I sometimes think if dogs could talk, we wouldn’t love them nearly as much.

We love to think of our dogs as partners, but the truth is they are completely dependent on us for survival in our world.  A partner is just that, not a dependent. Dogs are dependents in every since of the word.

We destroy countless animal species on the earth without a thought, dogs are one of the very few animals to not only survive us, but to manipulate us into lavishing the most care and money any animal in the world receives.

The worst disservice we do dogs is to not think about how to get one.

Some people believe there is only one way to get a dog: to rescue one. Some get a dog because they seem cute or they saw one they like in a movie.

Others will only get a dog from a breeder and many people balk at the idea of paying for a dog as all, after all, they aren’t as important or valuable as a TV, microwave or smart phone, things we happily pay a lot of money for.

The poor dogs, what fighting chance do they, living among so many people with no values and lazy instincts. Lots of people are buying border collies because of their rep as the smartest breed of dogs. We all want to have the smartest children, why not the smartest dog?

Once again, dogs pay for our thoughtlessness when it comes to choosing them.

Border collies are among the most abused, returned,  and abandoned of dog breeds. Why? Because they are often too smart for the good of the people who get them so mindlessly. And they have all sorts of skills most people don’t want or need.

A half-century ago, psychologists doing work studies made a significant discovery. They found that high intelligence can often be a handicap among workers, especially where work is  repetitive, broken up with periods of inactivity, or just slow and without challenge or different speeds.

Psychologists know that individuals with high intelligence require more stimulation, more challenge, and more varied and diverse activity. They easily become bored and inattentive,  and when they do, they can become disoriented, angry and self-destructive. They make their own work.

The same thing is true of dogs. Everyone wants their dog to be brilliant, but if you don’t have sheep or land or a lot of agility equipment, they can make awful pets.

Bright dogs often do badly in environments where less gifted animals thrive.

When I get a dog, I try to match the dog’s characteristics to my own needs and requirements. Getting a dog is not a crapshoot for me, I want to think about it and do some homework. I have a great place for a border collie (or a Boston Terrier, it seems). I have sheep, acres of pasture, I’m surrounded by woods, I’m home all day. When he dogs aren’t herding sheep, they doing therapy work.

There is a lot to and a lot happening. If I wanted to hunt or complete at the highest level of dog obedience, I’d get one kind of dog (not a Boston Terrier) and if I wanted a dog to hang around the house all day and be quiet, I’d get another.

Fate knows when I step into my boots that we’re going into the pasture, she is a scholar of my shoes and Maria’s boots.

She also comes up and stares at me or Maria about 100 times a day hoping for work, even if she just had some. We are used to that, it would drive many people bonkers.

My Lab Lenore, who was quite loving, but not on the brightest side of her breed, was happy to lie on my study sofa for hours, she never made a sound or stirred if I got  up to answer the phone. (Every time I get up for any reason, Red and Fate and Bud are up and at the door, ready to go.  This could irritate some people, it sometimes annoys me.)

Most of the behavioral questions I get on my radio show Talking To Animals (Wednesday, one to three p.m. WBTNAM1370) come from people with smart dogs – Doberman pinschers, Border Collies, Australian Shepherds, Labs, poodles, German Shepherds –  who often learn too many things too well.

Fate opens doors, turns knobs in her teeth, opens kitchen cabinets for biscuits.

We often look out to see her lying  by the pasture gate with no idea how she got there or when. Lenore would never have done that in a million years. Bud jumped out of a car window when he got excited at the town dump.

Lenore would never have done that either. Neither would any Bassett Hound.

Fate studies us like a graduate student looking for a Phd.

She knows exactly when we are going out, and seems to know when to run to the car and when to run to the pasture. She knows if we are going to the dump or to the post office or heading to the woods for a walk. And she knows for sure when food is left to close to the front of the counter.

Any trainer will tell you that the dogs with the most problems are the really smart ones that people are so anxious to have, until they get one.

I’ll talk more about this on my radio show this coming Wednesday ( 802 442 – 1010 or 866 – 406 9286).

Getting a dog is such an important step, this is one of the things it is wise to think about. Do you really want a smart dog?