Border collies are the true obsessives of the animal world, they move from one addiction to another, always seeking outlets for their powerful drive and need to work. Most of the addictions focus on work, some on light and movement, to which they are extraordinarily sensitive. Fate is a true obsessive, and she has just discovered a new addiction: hunting. The other day, on our work, she discovered mice and chipmunks scurrying around in the meadow grass. She lit up instantly and now she hops and jumps and tears through the meadow grass  hoping to flush out more mice and chipmunks. She doesn’t catch and eat them – border collies have had the extreme hunting and killing stages of the prey drive bred out of them.

She just loves to find them and chase them. like all border collie obsessions, this one has to be managed. If you completely succumb to it, you will never see the end of it. She gets five minutes a walk, no more, then back on the leash.