When I was a kid, we had a elderly neighbor who had two border collies. One dog was sweet and happy and dumb, and the other was Serious Business and could retrieve any dog-portable object in her house, I swear, if she asked for it. Book? It knew to bring the book she was currently reading. We tried to stump it, a few times, but the dog knew a hand towel from a bath towel from a dish towel. Eerie.

Dog was a genius. Could operate doorknobs, turn lights on and off. Not a lap dog like the other one, though. I sometimes worried it was depressed and had caretaker syndrome. Intelligence is not necessarily your friend.