wasn't really a very friendly deg. Quite happy to sit in her bed most of the time and keep her own counsel.
Had a staff/lab before that....daft as a brush but most definitely the friendliest deg you'd ever come across. Wouldn't leave my side, always squashing herself in anywhere I was, always lying on anything that belonged to me. Liked her a lot but never got much sense out of her. I'd have another of them too.
And another shepherd.
And another lab. Actually, the deg that came closest to being grouchy was the lab. Sometimes they can be toy proud/bone proud/food proud. My old man got it into his head that a man should be able to take a bone off his deg. The deg did such a good job of looking serious about it that he backed down in the end. If my deg growled at me over a bone, I'd leave the deg's fekkin bone alone. Same goes for if it growled at kids.
Here's a nice clip I found of labs being food proud. I particularly enjoyed seeing that dick get bitten. Not sure what that dog Kung Fu is all about. Plank.