My personal experience in training them is to find that the alertness combined with their frequent willingness to work for a food reward leaves me with the impression that the dog read an obedience book before I began the training session. This dog focused so eagerly on the handler during her sessions that you had to be careful or you would teach her a hand signal by accident. Scratch you nose absentmindedly while giving the treat - the next time you scratched your nose she would eagerly sit. Despite her marvelous reaction to formal training sessions, for her owner's Hershey was a problem because her need for work and her natural herding instincts caused her to nip at visitors' heels, bark a lot and generally be too active for the busy household with two working adults and 3 children under 10 years of age. In the absence of work provided by the owner these dogs will find their own work to do, frequently to the annoyance of your neighbors.
Livestock herding dogs are relatively popular as pets.
The upside of this for the prospective pet owner is that there are a lot of people who are experienced in training them, many of the obedience sports are basically designed around their capabilities, almost all the obedience dog training books and videos are produced by people whose primary dog training experience is with one of these dogs and food based positive training methods often work very well with them. An important step in considering a dog is to get to know a couple of members of the breed, and you will encounter many people who have one of these dogs. Sadly because of their popular image as the perfect pet and as highly intelligent, trainable dogs, it is also common to find them available for adoption through shelters and rescue organizations. Many of the dogs given up for adoption were too active for their owners who may well have failed to train and socialize them. Be sure you have access to an experienced trainer when considering adopting an adult shelter dog.