# What's the stupidest animal?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-stupidest-animal/521339>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 15, 2009, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-stupidest-animal/521339 "2009-12-15T09:17:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-stupidest-animal/521339/61 "2009-12-19T03:17:22Z")

</div>

If we’re talking about livestock, I vote sheep. Truly dull animals.

> [@Chief\_Pedant](#):
>
> You can find the dumbest ten breeds of dogs here: [http://petrix.com/dogint/70-79.html](http://petrix.com/dogint/70-79.html)
> 
> Useful when considering which type of puppy will go under the tree.
> 
> If you just want to get the best doggie IQ genes, go for the Border Collie. Looks the setters group toward the middle…

The dogs on that list aren’t ‘dumb’. They just aren’t as trainable by humans.

My Tibetan Terrier (her breed scores low by that ranking) runs circles around my two obedient mutts. She learns very quickly, but she doesn’t learn to do what you tell her quickly - unless it has to do with really tasty food.

And I would advise most people against a Border Collie. Yes, they are incredibly smart - way too smart for most people, who don’t make their dog their first priority (nothing wrong with that), to keep entertained enough to keep them out of trouble.

ETA: I love a lot of breeds who score lower on that test - I prefer a dog who can think for itself. Not so much into slavish devotion and dedication to performance - like I said, BCs are genius, but a ton of work.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-stupidest-animal/521339.md?page=3)