Border Collies are whip smart. They may not understand what the seeds are for, but they certainly understand that they are spreading those "little things". They also understand that they are Doing An Important Job, which is /raison d'etre/ for a Border Collie.

Looking through the pictures in the article, I see what in my opinion are happy relaxed dogs. Which if you've ever spent time around a bored or poorly trained Border Collie, you'll know is pretty much impossible. For those of you who haven't spent much time around these dogs, they get very anxious and neurotic if they don't have a job to do. Whether it's herding sheep or spreading tree seeds, Border Collies must have a complex demanding task to perform every day.

Dogs will run through gaps drones couldn't dream of, and go through underbrush where a drone simply couldn't go. They can carry a much larger payload, longer. The distribution pattern will probably be more random, which is appropriate for a natural environment.

Versus human power? I know some people who could probably knock out 30km in a day, over very rough terrain, at altitude. Only one or two, though. I doubt they could do it every day, or even a few times a week.

It would be hard to scale, though. While I think I might enjoy attempting to teach hundreds of BCs to go on a hike with me, I'm not sure it's practical.

I can see a battle for jobs developing, between border collies and drones. Just as the fledgling drone industry was starting to take off.

What ? Then why not put the seeds on the dog's tail ? (I am a bit suspicious of that number seeing how the masters seem to always be nearby the dogs on the photos).

Couldn't a low altitude drone be even more efficient ?

I suspect a strong correlation between being able to take a photo of the dog and being near the dog.

> (I am a bit suspicious of that number seeing how the masters seem to always be nearby the dogs on the photos).

If they were far, it'd be hard to take their photo in a dense forest, no?

> Couldn't a low altitude drone be even more efficient ?

You'd need a dozen batteries to fly for a few hours, plus open areas to start/finish each flight, someone who knows how to operate one safely, etc.

It's from the adage: when a man walks one mile, his dog runs three miles around him and the tail traveled nine miles around them.

Border Collies can be easily taught to make broad sweeps left/right and circle back, so it's really the area around the trajectory of their master that gets covered.

You need the shortcoat type for this as our one would finish the day with all the seed stuck in his own fur.

Small drones have a pathetic battery runtime compared to a dog. Big drones aka planes are very expensive to run.

I really wonder what they're referring to here. Obviously a trail runner can cover far more than that distance, even wearing the same kind of seed-scattering harness.

Are they comparing the distance someone could cover planting seeds by hand?