Just How Smart Are Border Collies?

If you’ve ever seen a Border Collie on the move, you can appreciate this breed’s beauty, athleticism, and speed. But the Border Collie’s claim to fame goes beyond their good looks — the Border Collie’s intelligence is unmatched. Just how smart are Border Collies? Read on to learn all about Border Collie intelligence, including the most intelligent Border Collie who ever lived.

TL;DR: Border Collies are considered the most intelligent dog breed due to their exceptional working intelligence, problem-solving abilities, and capacity to learn new commands in fewer than five repetitions.

The Border Collie breed

The Border Collie is universally considered the most intelligent dog breed. Chaser, the most well-studied example of canine intelligence to date, learned the names of more than 1,000 objects, knew both nouns and verbs, and understood the concept of categories. But what exactly makes the Border Collie so smart?

Border Collie intelligence can be explained by examining the breed’s original purpose: Border Collies were developed in the highlands that border Scotland and England, where they were indispensable sheep herders. Historically, they were bred almost entirely for herding ability (and with that, intelligence), with much less emphasis on color, ear set, coat length, and other physical traits. Prioritizing their working ability and intelligence led to smarter, faster, more effective herding dogs.

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Are Border Collies smart?

Yes, Border Collies are smart, but how do we know how smart they are? Intelligence is complicated to define, especially in a completely different species. When most people think of a “smart dog,” they think of dogs who can learn a lot of commands and perform them when asked. That is what we call obedience, but obedience is just one type of intelligence. According to Stanley Coren, author of The Intelligence of Dogs, the three main types of canine intelligence include:

• Instinctive intelligence (innate skills the dog is born with, such as herding)

• Working and obedience intelligence (the ability to learn and perform commands)

• Adaptive intelligence (how to solve problems and learn from past experiences)

Although not included in Dr. Coren’s original intelligence categories, other canine researchers point to high social intelligence (reading human body language, facial expressions, tone, and other cues) as closely related to overall intelligence.

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Are Border Collies smarter than human children?

When trying to figure out Border Collie intelligence, it can help to compare their cognitive abilities to what humans can do. Dr. Coren estimated that most smart dogs have learning abilities on par with a two to two-and-a-half-year-old human child. Coren has said that Chaser, who understood more than 1,000 words, had a vocabulary-learning ability similar to that of a three-year-old child.

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With the right approach, many Border Collies are capable of achieving impressive intellectual feats. Most pet parents can’t provide the level or intensity of teaching that Chaser received — his pet parent, Dr. John W. Pilley, was a retired psychologist and scientist who wanted to explore the limits of the canine brain by teaching his dog human language. Dr. Pilley spent countless hours working with Chaser, eventually teaming up with a colleague. Together, they published two ground-breaking studies on their work with Chaser, deepening our scientific understanding of canine intelligence.

That said, with training and persistence, your average Border Collie can potentially learn:

• The unique names of hundreds of different objects

• To categorize objects (balls, ropes, bones, and so on)

• To pair verbs with nouns (find ball)

• Complex commands that involve sequences and multiple steps

• To sort or match objects

• To open and close doors or cabinets

• To operate switches that turn things on and off

If you have a Border Collie, spending a lot of time teaching them impressive skills is more than just a fun pastime — it will lead to a happier, more balanced dog. Border Collies are intensely driven to work. This is what has made the breed so great at their historical job of herding, an activity that burns a lot of physical energy and brain power.

When pet Border Collies don’t have a job to do, they can become restless, frustrated, anxious, unhappy, and even destructive. Their Ferrari bodies and brains need large amounts of daily, vigorous exercise, as well as intellectual challenges. The more a Border Collie moves, works, and learns, the happier they will be. Practice known skills daily, and work on teaching new skills as frequently as possible.

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How smart are Border Collies compared to other dog breeds?

Many herding breeds share the trait of high intelligence. This is because successfully herding livestock requires a high level of cognitive skills. Herding dogs must quickly assess what the herd is doing by observing their body movement and behavior. They need to recognize patterns to help them anticipate which direction the herd will move. They need to think and act quickly to stop or move animals using their own bodies and behavior.

Herding dogs like Border Collies must be able to solve problems independently, especially when they are far away from a shepherd. But they also need to watch their human partner and respond to their cues. Being able to do both — act independently and listen to their human handler — indicates “cooperative intelligence” and is a hallmark of a highly intelligent dog. Add in the extreme focus and drive found in Border Collies, and you can see just how they developed complex thinking skills.

Border Collie intelligence is considered the highest of all breeds, but other super-smart herding breeds include the Australian Shepherd, Australian Cattle Dog, Belgian Malinois, and German Shepherd Dog. Interestingly, the breed who’s widely considered to be the second smartest after the Border Collie is not a herding breed, but the Poodle.

Commonly asked questions

What breed of dog has the highest IQ?

The Border Collie would theoretically be the breed of dog with the highest IQ, if dogs used the same system we use for human intelligence. Although dogs don’t have IQ numbers, you can determine an equivalent type of intelligence in dogs by assessing what the dog can learn and do.

How smart are Border Collies compared to humans?

Compared to humans, Border Collies are thought to have similar cognitive abilities as a two- to three-year-old child. The smartest dog who ever lived, a Border Collie named Chaser, knew more than 1,000 words and could understand simple sentences.

References

Cooper, Anderson. “The Smartest Dog in the World.” Cbsnews.com, 5 Oct. 2014, www.cbsnews.com/news/the-smartest-dog-in-the-world.

Fugazza, C., et al. “A Comparison of Personality Traits of Gifted Word Learner and Typical Border Collies.” Animal Cognition, vol. 25, Aug. 2022, doi.org/10.1007/s10071-022-01657-x.

‌“Harvard Researcher Finds Canine Brains Vary Based on Breed.” Harvard Gazette, 3 Sept. 2019, news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/09/harvard-researcher-finds-canine-brains-vary-based-on-breed.

‌“Memory and Intelligence in Border Collies – Pup Catch-Up.” Dickinson.edu, 2022, blogs.dickinson.edu/mansbestfriend/2022/09/22/memory-and-intelligence-in-border-collies.

Nosowitz, Dan. “I Met the World’s Smartest Dog.” Popular Science, 26 Aug. 2013, www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-07/i-met-worlds-smartest-dog.

‌“Pet Intelligence Can Be Proven Using Data on Human Infants, Says CU-Boulder Sociologist.” CU Boulder Today, 18 July 2004, www.colorado.edu/today/2004/07/18/pet-intelligence-can-be-proven-using-data-human-infants-says-cu-boulder-sociologist.

“Smartest Dog in the World, Chaser the Dog, Chaser the Border Collie.” Smartest Dog in the World, Chaser, the Dog with the Largest Language Learning in the World, Chaser, Dog with Largest Scientific Language Learning in the World, Chaser the Dog, Chaser the Border Collie, www.chaserthebc.com/the-research.