Border Collies are acknowledged to be the most intelligent of all breeds of dogs.  They learn very quickly (sometimes in a matter of minutes), they thrive on a challenge and strive to be an integral part of the family...or pack. Many owners fail to bring their border collies into their full potential because they just don't realize the limitations they unknowingly are putting on them....they don't understand that this breed thrives on constant stimulation. Again we're not talking about a layed back snoozing canine here, but a vibrant animal with an absolute luminous intellect and insatiable appetite for learning that needs to be continually challanged with stimulation....they must LEARN and PERFORM at an intensity that many people don't realize or can't cope with. This is one of the main reasons that this magnificent animal ends up all too often in a shelter which to me is a heartbreaking travesty. The owner just didn't understand what was involved in taking a border collie into the home.

An interesting fact about the border collie has to do with  its' intense herding instinct. This is a trait that isn't natural to the dog and has been bred into it over the past 200 years or so. What most people don't realize, including many long time border collie owners, is that this herding instinct is simply a modified version of the wolf's killing instinct. This predatory, killing drive has been bred out of the BC over the years and in it's place has been installed the herding instinct. Much better for the sheep, don't you think?

They do though still retain the gathering and circling manner that is evidenced in wolf packs, along with that unblinking EXTREMELY intense stare ( called giving eye) that has taken the place of the actual physical nipping of sheep herding, although borders aren't hesitant to nip or bite if the herd dosn't obey the eye.

Still friends after a hard days work

Many people have border collies living with them as house dogs that have very strong herding instincts and they have problems with the dog herding everything from cars to kids. This can end up as a potentially huge problem if it's not channeled in the right direction because this herding instinct is just that....an instinct that is neither learned nor trainable. It's just there.  No method or amount of training will get rid of it. This is why the border collie makes such a wonderful Frisbee and fetching dog. Channeling this boundless herding energy and workaholic ethic that is evidenced in the breed have made them champions of many endeavors...Frisbee, obedience and agility being three that this canine excels at.

"Any of us who has owned a dog that has taken particular hold of our heart has dwelt on the unfairness of allocated time. It seems but an instant....and the puppy we so carefully carried home and placed on the rug by our bed has suddenly become a little dim of eye, a touch slow to get up in the morning, and more and more content to lay in some sunny spot and salute our passings-by with a turning of the head and wagging of the tail. Somehow even through the dozen or so dogs I've owned I never cease to be surprised and a little hurt to discover that today Tippy or Ben or Judy doesn't race to the door to go out but stands in the warmth of the kitchen and merely follows me with eyes and heart." Gene Hill, columnist and author  1928-1997

"In his grief over the loss of a dog, a little boy stands for the first time on tiptoe, peering into the rueful morrow of manhood. After this most inconsolable of sorrows there is nothing life can do to him that he will not be able somehow to bear." James Thurber Author and cartoonist   1894-1961

You have to try this game!  Become a Border Collie for a while.

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