Is your dog intelligent? Find out!
Is your dog an intelligent breed? Do you look at your dog and wonder how intelligent he is? Does he appear difficult to train or particularly reactive? Does he try and round everything up or bark at the slightest noise? By the way, Part 2 is here and part 3 is here
Is he too energetic?
It may be that your dog is not turning out as you expected. Perhaps you wanted a couch potato and instead have a dog that wants to play and dashes about with boundless energy. On the other hand, you may want a dog with plenty of energy so you can go on long walks with him or run with him every day. But all he wants to do is lounge around and sleep a lot.
We all want a clever dog
But what most people want is a dog that is bright and eager to learn. A loving dog that is easy to train and wants to please you. One that picks up commands quickly and enjoys doing tricks.
His virtues!
This perfect dog rarely barks and always comes when called. He does not chase rabbits, squirrels and other small animals. Won’t growl at strangers and other dogs. He doesn’t pull you along on the lead or jump all over your visitors. Nor will he ever eat sheep poo or other disgusting stuff, or roll around in dead animals and smelly unmentionables. God forbid he will steal food or eat your slippers and he certainly would never tear up his bedding or wee up the door post.
Sorry to disappoint!
Well, sorry to disappoint, but most of us do not own such a dog and if you do, you are one of the lucky few. Such dogs are rare on the planet and the reason can be a mixture of a few things. Some of the main causes are:
- The breed of your dog
- Your dog’s intelligence
- You and your personality
- How your dog was bred
- If your dog was properly socialised as a pup
- If he was habituated as a pup
- Or your dog has been mistreated
The last 4 points
Let me just say that many puppies exhibit many problems like fearfulness and anxiety and much of the blame can be due to breeders putting profits before the welfare of their animals. Consequently, when the pups are bred under dubious circumstances, it is the unsuspecting owner as well as the pup that suffers. The last 4 points of this 7 point list would apply to unscrupulous, hateful people producing popular breeds en masse and in horrendous conditions. Trustworthy breeders are getting rarer. Always make sure before you acquire a puppy and NEVER, EVER buy from a pet shop. They are often outlets for puppy farms and it’s not worth the risk.
Different types of intelligence
But let’s look at intelligence. The author of “The Intelligence of Dogs” Stanley Coren, says that there are three types of intelligence in dogs.
- Adaptive Intelligence – where the dog has learning and problem solving
abilities. This ability is measured by canine IQ testing. The difference is that this comes about from the dog’s life experiences and learned knowledge, with skills and competence acquired as the dog goes through its life. - Instinctive Intelligence – this is specific to the individual dog and again is measured by canine IQ testing. This kind of intelligence is programmed into the dog’s genetic code
- Obedience or Working Intelligence This is more breed dependent. We all know that the Border Collie for instance is a natural at herding sheep, well most of them anyway. There are always exceptions and this phrase should be kept in mind if you think your dog is not true to his breed.
When did dogs and humans get together?
We can never be sure whether the dog found us in history, or we found the dog. My personal opinion is that the dog, being renowned as a scavanger and opportunist, found human camps too enticing to resist. Being innately a friendly creature and fast on his feet, the lure of food scraps was worth investigating despite the the risk of getting close to humans. This may have been the start of our love affair with our canine friends. They also learnt that if they appoached nicely, they may be treated to some food.
But not everyone likes dogs!
Unfortunately some countries treat their dogs abominably proving that many nations do not have the same feelings for canines as the majority of the western world. This will have a direct negative influence on the intelligence of these wretched, doomed animals. As Coren commented in his book:
“When the Summer Olympic Games were held in Seoul, South Korea, in 1988, the government passed a temporary law forbidding restaurants in the city limits to serve dishes made with dog meat, fearing that such menu items would offend their Western visitors. Because of public pressure, however, shortly after the Olympics had concluded, dog dishes again became available, and dogs could again be seen hanging in local butcher shops.”
Too upsetting to go further…
(I could talk further on this subject, especially about evil places like the Chinese dog markets, but I find it too upsetting. Suffice to say, the Chinese do evil things to their dogs and cats. They breed them in horrendous conditions, then torture them before killing them horribly and eating them. This fact has actually put me off ever visiting China! I may do a post on it if I can cope emotionally with doing the research!) Evidently South Korea is just as evil in their treatment of dogs (and cats)! But I digress…
Instinctive Intelligence
An example of how early humans used dogs with instinctive intelligence, would be as a guard or watch dog. The guard dog did not have to be exceptionally large or strong, neither did it need training, the guarding behaviour was instinctual. The dog’s most important attribute would be its tendency to bark at every little noise. This served to alert the owner of any impending intrusion by either a human or a prey animal such as a wolf or bear.
