What Is The Smartest/most Intelligent (not Most Trainable/obedient) Br

[Sheridan]

The whole smart breed thing is just a myth. A dog's intelligence factor is genetic first, environment second. It's very hard to scientifically measure as dogs are master observers and often skew the results as the test is repeated.

Personally, what I'd call an intelligent dog is a dog that thinks abstract ie. if there's a dog on TV the real dog looks & sniffs behind the TV

Then Mini would win hands down. Not only does she watch telly avidly, she'll attack it if she see a dog. Last week she flung herself off the couch at a GSD on the telly and, as a further measure of her intelligence, when she landed directly on Grumpy, she flattened herself in a 'Oh shit!' way.

[m-j]

I would be betting on hunting dogs. They tend to be very good at problem solving. My Vallhund is crazy smart, but a Greyhound gave him a run for his money in my auto-shaping operative task.

Yes I think Greys are very clever. They are good at problem solving I have found. In the morning when letting them out of their kennels I don't let them out until all four are on the floor. Most work it out within minutes, if that, which isn't bad considering they are beside themselves to get out as they know they are going to have a run and the boss will let them out if they are jumping up. When starting training them though they really need to know there is something great in it for them, or you loose them very quickly. Once you get over the sit hurdle they learn things very quickly.

Edited February 7, 2011 by m-j

[jacqui835]

I suppose it is virtually impossible to determine and there are too many other factors that come into it. I'm just currently completely in awe of ACD's...

[Inevitablue]

Im in awe of my little 8 wo pup... her problem solving ability, finding open gates- pushing her ball under a fence and immediately running to the gate to go retrieve it.

I think all dogs are intelligent when the measurement accomodates what that dog has been selectively bred for. Can't measure intelligence when trying to make a square peg fit a round hole.

I do think ACD's have a nice combination of 'problem solving thinking' and a laid back attitude, and that results in usable intelligence for the average person.

[luvsdogs]

Over the weekend, I met a very clever dog. It helped its owner out in many ways, automatically carried any bags he put down, brought him shoes when he was looking for them and according to the owner, he can bring him many other kinds of things too, like beer and the tv remote etc. The most amazing part? He never set out to teach his dog to do this, it just started doing it, and he barely gives it any praise for it. It was a blue heeler/cattle dog I'm not sure what the correct name is but I think everyone will know what I mean. But despite seeming to understand much of what his owner said, and showing great initiative, this breed does not feature highly on the most trainable (or as it's sometimes referred to, the smartest) dogs lists.

So it got me thinking, what do you guys think would actually be the most intelligent breed of dog?

This was the most amazing blue heeler I had ever seen.

http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/5976714

[Monah]

I think all dogs can be clever.

I have had ACDs.. they are completely and utterly amazing. One even looked after my children..

My nephew had one and he was called Leo the wonder dog and ended up in films and on many tv shows. he found him on the streets in Sydney as a pup, he could do everything, and my nephew had never had a dog or done training or anything at all.

I've also had BCs and they are smart dogs, but nothing like ACDs. I find BCs (personally :p no offence to BC lovers) to be great but they do seem to have little 'obsessions.., like balls, or all sorts of other things. One we have now will focus on one of our cats. I swear the house could burn down around him, and he would still be staring at the cat..

All the dogs I've had I'd consider intelligent.

I tend to think of ACGs as 'grown ups' they always seem to have a maturity and sensibility about them, adorable

Edited February 7, 2011 by Monah

[Aidan3]

I've had consistently good experiences training Boxers. In two cases the owners swore that the dogs were "dumb"! They don't really excel in anything so I think they are under-rated because of that, but I always find them remarkably easy to train. Quick to pick things up with enough drive to keep them going, but not so much that they get distracted. There are individual variances, of course.

For problem solving, my GSD has had flashes of brilliance, including manipulating mechanical gadgets such as gate bolts, solving problems with more than one step (e.g moving furniture so that she can access a ball, or poking a ball so that it rolls, then predicting where it will roll to without being able to see it), and some evidence of actually taking note of something hours earlier and taking advantage of it later (e.g running straight to the only unlocked window in the house and opening it when my wife left the house with our other dog, having seen me open and close that window earlier, and it not being a window she had escaped through before, nor the most accessible window or the most direct route to my wife). She was also quite difficult to raise, as you can probably imagine.

If you want human-like cognition, you can't go past... a cat. Freaky intelligent, but it's a bit like being a black-belt in a martial art. The more you know, the less you have to use. They get everything they want from the absolute minimum effort.

[Monah]

have to agree about the CATS

My spins grandfather is pure genius. I wont go into details, but he has worked out very intricate problems many times, he is always able to work out a way to do anything! :p

[ozjen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=P9Fyey4D5hg Thought you all might enjoy this video of a clever little Jack Russell helping round the house. Very cute.

[Gayle.]

Benson is my smart one.....sneaky smart, extremely clever and I gave up doing obedience with him because of it. He astounds me with his problem solving and the thought process that must go into his antics.

Dusty, on the other hand, doesn't have half the brains Benson does so she's the better obedience prospect.

[benshiva]

Border Collies of course

They amaze me every day.

Seriously though, Skidboot is THE most amazing dog I've ever seen. I can watch this clip over and over. Love this dog

Edited February 7, 2011 by benshiva

[corvus]

I've had consistently good experiences training Boxers.

We had this Boxer come through the pilot study who was greatly interested in the training apparatus, but never actually got past the very first training step (touch target with nose to trigger a reward). She triggered it several times, and watched with fascination, cocking her head and staaaaaaring at where the milk was coming out, but she just never made the connection. She accumulated close to 20 touches over a few training sessions, but every single one was accidental and we never saw the sudden increase in triggering that would signal a dog had figured it out. It was truly bizarre. Another Boxer came through and did quite well, although didn't have time to finish the training.

