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Dog intelligence is the ability of a dog to learn, think, and solve problems. Dog trainers, owners, and researchers have as much difficulty agreeing on a method for testing canine intelligence as they do for human intelligence. One specific difficulty is confusing a breed’s genetic characteristics and a dog’s obedience training with intelligence.
Stanley Coren, a psychologist defined three aspects of dog intelligence.
Instinctive intelligence refers to a dog’s ability to perform the tasks it was bred for, such as herding, pointing, fetching, guarding, or supplying companionship.
Adaptive intelligence refers to a dog’s ability to solve problems on its own.
Working and obedience intelligencerefers to a dog’s ability to learn from human.
He ranked many breeds registered by the American and Canadian kennel clubs based on Working and obedience intelligence, and other studies have generally agreed with his findings.
However like with people there are bright and not so bright dogs within a breed and many dogs don’t fit into a specific breed group anyway. But consider that although there might be some kudos in owning a very intelligent dog, if your dog is very bright it’ll need a lot of mental stimulation to remain content. On the other hand if your ever loving doggy companion is in the ‘fair’ category or ‘lower’ (politically correct to the last!) you might want consider him/her ‘stubborn’ or having ‘ a will of his/her own’ rather than a bit ‘ Tim Nice But Dim’.
Brightest Dogs
Defined as those breeds understanding of new commands with fewer 5 repetitions, and obeys the handler’s first command at least 95% of the time.
Excellent Working Dogs
Defined as those breeds understanding of new commands with between 5 to 15 repetitions, and obeys the handler’s first command at least 85% of the time.
Above Average Working Dogs
Defined as those breeds understanding of new commands with between 15 to 25 repetitions, and obeys the handler’s first command at least 70% of the time.
Average Working/Obedience Intelligence
Defined as those breeds understanding of new commands with between 25 to 40 repetitions, and obeys the handler’s first command at least 50% of the time.
Fair Working/Obedience Intelligence
Defined as those breeds understanding of new commands with between 40 to 80 repetitions, and obeys the handler’s first command at least 30% of the time.
Lowest degree of working/obedience Intelligence
Defined as those breeds understanding of new commands with between 80 and 100 repetitions (or more) and obeys the handler’s first command 25% of the time ( or lower)