The smartest dog breed in the world — loved by Robert Burns and Queen Victoria
From the Border hills to Burns Night, the border collie remains what it has always been: an ancient working dog of extraordinary intelligence and loyalty.
Today is Burns Night, a celebration of the life and poetry of Robert Burns, and naturally I wanted to know whether Scotland’s national bard was a dog person. He was — emphatically — and he wrote about dogs with a tear-inducing tenderness.
I should also admit that I have a soft spot for border collies. My first fully formed dog memories are of Holly, my aunt and uncle’s border collie — though her loyalty, frankly, belonged to my Aunt Juliet and Juliet alone. They lived in Alnwick, Northumberland — famous for its castle, wide beaches and big skies, and not too far from the Border country where the breed takes its name.
Even now, Holly stands out as one of the smartest, most impressive and best-behaved dogs I have ever known. When I asked my family for their memories, they echoed mine: clever, loyal and endlessly energetic. My dad recalls the most memorable story — impressive or traumatic, I’m still not sure — involving Holly being hunted down by a black Labrador from a farm seven miles away and… well, you can guess the rest. That is how we ended up with our first dog: a chocolate lab–collie cross puppy called Shankly. The deal was that we could take a puppy home, but my dad — a vehement Liverpool fan — got naming rights. The poor girl was misgendered her entire life.
Robert Burns’s beloved dog was Luath — ‘swift’ in Gaelic — and Burns’s brother, Gilbert, recorded that Luath was killed by ‘wanton cruelty’ the night before their father died. Devastated, Burns gave his dog the only immortality he could: he wrote ‘The Twa Dogs’, a brilliant poem in which Luath (a working collie) and Caesar (a pampered pet) chat their way through the absurdities of class, comfort and hardship. It is funny, political and deeply kind — and captures that feeling that dogs are not just animals, but companions, and sometimes strangely human ones.
Queen Victoria first encountered border collies at Balmoral and swiftly fell for them. She kept several during her reign, including Sharp, a smooth-coated collie who became her constant companion, and later Noble, a striking tricolour.
The breed’s story begins on the Anglo–Scottish border, shaped by shepherds who needed a dog with stamina, judgement and that famous ‘eye’ — the silent, laser-focused stare that moves sheep as effectively as any shout. By the late 1800s, one dog in particular changed everything: Old Hemp, born in Northumberland in 1893, worked so calmly and efficiently that he became the blueprint for generations to come.
Not all border collies are built quite the same, either. During the 20th century, four distinct ‘types’ emerged: the Old Hemp type — the original — medium-sized, lightly marked and intensely capable; the Wiston Cap dogs, bigger, bolder and more generously white-trimmed; the Nap type — smooth-coated, fast and powerful — which found a natural home on vast American ranches; and the Herdman’s Tommy line, strong, good-natured and quietly formidable.
If you need more proof that border collies are operating on a slightly different setting to the rest of us, the roll call is absurd. Chaser became famous for learning more than 1,000 words; Rico was studied for recognising hundreds of objects; and Harvey was dubbed Britain’s ‘brightest dog’ for identifying more than 200 toys and even understanding Dutch. It is fair to say they may be the most intelligent of all breeds — and would most likely put my dachshunds to shame.
Crazy about collies? Read Matthew Dennison’s round-up of the devotees who share their lives with these wonderful working dogs.
