What kind of dog is Hurricane, winner of ‘America’s Got Talent’ season 18?

Indoor skydiving facilities. 72-ounce steak-eating challenges. Steven Seagal, sometimes. America has got so many things, but chief among them is talent. America’s got talent. We’ve got so much talent, we had to create a TV show as sort of an emergency talent release valve – letting out some of the talent that we’ve got in controlled bursts once a year so it doesn’t burst up through our collective cultural epidermis. 

This year, it was determined that the American who has got the most talent is a dog. An exceptional dog, trained by a no doubt highly dedicated individual, but a dog. It’s not the first time that a dog has been determined to got the most talent in the United States, and it could certainly be seen as a sobering moment when a nation declares that their most talented individual is someone whose deepest fantasy involves killing a squirrel with their mouth. That sort of soul searching will have to wait, however, because honestly, look at that little face.

Hurricane and her owner, Adrian Stoica, walked away with the America’s Got Talent grand prize on Wednesday, wowing the crowd with a remarkable physical comedy act and earning a $1 million payday as a reward. 

Helpfully, Hurricane is a border collie, widely recognized as one of the most readily trainable, intelligent, and talent-gotting dog breeds in the world. Originating in Britain as herding dogs, they’re remarkably agile, curious animals with a spectacular capacity for learning, as exhibited by Hurricane across season 18 of AGT. That intelligence comes at a price, however, and prospective Border Collie owners should be aware that their new best friend will need hours of exercise and stimulation in order to avoid boredom-based problem behaviors. Without this dedication, Hurricane may well have got markedly less talent, and significantly more couch cushion stuffing lodged in her digestive tract after an unsupervised adventure into upholstery chewing.

It’s unlikely that Hurricane will face this issue moving forward, given the exceptionally busy schedule she’s about to got headlining the America’s Got Talent Presents Superstars Live show at Las Vegas’s beautiful Luxor Hotel and Casino.

Meanwhile, the last pups to walk away with the big money as winners of America’s Got Talent were members of the Olate Dogs act in 2012. Made up of a variety of poodle mixes and trained by a father-son team, the Ringling Brothers veterans headlined the AGT Las Vegas show briefly, partnered with the American Humane Society, and toured the United States before seemingly disappearing. Left with no explanation and a long-silent social media presence, America’s got questions.