Sheepdogs are insanely bright. I have a border collie and she learns names by observation and deduction. My partner asked her where I was and she came running to me, despite never having put effort into teaching her my name. A couple of months later, a friend was at my door. I asked her “where’s Lucas?” to which she responded by looking at me and my partner before running to him.

This behaviour has been observed, where a collie identified a new toy name by reasoning it was the only “new” thing so must be the thing being asked for!