Famous border collies in history: Wiston Cap, Rico, and more

Part 1

Why border collies keep turning up in famous-dog stories

You'll notice the same breed name recurring in histories of clever dogs, and there's a reason for that. Border collies were developed specifically to herd sheep, working off little more than a shepherd's voice and whistle. The breed descends from landrace collies found across the British Isles, and its name reflects its likely home along the border between England and Scotland. Sheepdog trials began in Bala, North Wales in 1873. The International Sheep Dog Society formed in 1906 after a meeting of English and Scottish sheepmen. The Society now registers more than 6,000 border collie pups a year, and pedigrees can often be traced back over a hundred years. Some have claimed border collies are the most intelligent dog breed.

• Old Hemp, born in Northumberland in 1893, is considered the ancestor most modern border collies trace back to.
• Herdman's Tommy, born in 1903, won major early trials including the Supreme International and Scottish National championships before age four.
• Whitehope Nap, born in 1951, was a foundational sire known for speed, power, and agility.

Part 2

Wiston Cap: the face of the breed standard

If you look at the International Sheep Dog Society's badge, you're looking at Wiston Cap. He was born on 28 September 1963 and became the youngest dog to win the International Supreme Championship in trialing, taking the title in 1965 when he was under two years old. Bred by W. S. Hetherington and trained and handled by John Richardson, Cap sired three Supreme Champions and was grand-sire to three others. His bloodline runs through most bloodlines of the modern border collie, and some estimates put his presence in as many as 90 percent of working border collies worldwide. The Society also credits him with siring around 187 litters over his lifetime. Before his death in 1979, Cap fathered many pups who became champions through the 1970s and 1980s. So much of the breed's pedigree, and its working style, traces back to him.

Part 3

Rico: an early case in word learning

Rico was reported to understand more than 200 words.

Part 4

Chaser: the border collie with the largest tested vocabulary

Chaser was a border collie born on 28 April 2004 in Pauline, South Carolina, and bred by Wayne West at Flint Hill Farms. She was owned and trained by John W. Pilley, a professor emeritus of psychology, who began working with her at eight weeks old in June 2004. Pilley documented her vocabulary growing over time: about 50 words at five months, 200 words at seven and a half months, 700 words at a year and a half, and more than 1,000 by age three. By the end of the study, Chaser could identify and retrieve 1,022 toys by name, giving her the largest tested memory of any non-human animal recorded at the time. Researchers found she could also learn a new object's name by excluding the objects whose names she already knew, a skill called inferential reasoning by exclusion. Pilley published his findings in the journals Behavioural Processes and Learning and Motivation. In 2021, Chaser was named the official mascot of Spartanburg Community College, the first mascot in the college's history.

Part 5

Why this breed keeps drawing 'smartest dog' claims

That working origin, centered on the border country between England and Scotland, is what the breed is named for. If you're choosing a companion dog rather than a working one, that background is worth keeping in mind.