If you own two border collies, and sometimes take them out to work sheep (Good news for Red and Fate: Maria is getting another ewe, she is a Romney and her name is Izzy), then you will often have two dogs lying around you, waiting and watching eagerly. Whether you are sitting and reading, mowing the lawn, watering the garden, taking out the garbage.

There will always be two dogs following you around, waiting eagerly. They ever lose hope, give up faith, get distracted. The will sit by the gate and watch you all day long. Once or twice a day is perfectly fine for them, they’ll sit and stare hopefully anyway, no pouting or acting out if they don’t get the way all the time.

To have a border collie, you have to get use to a behavior that can be seen as annoying by some. You have to smile at it, love it, appreciate it and get used to it.
I’ve had border collies sitting around staring at me for more than a decade, and if there isn’t a dog sitting by the gate hoping to lure me over there, I feel queasy and uncomfortable, as if something is missing. Red just sits by the gate quietly, Fate keeps coming over and dashing towards the gate, as if she knows I am really planning to come and can be persuaded to get to the real work. Eternal optimists are border collies.