Here are the top 15 guard or watch dogs according to their reactive barking:
- 1 . Rottweiler
- 2. German shepherd
- 3 . Scottish terrier
- 4. West Highland white terrier
- 5 . Miniature schnauzer
- 6. Yorkshire Terrier
- 7. Cairn terrier
- 8. Chihuahua
- 9. Airedale terrier
- 10. Poodle (standard or miniature)
- 11. Boston terrier
- 12. Shih Tzu
- 13. Dachshund
- 14. Silky terrier
- 15. Fox terrier
Our dog Bandit
Interestingly, one of our two dogs is a Miniature Schnauzer X Yorkshire Terrier. He was from an unscrupulous breeder and was not socialised as a young pup (3-8wks). Neither was he introduced to sights and sounds like cars, lorries, different environments etc., or animals other than dogs such as cats, rabbits, chickens and sheep. In other words he was not habituated. He was a terrified little puppy who had a blighted beginning to his life.
Reactive, fearful, obsessive and anxious
Bandit is extremely reactive and true to both the breeds he has in his DNA in this respect. But his early upbringing makes him a very difficult dog to train. He’s obsessive over squeaky toys and balls and is almost impossible to keep calm and is very fearful but tries to dominate too. He was also vaccinated with the L4 leptospirosis vaccine, which caused a terrible reaction. This could also have contributed to his fearful, anxious and obsessive behaviour.
An ongoing challenge
This ongoing challenge is not his fault nor is it ours. All we can do is slowly try to counter condition him to get him over his many fears. He is better than he was a year ago but at nearly 4 years, he should be a much more relaxed and balanced dog. He does seem to be intelligent going by our IQ testing on him. We will never know the dog he would have been if he had been socialised, habituated and not had the defective L4 vaccine.
Intelligence Ranking
Stanley Coren has actually ranked the intelligence of the most popular dogs. If you’re interested to know how your dog ranks in intelligence, I will be listing them in part 2. Also, I will show you some intelligence tests you can do with your dog. It may give you some idea of how bright he is, but mainly it is a bit of fun which your dog, and you, can enjoy. Every dog has potential, our job is to bring that potentially to the fore. This will increase his confidence, his intelligence, his stability and enable him to have the best life he can have and be the best dog he can be.
This served as a very good read for me and I must say that your dog is very pretty looking. I am not so much of a dog fan but when a friend of mine asked me to help him take his dog to the animal doctor, I was so engulfed with emotions so I wanted to learn more about this fascinating animal and that was why I searched about them which brought me here. Thank you so much for educating me.
Hi Henderson and thanks for reading the post. Yes, Bandit is very pretty and has the exact same colour hair as my husband! I suspect you are a closet dog lover and I would not be surprised if you do not become a dog owner in the not too distant future. If you do, it will change your life!
I love how deep you got in the article and it helped show many of the struggles we all face with our dogs. We all just want the perfect dog but we know that’s not possible. You gave us knowledge to show what breeds are better at certain things which can help when deciding what dog to get. I also loved the cute dog pictures.
Hello Erich. Part two of this article will give a list of the most intelligent popular breeds of dogs. Also some tests to do to give some guide as to your dog’s intelligence. They are fun tests and can be repeated to enhance a dog’s problem solving skills and improve his confidence. They are also fun to do.
Dogs have been mans best friend for good reason. The relationship with our dogs is special, and each of us has different parts of our life made better by our pet. Some need a companion, a friend, a warm body lying next to us on the couch, a walking buddy, a protector, a companion to laugh or cry with or just be silly. Most pet lovers don’t understand the different values placed on pets by other cultures.
I do think that pets are an indulgence that greatly enhances your life. They should be cared for and protected as the special friends they are. Many people select a pet at one point in their lives, only to have things change drastically. A mature pet owner makes sure his pet is well cared for in all the stages it lives with you.
Your breed list was a good one and people should research what is special about the one they are considering to know if they are a good match I would be a lousy match for one who needs lots of action! Thanks, Sami
Hi Sami and thanks for reading my post. You are so right, dogs are special and add greatly to the happiness of our lives. You are obviously a ‘mature’ dog lover. Have you got a dog? If not, you should get one. I think your state of mind indicates that you would be an ideal owner. But as you say, you need to know that you can look after a dog, even if your life changes.
