To keep a McNab Dog, or any other herding dog, mentally stimulated in an urban environment, you need to get a few things worked out. This is a solid rule for any dog, but especially for a herding dog.
They need to know the lay of the land. I have seen this sort of thing with Lettie before him, and Rack knows where he is at any given moment. We would get out onto the walk and I would stop and say "Lets go home!". At that point, I would be led by my dog to my front door. The walks are as much as two miles (3Km) at one go, and we have four walks per day. It gives them plenty of room to explore, to meet favorite people and favorite dogs, and there will be lots of sniffing.
They have always known how to get to the front door.
For the first few years, we purposely would go out on our walks and try to get our dogs "lost". It never worked, they would always lead us to the house. Smiling the whole way.
Trust me on this one, this is why we have a dog. Never mind that some people would cross the street to stay away from someone with their dog - those are the ones you don't want to run into anyway! Companionship and protection. After all, they don't know that my dogs have always been trained to be in any situation, and to be friendly at the very minimum.
While they are out, they are engaged in Dog Enrichment. Keeping them aware, letting them free think, let them apply their own version of Dog Logic to any given situation.
Rack is old. 15 years old. In dog years, that's ancient. He's learned the lay of the land. That is why this is so strange. Getting to the middle of the walk, we would normally head through the central business district of our town. Lots of friendly people, lots of things to see.
We stopped. Hard. Then Rack decided to do a Hard No and turn around the way we came. It wasn't weather conditions. He's old enough that when he can hear, it is a Hearing Day, as he is mostly deaf now.
It wasn't that there were any trash trucks nearby, except the rolling dumpster of a Cybertruck which says more about the owner's bad decisions than the noise levels around us.
Rack is the same dog that once had a trash truck ahead of him, and pancaked on the sidewalk because there was another one coming around the corner behind him and he couldn't escape the noisy beasts.
This was just a Nope, I Am Not Doing This moment.
So we turned around and walked back home. No thunder, no rain, no angry barking anywhere behind us. One of those mysteries that has us repeating "Well, this is new!" and following behind.
Who knows what lurks inside that little furry head. We passed by some of his favorite people that he had just passed on the way down there. He saw them, gave a wag or two, and walked right past. I had to say to the people "He's on a Mission!" and continued on to his intended destination.
Hard to know. Our vet has told us that he has active tumors. She doesn't know how he's still going on his Bonus Years as we call them. I insist it is nutrition and exercise - I'm something of a trainer in two sports so I'm a bit of a force of nature myself.
I'm really just thankful that he's doing as well as he has been.
He is also recovering from a bout of pancreatitis. It exposed his weakening. He's now losing muscle strength and mass. He's spending most of the day laying flat out on the cool tiles in the house, and having trouble getting up. It's a part of being on the trailing edge of the bell curve of how long a dog can last. Or so we understand. Whatever his infirmities are, he's in something of a remission this week. It could change overnight, who knows.
As I explain to everyone, Rack Leads. We go where he wants. We watch what he needs and cater to them. It has always been that way with him, that way with Lettie before him. Once they learn where they are I simply Trust In Dog.
I would do it all over again.
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