Don’t tell that a raven or a parrot.
I agree. I imagine that wolves would rank very low on that test, simply because they are so independent. Yet despite that wolves are demonstrably smarter than any domestic dog.
Of course in the case of some of the dogs on that list, I suspect that poor performance really does indicate stupidity.
On the second part, your dad was either misinformed or pulling your leg….
I’ll concur with the Irish Setter crowd:
My boyhood Irish Setter, Laddie Boy, was all action and no brains. His only goal in life was to breach our front door and run and run and run some more…with no concern with regard to direction, distance or impending danger. And, it’s not like he had it bad at our house: plenty of Alpo, a large fenced-in running area in the back yard and a great and charming companion—me. When he did escape, which was often, it was not uncommon for us to receive a call (our phone number was on his dog tag) hours later from some disgruntled homeowner miles away, something to the effect, “…come and get your damned dog out of our yard, he’s digging up my flower bed….”
Then there was the time he shot right out the front door, bound straight for the busy road in front of our house and is immediatley hit and thrown ~40 feet, after colliding head-on with a car. Hearing the screeching tires, my dad goes out to find ol’ Laddie Boy sprawled, limbs akimbo and bleeding from the head lying unconscious on the asphalt (I see this all from my bedroom window, too scared to go out and see my canine pal up close and…dead). The driver and his son approach from the car (which sustained a very bent grill and broken headlamp) as my dad scoops the dog up into his arms and starts toward the house. My eyes moisten as I see my dog’s head and extremities flop limp in dad’s arms, realizing this situation is as serious as it originally seemed. Alas, it appeared, Laddie Won’t Come Home.*
…except…hey, was that a flinch I just saw? I tore down the stairs just in time to see to see Laddie shaking the clouds from his head and getting timidly back on his feet, in our foyer. Cheering ensued. The four of us (dad, driver, son, dog and myself) got in our car and drove to the veterinarian office. After a thorough history, physical and x-ray panel, our typically stoic vet, emerged with a smile on his face and said, “it’s a good thing your dog’s a Setter and was hit on the head, otherwise he may have really been hurt.” (The implication, of course, being that Irish Setters are more endowed with bone than brains in their skulls).
(Interestingly, the driver and son who hit Laddie felt so remorseful about the incident, they visited us a few times after the fact, just to see how the dog was doing. This was the '60’s, things were different then).
I used to leash Laddie to the handlebars of my bike and he would pull me, at fast speed, for long distances. It was great fun and good exercise, at least for him. Unfortunately, he must have had this “pulling humans around on a leash is fun” idea in his head when my slightly built 92 year old Nanna tried transporting him inside from the back yard by leash—not a well thought out plan on her behalf. When I heard the screaming (lowering in pitch by Doppler effect), I went out to see Laddie in near gallop, dragging my poor Nanna behind, hand caught in leash handle, legs flailing aimlessly about. I caught up to the two of them at our neighbors, two doors down. Despite a sprained ankle, hairline fracture of the wrist and a few cuts and abrasions, Nanna forgave my dog. “He’s just too stupid to have known any better, I suppose”, said she and gave him a pat on the head.
Then there was the time Laddie tied to rescue our morbidly obese cat, Ignatz, after he’d fallen through the ice in our swimming pool, only to fall through himself, managing to get into an even more precarious position under the ice. I remember the goofy look on his face through the clear ice. I saved both of them, but got pretty beat up in the process.
That dog had some peculiar ways about him, too: Make a raspberry sound or simply touch the bony protuberance on top of his head, and he would immediately flop hard to the ground and make strange gurgling sounds. He was also afraid of my GI-Joe, trembling violently if Joe happened to be looking his way, pointing his bazooka.
In Laddie’s twilight years we got a young Great Dane and they became great doggie-buddies. Great Danes aren’t exactly known for their brilliant cognitive abilities either, but compared to the Setter, he was a canine genius.
I miss that dog.
- Lassie Come Home (1943)
Not true.
Why would looking up make you drown, anyway?
Placozoa, the simplest free living animals, are a step down even from jellyfish. Sponges are also of very limited intellect, but the OP excluded them by requiring the ability to move on its own.
A veterinarian acquaintance of mine, who worked in the chicken industry, referred to chickens as “plants with wings”. These are not real insightful creatures.
Regards,
Shodan
My cat must be somewhere in the top ten.
“Meow! Meow! Meow!”
“Okay, sure you’re hungry. No worries, I’ll feed you.” /Me fills food dish.
/Cat eats, wanders back to closet with food bag.
“Meow! Meow! Meow!”
“No, cat, you just ate. In fact, there’s food in your dish. You can eat it. It’s five minutes old, I promise it’s still good.”
“Meow! Meow! MEOW!”
“You’ve, ah, forgetten there’s food in your dish, haven’t you?”
“Meow.”
I’ve always thought that horses were remarkably stupid for their size and alleged “nobility”.
Is that stuff about them running back into a burning barn true? I know, people have said stuff like they run back because it’s familiar and they’re scared. Still…
Yeah, I think I knew that. It was just a funny image.
I thought the problem with Irish Setters is that for some time now, they’ve been rigorously selected for appearance, without any thought to brainpower (in their case, by the dog show people). Same problem with beauty pageant contestants, it seems.
I’ve heard that Cardinal’s are pretty darn stupid.
Sorry… this is not an example of a STUPID dog… but of an untrained one.
I have known MANY Irish Setters that earned obedience titles and the like. I have shared my home with their kissin’ cousins, the Gordon Setter, for 27 years… and they are NOT stupid. Stubborn? Yes. Stupid? Not hardly.
I was once showing one of my Gordons in Open obedience, and a we had just left our dogs lined up in a sit/stay in the ring for 3 minutes; as the group of handlers ‘hid’ out of our dogs’ sight, one turned to me and said with distain, ‘I can’t believe you’re trying to do obedience work with a Gordon Setter… those are the stupidest dogs I’ve ever seen.’
I was in total shock that anyone would have the balls to say that, but I had the last laugh when we returned to the ring- my ‘stupid’ Gordin Setter was sitting right where I had left her, while the terrier that belonged to the woman that made the comment was being held in the center of the ring by a ring steward.
I didn’t say a WORD… just smiled sweetly at her and returned to my dog.
Thanks for a great story!
I’ll nominate bunnies as being the stupidest animal. There they are on the side of the road, away from the approaching car. All safe and sound munching on dandelion leaves. As soon as they see the car getting closer they wait till the last second and then leave the safety of the grass and make a mad dash to get in front of the giant loud thing that wants to kill them.
A brilliant observation!
The spiders in my carport. Nearly every damn morning they build a web at face height across my doorway that I walk through. I’m too big for your web! You’d think after endless hundreds of morning repetitions they’d learn!
My wife said something about ducking, or waving my hand, yesterday. Not sure what she means by that, that would mean the spiders would win…
One summer my dog (collie/shepherd mix) got skunked, not once, not twice but THREE times in the space of one summer.
You’d think he’d be able to figure out “Skunk = bad thing” but not him
Did you ever see a dog spit? This one did. I thought he was smart learning all those tricks, but not after that. Any animal that can’t learn to leave a skunk alone qualifies for stupides animal ever 
At this point, we are getting a lot more in the way of anecdote than in factual information, so perhaps it’s time to move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Maybe they don’t taste good? Isn’t in nature: Brighter/colorful= warning/poison or bad tasting?
Maybe I’m thinking of insects. Cardinals may be dumb but they must be doing something right because I sure have a lot of them around here.