It's people like them that terrified me as far as ever getting a herding breed myself. I feel that I have a lot of dog experience, with all sorts of different types of temperaments, but yet I was really afraid that a herding breed would be way too much for me. Which is stupid, because a few of the herding breeds are made up of everything I do like in a dog. But people talk about them like they're crazy, hyper, bouncing off the walls, barking, neurotic freaks that nobody can control unless you're going to get involved in a thousand different sports and run them for hours on end day after day after day. And what's even sillier about my thought process is that I had a Border Collie mix who pretty well acted like a Border Collie and she was by far the easiest dog I've ever gotten along with and lived with. We just clicked. So why I let people get to me and thought I'd be a terrible owner for a herding breed is beyond me.
People say the same about Tollers, actually. But I didn't know they said all of those things otherwise I probably would've been afraid to get a Toller too. So I'm glad I didn't hear that until after I got mine.
I think what it boils down to is that, among other things, herding breeds do tend to be quite busy, are thinkers, are generally incredibly intelligent, do often like to use their voices, etc. And all of that could spell disaster for an owner or a family who is unprepared.