Which breeds of dogs do experts consider to be the most intelligent overall? Conversely, which ones might be bringing up te rear?
P.S. None of my dogs will get offended as they’re all smart “mutts”.
I’ve always heard German Shepards as most Intellegent, with Dobermans coming in behind. I’ve met some stupid Dobermans, so I dunno about them. Shepards always seem smart, though.
Bringing up the rear? I’d have to say Chiuawawawawa… those small mexican dogs. Them.
Overall, I would place the Border Collie as number one from my personal experience.
Dr. Stanley Coren published a book on this a few years ago. He created a series of situations and tested many different breeds. If I recall correctly, the BC came out on top and the Afghan last. I believe the book was called “The Intelligence of Dogs”.
I’m with Gulo gulo on this, having watch a number of programs with Dr. Coren discussing his book. The Border Collie is ranked #1 by him.
As some further anicdotal evidence, my mom and dad have 2 BC’s. It’s actually kind of frightening how smart those dogs are - I would guess they have a similar vocabulary to my niece (she’s 4). You can give Dusty (the boy) absurdly complicated comands (bring me my slippers, get the paper and then go eat your dinner) and he’ll do it, in order, without batting an eye. It’s kind of creepy.
Many people have traditionally claimed it was the poodle, which Coren seems to rate at #2. Hard to judge, at any rate, and not everybody agrees with the validity of Coren’s measurements. Coren’s top rankings:
border collie, poodle, German shepherd, golden retriever, Doberman pinscher, Shetland sheepdog, Labrador retriever, papillon, rottweiler, and Australian cattle dog.
Bottom:
shih tzu, basset hound, mastiff, beagle, pekingese, bloodhound, borzoi, chow chow, bulldog, basenji, and Afghan hound.
Hmmm - a couple surprises - golden and Labrador retrievers? Nice dogs, but most of them strike me as not exactly mental giants - in particular, most golden retrievers I’ve seen seemed rather block headed.
I’m surprised the beagle is in the bottom bunch, along with a couple other hound breeds. I would have thought they would have fared better.
This site agrees. (wonderland of pop-ups, click at your own risk) Of course its information is taken from the previously mentioned Dr. Coren, but in the surfing I did, there appears to be general agreement.
On preview, I, like yabob had always thought the poodle was ranked #1. I’m also surprised at the Great Dane ranking. My experience would rank them higher. YMMV
Maybe the beagle & other "hound dogs’ biggest problem is that they’re so extremely focused on scent, it might be hard to train them really well or to determine their intelligence in other matters?
And, I forgot to add, I wonder if “breeding” enters into it. I occasionally do “dog care” for a price. The Goldens I’ve taken care of appear to be reasonably intelligent; however, as this breed is ranked as a “family dog”, I was surprised to run across a couple that were somewhat aggressive, bordering on mean. And I didn’t have the feeling their owners contribute to this; rather they also were surprised. I suspect maybe not-so-careful breeding entered into this. I would think the same might be true of intelligence even within breeds.
Have everyone agreed on an unbiased IQ test, that is breed neutral? I don’t think so, and therefore it is all opinion. The top breeds the Coren guy lists are all wonderful working dogs. Labs, Goldens, Shepherd, BC’s and the like really enjoy working. If we, as owners, exploit that, we can train the dog to do things that seem remarkable to *us/i], but is it canine intelligence?
Bloodhounds are not easily trained, but gee, can they track, beagles are excellent for hunting, ASF. Any domestic dog you see has originally been bred for a purpose. BC’s are excellent shepherds and as long as we teach them tricks that suit their intelligence, they’ll look like ultra smart dogs. However, if we try to teach them things that don’t suit the breed (hunting, guarding duty, protection ASF) they might not be perceived as so incredibly smart.
My own dog, a boxer, is very good at guarding and I think most boxers are instinctively protective of children. Which is more intelligent, sniffing for drugs at the border (labs are good for that) or defend your kids at the risk of their own life?
It’s quite common to assign human emotions and traits to dogs. Dog owners (including myself) do it all the time. For more serious discussions, we better not do that.
I dunno.
The smartest thing our Stumpy, possibly a pure-bred Aussie-Shepherd, ever did was late one night I was throwing tennis balls in the kitchen for retrieval by a doxie I was caring for. I could tell Stumpy was getting irritaed by this commotion as he was trying to sleep nearby. After a dozen or so throws & returns with the Doxie, he got up, caught the ball in his mouth himself, walked over to the back dog door, lifted up the flap & just threw the ball down the back steps, & then immediately went back to his spot & fell asleep. I was amazed at his follow-through. He really seemed to be thinking “I’ve had just about enough of this & I’m going to do something about it NOW!”
I dunno.
The smartest thing our Stumpy, possibly a pure-bred Aussie-Shepherd, ever did was late one night I was throwing tennis balls in the kitchen for retrieval by a Doxie I was caring for. I could tell Stumpy was getting irritated by this commotion as he was trying to sleep nearby. After a dozen or so throws & returns with the Doxie, he got up, caught the ball in his mouth himself, walked over to the back dog door, lifted up the flap & just threw the ball down the back steps, & then immediately went back to his spot & fell asleep. I was amazed at his follow-through. He really seemed to be thinking “I’ve had just about enough of this & I’m going to do something about it NOW!”
Among hound group aficionados, the theory is that hound type dogs end up in the bottom levels of intelligence rankings not because they lack intelligence, but because intelligence for purposes of such rankings is often measured by obedience - learning commands and tricks.
Hounds tend to be more independent-minded; thus they are inconsistent performers when it comes to sit-stay-etc.
In my own experience, differences in intelligence among breeds were less pronounced than differences among individual dogs of the same breed.
Good thing most dogs (IMO) are so lovable. Even the ones as dumb as a box of rocks can make you smile.
By “poodle”, I assume they mean standard poodles, correct? The big ones?
Some of the smaller types I’ve known I’d rank with chihuahuas.
Actually, I doubt that there’s a lot of difference between the highest and the lowest ranked. Most dogs are pretty smart.
Peace,
mangeorge
I’ve seen some of these tests, and they’re fairly unbiased, as I said in another thread about comparing animal to human intelligence. They involve things like logical problem solving, being able to find things that are hidden and so on. The tests are not, as far as I know, based on understanding of language, or biased in which senses the dog has to use.
Having grown up on a farm where we raised dogs (various breeds), I’m a little hesitant to accept any of these intellegence tests as very accurate. It mostly seems to me that the ‘winner’ just happens to be the breed of dog the judge raises & sells. Plus there’s quite a bit of disagreement over what IQ tests actually measure in humans, and we can at least talk to each other.
But I can see that it appears reasonable to at least rank the general types of dogs by intellegence.
Herding dogs seem to be the most intellegent. Next comes the hunting or sporting breeds. Then the working dogs, followed by the terrier group. Bringing up the bottom in intellegence are the companion and toy dogs, and the hound dogs. (Hound dogs are sometimes called idiot savants; incredibly good at one thing (tracking), but really dumb at everything else. Though sometimes I wonder if they are actually smart enough to know that ‘if I just ignore him, eventually he’ll go away and let me lay here and sleep’!)