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There are few sights more beautiful than watching a dog do the work it was bred to do. This is especially true for me when watching Border Collies herding sheep.
Last fall, my dogs and I headed out alone on a cross-country road trip from Portland, Oregon, to Ontario, Canada. On day two of the drive, I was navigating through the roads of Wyoming when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw sheep—a lot of sheep—on the move.
I looked closer and saw the undeniable black and white dart of fur. The sight of the dogs took my breath away and caused me to voice-to-text (safety first!) every dog person I knew. I’ve spent most of my life working with dogs, but never had I just been driving along and seen dogs working sheep like this.
Collie Calling
Dog trainer Barbara Lloyd, who has working Border Collies, confesses that she has a similar response to watching her dogs work sheep: “Sometimes I get so mesmerized by it that I forget to do my job as navigator.”
Truthfully, if I could have safely pulled over in Wyoming and watched those dogs work, I would gladly have done so. Border Collies are a perfect combination of physical athleticism and intelligence, which understandably makes them the breed of choice for farmers around the world and dog sports competitors alike. Lindsey Anne-Marie competes internationally with her Border Collies, including Road Runner, who won the Americas & Caribe Large Dog Championship and earned a spot on Team USA for the 2026 WAO (World Agility Open).
For Anne-Marie, there was no question that Border Collies were the breed she wanted as an agility partner as soon as she handled one. “I ran my first Border Collie at a local agility competition in 2017. Back then, I ran Golden Retrievers, so this dog didn’t belong to me. A friend was injured and asked me if I would like to run her dog. I didn’t hesitate to rise to the opportunity to run this really fast, well-trained dog. We qualified in our very first run together and by the end of the day, I didn’t want to give this dog back to its owner.”
What stood out to Anne-Marie was how adaptive the dog was, and soon she was bringing Border Collies home herself. “The Border Collie’s level of competitiveness and desire to do the sport of agility parallels mine. When I run agility with a Border Collie, I feel like we are working in tandem and running with the same enthusiasm,” she says.
The unique qualities that make Border Collies naturals for agility and other sports today are the same qualities that were perfected in them as herding dogs. Lloyd says, “They are also fearless on stock but super sensitive to their handlers—this is necessary for them to be able to defer to the handler. … Most of all, they are kind, honest loving dogs that want more than anything to herd stock for you.”
Precision, thoughtfulness, and handler focus are what bring everything together for Border Collies in everything they do. The tireless energy and constant thinking they demonstrate make them incredible working dogs, but also dogs who can easily get bored as pets if they don’t have appropriate physical and mental enrichment and exercise.
Dr. Patricia McConnell, a dog behaviorist and farm owner, has a forthcoming herding-focused novel, Away to Me, and explains that training Border Collies is a combination of both nature and nurture. For herding dogs, it is far more complicated than just responding to cues.
“‘Good’ training is not so much ‘obedience’ training as it is letting the sheep teach a dog what works and what doesn’t work to control them. It also includes giving a dog a chance to make mistakes, and to develop emotional maturity and what I don’t hesitate to call wisdom,” she says.
McConnell notes that developing this kind of creative thinking “is essential to creating a dog who can bring a single ewe, lost in the woods, back by itself without your handling it. So much of a dog’s work is due to its ability to ‘read’ sheep, something they will always be better at than we are, much like that of a scent detection dog who might take your direction, but has skills we can only dream about.”
If you’ve ever attended a dog show or watched performance sports on TV, no doubt you have seen Border Collies dominating the performance sports, and for good reason. The same problem-solving skills and work ethic that make Border Collies exceptional herding dogs also call many dog sports enthusiasts to share their homes with them. Anne-Marie says, “The combination of athleticism, passion and drive to work is unmatched. They pour their heart and soul into everything they do to please their handlers.”
Work Versus Herding
Like any herding breed, herding trials offer a great opportunity to test a Border Collie’s skill, but that is not the same as being a working farm dog.
“The training is the same, but the execution is different because the situations are vastly different,” Lloyd says. “On the farm, the work is different. It is less about executing a prescribed course and more about getting the job done as a true partnership. In a trial setting, the dog is meticulously directed. On the farm, the dog is given broader instruction and trusted to make decisions in real time.”
This level of thinking is what makes working sheepdogs truly exceptional. In working farm life, “I care more about whether a dog can fix a mistake than whether they avoid one,” Lloyd says, noting that her dogs have a lot of responsibility. Building this kind of working relationship with a dog takes time, and the learning is never done.
In Lloyd’s experience, “Real farm dogs are not finished products. They mature. They accumulate experience. They get better because they’ve seen things. There is no fast-tracking wisdom.”
The day-to-day life of a working Border Collie is ever-changing and dependent upon the needs of the property and the livestock. Lloyd says that on her farm, “some days involve long gatherings across open fields. Some days are tight, technical work in pens. Some days are waiting. Watching.
Holding space while humans do their part. The dog adjusts their energy to the task. They are not ‘on’ all the time. Good workers know when to apply pressure and when to stand down.”
For her dogs, Lloyd says, “work is not constant motion. It’s constant awareness.”
Regardless of whether Border Collies are running agility or working sheep, the connection shared between dog and handler is always at the forefront. While many people see the end result, the big rosettes or the peaceful livestock, for these handlers, it’s the relationship they share with their dogs that remains central.
For Anne-Marie, it’s not always the biggest wins that stand out the most. She says, “While becoming the 2025 AyC (Americas y Caribe) Large Dog Champion and winning a spot with 2026 WAO Team USA were huge accomplishments with my Border Collie, Road Runner, my most fulfilling moment has been making a comeback with my older dog, Maze Runner. When she turned three, she developed fear issues in the competition ring that really held us back from our full potential. Being able to unlock her mind, rebuild her confidence, and step into the ring to run with her again has been everything to me.”
Regardless of what sport or type of work they are involved in, it’s the connection between dog and handler that makes working with Border Collies so special.
For McConnell, having a working partnership with her Border Collies can only be described as “magical.”
“As a behaviorist trained in the science of canine cognition, I know to be careful to not make attributions lightly about what is going on in the mind of a dog. But I would bet the farm—and I have one!—that when you and your dog work together to get a difficult job done, you can almost feel their sense of pride and accomplishment as they trot back to the house beside you.”
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