Border Collie Puts TikTok Dancers To Shame with Fiery On-Point Moves

I often regret the fact that my truly beautiful Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever lived in the days before “pet influencers.” She was gorgeous, gregarious, winning, and would do an entire catalog of tricks for a simple sliced carrot. I’m telling you, if there’d been a TikTok in the teens, we’d have been all over it.

But she never learned to dance, unlike the Border Collie in this adorable video.

In this clip, a beautiful black and white Border Collie is showing up two professional dancers: Montana Tucker and Roni Sagi. But the dog is a pro too, as people across the country are learning on America’s Got Talent.

Related: Border Collies Dancing to 'Thriller' Is Halloween at Its Best

Rhythm is a remarkable talent, who was trained by dancer mom Sagi to move along with her. Now the two perform as a dance team in competitions and on television for legions of admiring fans and aspiring canine performers too.

In the video, Rhythm shows off some fancy footwork alongside the two other dancers, and makes it look easy. The move has become something of his signature, strutting forward with his legs crossing each other. It’s called the “model walk.”

Sagi claims that when she choreographs their numbers together, her intention is to make her dog the start of the show. “We are a team, but if we finish the routine and people aren’t looking at him like he is the star, I didn’t do something right,” she told The Los Angeles Times.

Border Collies: The Smart, Quick Dog

Border Collies are among the most intelligent dog breeds. Bred for herding, the dogs are filled with energy and adore learning complicated training routines, commands, and tricks. Anyone who has a Border Collie knows that if you don’t take the time to properly exercise and enrich your pup’s life, they may turn to mischievous or even destructive behavior to satisfy their curious minds and powerful drive to work.

This is why Border Collies make such excellent participants in sports like Agility, Flyball, Disc, and other canine activities. Border Collies are among the most popular of herding dogs, particularly in complex herding situations and herding competitions. But even if your Border Collie is more of a couch potato, you can still make their day by buying them puzzle toys or teaching them to run obstacle courses with you at home. I have a friend whose Border Collie adores watching television—especially any program featuring a dog or a wolf.

How to Teach Your Dog To Dance

Dog dancing is also known as “Canine Freestyle” and teams like Roni and Rhythm make it look a lot easier than it is. The activity is growing in popularity with intelligent, high energy breeds like Border Collies, as it takes advantage of their natural skills and propensity. Like all other sports and routines, it’s best taught to dogs through positive reinforcement, audio cues, and hand motions. Some popular tricks for dancing dogs include leg kicks, backing around in a circle, leg weaving, and performance heeling.

Best of all, it provides a remarkable opportunity to bond with your dog, and it’s clear from watching these two dance, and Rhythm’s joyful leap into his mom’s arms at the end, that their love is strong.

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