Border Collie Brain

This isn’t what you’re expecting.

You know that I adore border collies, and you know that they are probably the brightest dogs in the world, and all that. I’ll admit to a bit of bias.

But the truth is that once a border collie gets too excited, all bets are off. Any trainer understands that you need to pace the learning experience, because if the border collie’s passion to please gets ahead of rationality, things can go downhill rapidly. With too much pressure and too much excitement, your genius dog becomes an idiot. “Yes, Dad! Roll over? Play dead? Sheep in the pen? Oh! Oh! Sit? Get the ball? Oh, yes! Yes! Yes! Yes, yes, yes! Oh, oh, oh! I’m so excited! What? What?”

Trust me, I’m now on border collie number five– Mike, Jake, Jess, Bobbie, and Meic. Lovely, loyal, clever dogs, every one. But every one was/is afflicted by Border Collie Brain. The beasts are born with it.

Border Collie Brain is a condition where even the brightest dog transforms into a turnip. When this happens, you just need to walk away, take a deep breath, and go back to square one. And let the dog take a breather, too. The emotional overwhelm just needs to be allowed to cool down.

People are a bit like that, too, aren’t they? Even the brightest among us can get out over our skis and suffer a tumble. Best intentions aside, if your brain begins to spin, or emotions take over, you’re just out of luck.

And so the lesson for each of us is that if things start to seem weird and are spinning, it’s a really good idea to back off, take a deep breath, and remember what was the point of the whole exercise.

For those of us who are in the business of teaching, training, coaching, or explaining, whether people or dogs, the lesson is that from time to time it’s important to call a “time out” to let all the brains stop spinning. Even the teacher’s. It’s not the teacher’s fault, it’s not the learners’ fault, it’s just nature. And the responsibility for making things work is that of the teacher, not the student.

Thank God for border collies– they have so much to teach us!