Border collies are renowned for their intelligence, I think this is sometimes overblown. The border collies I know and love have been brilliant about the things they want and need to be brilliant about and not so smart about some other things.

Until Fate, Rose, a border collie, was the smartest dog I had ever lived with.

That is, she was smart about work, but she tried to herd the town snowplows into the pasture if they had diesel engines, endangering herself more than once. She would work herself to death if not stopped.

Rose thought the trucks were sheep. That isn’t exactly my idea of genius. And I believe Rose was awfully smart.

She understood work and made fast and good decisions. One reason working dogs are often considered smart is that they get to make a lot of decisions, unlike most domesticated dogs.

Fate is the smartest dog I have ever known.  A purebred gift from Karen Thompson, she is a purebred bc from  Wales. Her intelligence shows itself in the decisions she has learned to make.

I’ve read about animal intelligence and studied it for years. It is, I think the most challenging and complex thing about understanding dogs and writing about them. The best books I’ve read about the intelligence of dogs were written by psychologist Stanley Koren (The Intelligence Of Dogs)  and primatologist Frans De Wall (Mama’s Last Hug).

Most people, when asked to be specific about what they mean by intelligence when speaking of dogs, have no precise idea of what the concept actually means. What are the limits of intelligence in dogs? How does intelligence influence or organize behavior?

“Isn’t it to be expected,” asks De Wall, “that each animal has its own mental life, it’s own intelligence and emotions, adapted to its own senses and natural history?”

De Wall had worked with a chimpanzee named Mama for years when she was dying, he came to say goodbye, and she screamed with happiness when he appeared and gave him a long and emotional hug goodbye. In a video, Mama clearly knew who he was and why he was there.

The hard part about evaluating a dog’s intelligence is our love for them. People emotionalize dogs so intently that they can’t see them objectively. Everyone thinks their dogs are great, and if they are not great, then they must have been abused.

DeWall and others have often pointed out that the smartest dogs are quite often not the best dogs for us to have.

I love Red to death, but his greatness comes from the fact that he is simple and focused, he is not curious about the wider world or other dogs or food on the counter. Fate is intensely curious and easily distracted.  I wouldn’t say Red is dumb, but he is not as smart as Fate, who is quite often a pain in the ass.

I measure the intelligence of my dogs by how well they adapt to their environment.  Do they grasp dangers like roads and traffic? How quickly do they learn? So they watch us close, as Fate does when she tilts her head, to listen to our words and grasp their meaning.

My Lab Lenore was a wonderful dog, but she only paid close to attention to food and people who fed her.

She was loving and sweet but she wasn’t especially interested in the wider world unless a rabbit hopped out in front of her, or she came across a hamburger wrapper. When Fate rides with us in the car, she is tuned into everything that is happening around her, when we get to familiar places, she starts whining and wagging her tail a mile or so away.

When I put on my boots, she runs to the door. If I have street shoes on, she watches and sits still. When we leave the house, she watches my face to see if I’m heading to the car or the pasture and moves accordingly.

She has a keen and piercing awareness of the world around her. She reads intentions and anticipates commands.

She does know an awful lot of words, especially if any of them have to do with walks, food, sheep or work.

She loves to be with sheep, and run near sheep, she doesn’t care to herd sheep or give them any commands. I think she doesn’t see the percentage in it, and she doesn’t take risks.

She has become Maria’s dog, although she and I are close and connected.

Fate selectively raids kitchen counters when we are not at home, even when we are sure we have put the food out of reach. That is not a concept she completely understands, although she knows we don’t want her to do it.

When she steals food, she’s like one of those elegant jewel thieves in Hollywood movies, there is no trace of her or her movements. She takes only what is valuable and what she wants, she harms or dislodges nothing else.

I remember putting two sausages on the stove to defrost, putting a pan, a pot, and some heavy bowls in front of the sausages to protect them.

When we got home, the sausages were gone, nothing had been moved, I was convinced for awhile I had forgotten to take them out to thaw. But I never did find them. She will climb on a table if a bag of treats is there, being careful not to move or damage anything else.

Maria can rouse Fate out of a deep sleep by whispering to me, “let’s go feed the animals. Before we can move Fate will be at the door.

She has opened doors and gotten out, only to sit by the pasture fence and wait to be let in with the sheep. Quite often we can’t imagine how she did. I often joke that I hope she never gets ahold of tools.

Her long tongue and amazing stamina  – she even has a grin – tell us she is having fun being Fate. She knows just how far to push without getting into trouble.

She and Maria adore each other and Fate has mastered the art of being in Maria’s studio while taking care to stay off of her quilts. She can hear our car engines from far off.

The two of them take long and leisurely walks in the woods. Once in awhile, Maria has gotten lost, and she just tells Fate to take them home, and she does.

She is crazy about people and has begun training as a therapy dog. She is grasping the point of therapy work, she is responsive to commands (except get out of the pasture) has never had an accident in the house and is reliably affectionate.  She isn’t crazy about other dogs but loves every person that she sees.

So she’s my smart dog, I’d love to see some images and read some words about your smart dogs. Unfortunately, the only platform that I can use for this is my Facebook Page, please put your images there, and thank you.