Those clever collies

We know dogs are smart; we've seen the TV clips about the border collie who could identify up to 1000 items.
Any farmer who uses dogs will tell you how smart they are.
But it is not just their ability to learn, it is their ability to anticipate.
Sheepdogs do it by second-guessing the moves of a sheep, reading each tiny movement of a limb, or the inclination of a head, to try out-think their quarry.
Our collie Tui is proving day by day how smart she is, though she is anything but trained in the way a sheepdog is.
Tui's proving it with a frisbee. At first, her attempts at trying to catch a frisbee were poor.
How that has changed.
But first you have to realise there are many ways to throw a frisbee.
Only frisbee experts can really direct a frisbee's path.
I'm no expert, but I do know that you can alter the flight of a frisbee by releasing it earlier, or later, or by changing the angle of release.
A frisbee released late, with the arm nearly straight, is more likely to fly in a direct line from the body and then glide to earth.
One thrown with an arm slightly crooked may fly high and then, without warning, drop sharply.
I know that because I have thrown a frisbee a thousand times.
Tui know it, too.
She knows it because she has learned to watch its path closely in flight, while running, and putting herself into a position to snatch it from the air mid-flight.
In short, she is anticipating the frisbee's flight.
That's smart.
I've seen experienced cricketers who often forget that a ball cut or pulled, when it pitches, may spin away from its aerial path.
Fielder after experienced fielder has been left grabbing mid air as the spinning ball hits the grass, grips, and changes directions.
Some fielders never seen to learn that - and they've probably been told time after time by frustrated bowlers as yet another one rolls to the boundary.
Yet a dog, albeit a collie, without coaching, can work such things out.
Tui, no matter which direction I send the frisbee, will take most frisbees mid-flight.
She probably gets 18 out of 20.
That's not bad. No coaching. No training. Just a sharp brain working out angles.
And she doesn't watch the frisbee from the hand, as a batsman might from a bowler's hand; she is usually running at the pointr of release, leaving her less time to work out whether the frisbee will dip, veer left or right, or soar up before sliding back.
But if you think that's smart, I'll tell you soon about another dog's trick.
Yep, another collie, the late, lamented Rosie.
Anyway, below is Tui the super frisbee catcher in a quieter moment.
Cute, eh?