Erik tries a lot of things out. He walks around the house poking things with his nose and swiping them with his paw. Anything that moves is irresistable. The Playstation controllers are very attractive to him, and the drum pedal from the Guitar Hero drum set gets pressed all the time. He is just convinced that it does something and he just has to figure out what. He learns very quickly, but mostly just through relentless trial and error. My mother's Vallhund is known for licking the BBQ plate. Naturally, the first time he tried this he burnt both his paws and his tongue. But, he went back 10 minutes later and tried again a little more carefully and learnt that things that are hot don't stay hot forever. These days he has a good sense of how long to wait and a safe method of testing. He's a pro.

I think wild animals are much better at problem solving than domestic animals as a rule. My hare is nowhere near as smart as my dogs, but he has shocked me a couple of times. One time he had a Lassie moment communicating to me through much pantomime that his water bottle was not working. He had to go through a few steps to get my attention and draw it to the problem and it took some novel behaviour. My domestic animals don't think of trying to tell me about a problem they have. They just give up on it, or make general noises or signals of discontent.

[chran]

There is a border collie that can look at a photograph of an object and then retrieve the actual object and can also look at a small replica of an object and then go and retrieve the actual real size thing.... scary smart to me!

This is in the BBC's Secret Life of Dogs - amazing stuff there Again this particular dog shows the ability to think abstract - shown a picture of an object & can fetch the real object even though the picture isn't to scale.

I also think that a dog's problem solving skills are affected by drive which makes it even harder to measure. Compared to a dog that just tries to earn a treat, a dog that's hungry would show more creativity trying to get food from treat ball containing his breakfast that's stuck under a cabinet.

[Sheridan]

Should have seen Grumpy last night. There was no way, despite the hunger (for he didn't eat his dinner) that he was going to get into his crate to eat the treats I placed there. Call it stubbornness, but it's a level of self-control and will power that a lot of food driven dogs wouldn't display.

[aussielover]

I think wild animals are much better at problem solving than domestic animals as a rule. My hare is nowhere near as smart as my dogs, but he has shocked me a couple of times. One time he had a Lassie moment communicating to me through much pantomime that his water bottle was not working. He had to go through a few steps to get my attention and draw it to the problem and it took some novel behaviour. My domestic animals don't think of trying to tell me about a problem they have. They just give up on it, or make general noises or signals of discontent.

But this actually sounds more intelligent- they expend the least effort in order to get what they want.

Why bother solving something yourself when you can get someone else to do it for you?

Very manipulative if you ask me.

[mita]

If you want human-like cognition, you can't go past... a cat. Freaky intelligent, but it's a bit like being a black-belt in a martial art. The more you know, the less you have to use. They get everything they want from the absolute minimum effort.

Which may explain the self-possessed intelligence I see in tibetan spaniels. They've been described as 1/3 cat, 1/3 dog & 1/3 monkey.

They're a very cat-like breed in their traits. Right down to liking to sit on high places with front paws folded underneath, in that 'boneless' way cats do.

[chran]

There was no way, despite the hunger (for he didn't eat his dinner) that he was going to get into his crate to eat the treats I placed there. Call it stubbornness, but it's a level of self-control and will power that a lot of food driven dogs wouldn't display.

This falls into the environment category. He's somewhat conditioned not to be food driven & to avoid getting into his crate. The more stubborn the dog, the more potential of intelligence it has - it's the smart ones that push boundaries

[Sheilaheel02]

I am surrounded by ACD's, so I'm the dumb bunny of the family

Don't get me started on the Appaloosa who is the master of manipulation and escape!

S

[jacqui835]

If you want human-like cognition, you can't go past... a cat. Freaky intelligent, but it's a bit like being a black-belt in a martial art. The more you know, the less you have to use. They get everything they want from the absolute minimum effort.

Which may explain the self-possessed intelligence I see in tibetan spaniels. They've been described as 1/3 cat, 1/3 dog & 1/3 monkey.

They're a very cat-like breed in their traits. Right down to liking to sit on high places with front paws folded underneath, in that 'boneless' way cats do.

My sister's papillons do that all over her furniture, and they leap around like cats too, the boy more than the girl. Sometimes they come home and can't find him, and he ends up being up the book case, and given the choice at night, he sleeps on the chair curled up under the table like a cat.

My dog will lead me to the problem. Say for example the next door neighbour's free range rabbit has escaped 'again', my dog will come and try and get me to follow him. He will start by just looking at me, then if that doesn't work, he will whine a little. I always tell him to shut up at this point, because typically what he wants is for me to go get one of his toys or take him for a walk. If this is what he wants, I think he shuts up then. If however, it's deemed more important, such as, well yeah there's a juicy rabbit that has just become accessible kind of important, he will then begin to paw at me and even start half barking. At this point, I follow, because in the past, it's been friends or family locked outside, the cat locked outside, him having diarrhea because of drinking sea water etc. He then leads me quickly (and will run back to me if I fall behind) to the problem, at which point, I usually praise him because it's almost always something I want to know about.

[mita]

My sister's papillons do that all over her furniture, and they leap around like cats too, the boy more than the girl. Sometimes they come home and can't find him, and he ends up being up the book case, and given the choice at night, he sleeps on the chair curled up under the table like a cat.

The rule of thumb is that when a tibbie is missing, look up! Sounds like the same for papillons.

Visitors are forever remarking that our tibbies are doing something cat-like. Like. cleaning their faces with their paws. They're fastidious little dogs.

The only small dog that used to be in the Pal Superdog Team, was a little papillon.