I have a collie / golden retriever cross. Basically the best way to describe it is the two breeds traits... intelligent, and constantly hungry.

She will purposefully show no interest in something food related on the table or worktop, absolutely none, just lie on the sofa or whatever... AS SOON as you leave the room to grab something, or pop to the toilet.. whoomph, its gone. Her complete lack of interest lulls you into a false sense of security, if she'd been bugging me, like most dogs do, I'd have put it out the way.

There's numerous other things she does, like barking at the door to get you to come and look to see whose outside before running back in and stealing the biscuit you were eating. They all involved planning of some sort - and she only ever does it when you're eating something on the sofa, not on the table as she wouldn't be able to get to the kitchen in time.

She also does the "right I'm just gonna pick this up and walk straight out the room like I'm not doing anything wrong"... you say her name and she just starts walking slightly quicker; it's hilarious.

All of them involve the ability to plan a sequence of events and execute them, which in my eyes is pretty bloody intelligent.

She also knows every family member by name and her favourite toys / items by name too. I can sit, hands by my side and with no body language say "Take the squiggly ball to Nick"... she will run off, get the squiggly ball from wherever she last left it, and take it to my dad.

Basically dogs are awesome.