The breed list is particularly for guard dogs, which do not have to be big and strong, just make plenty of noise! If you want a dog that likes to laze around the house, how about a Bassett Hound or a Norwegian Elkhound. I’ve had an Elkhound and he was an amazing animal. So faithful, calm and despite Coren saying they are not easy to train, ours was really intelligent and could easily put into the bracket of ‘perfect dog’.
Great article, I look forward to part 2. In the past, I have had some intelligent dogs. My Red Heeler, Ruby was truly amazing. I think a lot of that was the fact that she was very socialized. I took her to work with me and she got to know how to deal with so many different people. Her only problem was young men. I caught some teenagers chasing her around in the parking lot where I worked when she was a pup and she never got over it. She didn’t trust young men, which was strange. She met a few when they were young boys and liked them, then as they grew up she changed her mind and would sound off if they even looked at her.
Carrie
Thanks Carrie, Yes the Red Heeler has proven to be very bright but does have a tendency to be obsessed with feet! This is a problem that needs to be addressed, especially if the dog is to live inside the home. Being highly socialised is the trick and the fact she was habituated as well could only extend her adaptive intelligence.
As with many intelligent breeds, they can be somewhat ‘sensitive’ and I suspect you’re correct about her distrust of young men being due to the obnoxious teenagers taunting her in the park. You could counter condition her to trust young boys but it could take patience and a bit of time. Does she like her food? If so you could try throwing her a treat every time she sees a youngster, or even get them to walk past her and throwing a treat as they go, at the same time ignoring her. Make sure you throw the treat before she over-reacts, otherwise you will be rewarding the over-reaction. Timing is of the essence!
My mum has a Cairn Terrier, and I’m sure she’s very smart. It’s interesting that the Cairn Terrier is listed here as number 7 as a guard dog. She’s definitely got the bark and the energy for it! I think you’re right that dogs would have approached people first, and set off a long lasting and wonderful relationship for generations to come!
Hello JT, I just love Cairns, they have such a wonderful character. Yes, I’m pretty sure, going by how canines are, that they would have made contact and used their charm to get under the skin of the settlers!
Thank you for sharing such article about our friend canine.I myself love dogs ,we have six dogs at home and all of them are guard dogs and yes they produce a lot of noise especially cats,humans,rats,other dogs and any living things that passesby infront of them…they all got vaccine shots, they are excellent security guards and dangerous because they are large breed dogs but very obedient to us, I personally trained them when they are still a pup. Since they are big…my wife and kids get another tiny breed-a she pomeranian as a lap dog,she is 2 months old now. I do agree not to procure one at a pet shop because sometimes you dont know the history of the dog due to commercial purposes…there is a big tendency that they will not reveal to you the true history of the dog. Likewise the dogs intelligence is truely affected by its environments and experiences as the dog grow into maturity…but mostly during training our dogs learn through a reward system method that good deeds will be rewarded. And I observed that hybrid dogs survival rate is low compared to native cheap local dogs. Thats my opinion anyway…Thank you again for sharing,
Hi Iaertes and thanks for your comments and input. It would appear you have quite a houseful of canines which must keep you busy. You obviously started training early which is the way to go. Pomeranians are quite intelligent according to canine studies and they are very cute!
I have had many dogs but the ‘Heinz 57’ types always seem to live longer with less likelihood of becoming sick than the pure breeds. May have something to do with interbreeding I think.
Hello there, thank you so much for this post, this is very informative and educating, it important to note that I understand that for a post as this that alot of conscious, calculated and deliberate effort has been out in to come out with such article, I have always been a dog lover from when I started staying with my grandma until I moved out, though our dog was very smart but couldn’t kniw his intligent level, hence i can’t wait for your next post on how to know a dog’s intelligence.
Hi Jomata, you will certainly enjoy reading part 2 of this article. It will also give an insight into which dog would be best for you and suit your character. This particular article also discusses how an owner’s personality can influence the behaviour of their dog.
Heloo thanks for this interesting, informative article on the topic “is your dog intelligent”. I so much love the way your constructed this article, it’s so detailed and full of so many insights about dogs. Am a dog lover so seeing this article really gives me great pleasure. Everyone actually wants a very perfect dog which is not too possible,for me I have a very intelligent dog, although sometimes stubborn.
Thanks for reading the post Sheddy, yes dogs can be stubborn but remember they have no side to them. In other words they are not ‘spiteful’ or try to ‘get their own back’. This is not in their DNA. They do respond though to a fair minded, assertive and at the same time calm owner. Good luck