Yet again, researchers have figured out what are the smartest breeds of dogs. They seem to do this every so often, all with slightly differing results. This time, scientists at the university of Helsinki tested a thousand dogs, giving them each seven different cognitive tests and three behavioral tests and trying to figure out who is the smartest.
The thing is, this list gets updated every year or two with different dogs taking the top spot, but mostly the same breeds near the top.
The top breed this time was the Belgian Malinois or Belgian shepherd, followed by the Australian Kelpie, Labrador Retriever, Border Collie, Golden Retriever, Hovawart, Spanish Water Dog, Shetland Sheep Dog, English Cocker Spaniel, Australian Sheep Dog and then mixed breed. I’m not sure how mixed breed makes the list. What was mixed in the breed they tested?
I suppose the “mixed breed” could also cover all doodles, since they are all various mixed breeds of something with a poodle. And there seems to be plenty of them around and I’m sure the many people who have them think they are quite smart. Most of the time.
And that’s just the thing. Most of the dogs I have known are pretty smart dogs. They know how to get what they want most of the time and how to manipulate us into giving it to them. But that wasn’t on the list of tests. And does doing what we want and expect them to do indicate intelligence?
That itself could be a big question. A lot of us humans are not really overly bright some days, so a dog that does what we want doesn’t exactly make them smart. It just makes them good at following orders. Or good at figuring out who controls the food supply.
I happen to think my dog is pretty smart. She knows how to get what she wants and has figured out how to give me hints to do things for her. Some times she even returns the favour and will do what I want.
Although the smart ones in all this are quite likely the researchers, who keep getting funding to play with dogs. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
Really, the smartest dog is probably the one we each have. Most of them know how to get us to do things for them, and most have also figured out that doing what we want them to do results in rewards. Or that being entertaining in some way can also have good results for them. They have probably even figured out how to cheat at tests that we think will tell who is the smartest dog.
They’ve been getting us to take care of them for thousands or years. There’s something pretty smart in that. For all of them.
