My border collie is about 13 years old. She started life as a farm dog but failed her sheepdog training, and we adopted her aged three. She lived outdoors in a kennel before we took her, and stayed in our large, secure garden for a while after, with a kennel. Once I had become convinced she was biddable, she moved indoors and has been the more wonderful family pet since. She's the most chilled border collie I've ever met, and is snoring at my feet even as I write.
When she lived outdoors she was a bit of a bugger for digging, especially if she had a bone. She loved to bury them till nicely rancid and I had to move a large houseplant out of the hall because she tried to bury stuff in the pot. She doesn't have much opportunity to dig now, (we moved house, garden is tiny and insecure) but she used to scrape quite a bit at the kitchen lino when she was coming into season. This hasn't happened very often, she was about 5 when she first came into heat and it's maybe happened five or six times since, not at all this year.
For the last three or four days, she's been spending a lot of time "digging" in the livingroom. There's no sign that she's coming into season, but, given her age, might there be some other hormonal connection?
My other thought is that she's a little stiff in her left shoulder, and it seems to be the left paw that she uses most often in her carpet-digging activities. Might she be exercising it to loosen it off?
I think a checkup at the vet is probably in order, but thought I'd ask the wonder that is MN first.