Translated by Nick R
Have you ever wondered if maybe your dog is smarter than other dogs? Well, you came to the right place, because here I’ll tell you everything you need to know about the intelligence of dogs and which ones were ranked as the smartest because of their great abilities.
Besides this, you might even dare to train your furry one more to become an exceptional dog. If you are interested, you can read the 15 tricks your dog will love to learn at home.
Table of Contents
What features make a dog more intelligent than others?
In 1994, Stanley Coren, a dog psychologist from the University of British Columbia, published a book called The Intelligence of Dogs, in which he explained this subject through three aspects.
The three factors are instinctive intelligence, adaptive intelligence, and working intelligence and obedience. The first two relate to the dog individually, while the third is studied and applicable to all breeds.
All these aspects together form the dog’s cognition, which is how canines “acquire information and conceptual skills, store them in memory, retrieve them, combine them, compare them and use them in new situations,” according to Lloyd Humphreys, a psychologist at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in the United States, in his book The construct of general intelligence.
Instinctive intelligence
In general terms, the instinctive intelligence is the dog’s ability to perform the tasks for which it was bred, such as fetching, guarding, herding, etc.
Two areas are related to this aspect, namely breed and instinct and sensory processing.
Breed and instinct
Some breeds are explicitly bred to perform a specific task, such as retrievers for retrieving, shepherds for herding, or terriers for digging and chasing. With this in mind, a dog’s intelligence will be greater as its instincts are enhanced by performing tasks they were bred for.
Sensorial processing
Sensory processing is the way dogs use their senses. Dogs have innate behaviors due to their senses, and they will manifest these behaviors more than others. For example, sensing the magnetic field of the earth to relieve themselves or detecting the time or hour of the day through scent changes in the environment.
While these behaviors are clearly not teachable, you can guide the dog to respond in a certain way. The more peculiar the dog’s behavior is without having had any training before, those actions will reflect a high level of intelligence. An example of this is that some dogs spontaneously recognize impending seizures in a person.
Adaptive intelligence
Adaptive intelligence refers to a dog’s ability to solve problems on its own. This aspect includes factors such as adaptability, social behavior and responsiveness.
Adaptability
As the dog is exposed to new situations or sees actions performed by humans such as, for example, moving a knob to open the door, he is learning through that experience.
In order to adapt to such situations, the next time the dog will already know in advance that; if he moves the knob, he will be able to open the door. Some dogs demonstrate this ability to adapt without needing direct teaching from humans, which is evidence of a high level of intelligence just by observing, learning, and resolving an issue on their own.
Social behavior
Habits and social behavior are part of the dog’s adaptation process. First of all, dogs are social animals by nature, which makes their interaction with other dogs, animals, and people very necessary.
When exposed to such interactions, the dog will observe how dogs act with other dogs and dogs with other humans and will learn a way to respond to these stimuli, such as approaching and wagging his tail as a play signal to another dog.
On the other hand, habits are very important in the canine’s daily life, so it is vital for him to get used to doing certain actions in a certain way. For example, teaching him to relieve himself outside and not inside the house.
Responsiveness
As I already mentioned, thanks to his intelligence, the dog is inclined to follow social and sensory signals, human commands, and words in a coherent way. As a result, dogs already know how to act and respond to a situation, they do not need the human’s command in some cases, for example, if their master’s phone falls, the master already knows to pick it up.
Dogs can think and consider behavioral options, which is similar to how we humans act. Just as we make decisions based on experiences, adapt to the situation, and follow our desires, dogs will develop an ability to respond effectively depending on the situation they are facing.
The fact that dogs have received good training will also help them to develop their intelligence.
Intelligence and obedience work
As the name implies, intelligence and obedience work is directly related to the dog’s ability to learn from humans and apply it to his behavior. This category deals with aspects such as working ability combined with obedience, memory, and emotional intelligence.
Skills for working and obeying
As we already know, dogs have instincts that allow them to be very good at something. However, they can not only stay in the “simple” things they would do with their instinct. If we want to have a support dog, they must be taught to know what we as humans want to do with them.
Here is where his learning and obedience skills within the training are important because it will enable the dog to do more complex things and above all, it will strengthen his experience and he will enjoy being able to use his instinct in more difficult tasks.
Memory
Clearly, memory is a vital factor in the intelligence of some dogs; the capacity they have to remember people, objects, and even experiences determines how intelligent they are. So, a dog with great memory capacity only needs to visualize once what he is being taught as an object or an action, for example, and he will remember it the next time.
On the other hand, other dogs will take more than once to memorize something, because their ability to memorize is developed in a different way.
Awareness
In this case, the factor to take into account is the dog’s awareness of the permanence of an object in the action, this means that he will not only remember the object, but he will also be aware that the object is still there while a certain action is taking place. Let’s see it in an example.
You put a toy on the top of a piece of furniture where it is out of sight, the dog can think two things, the first is to act as a child would, that not seeing the visible object he will assume that it is gone or gone. Or the second is to know that it is still there because it is aware that it was just put there and no one else has moved it.
This awareness ability evidences his high level of intelligence because he clearly recognizes the situation and is aware of both the objects and the situation around him.
Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is part of the learning process during training because, in training, dogs learn about emotional experiences. For example, if he completes a task well, he will receive praise, which will make him continue doing those tasks well to receive more; a positive reinforcement that motivates him to continue learning.
Clearly, apart from creating new emotional experiences, dogs also have their own temperament, which leads them to react in certain ways depending on the situation. This can be seen if they are afraid of something or if they are very energetic and like to interact with other dogs or people.
The emotions born from these experiences can also influence the dog’s behavior during training. In addition, these new emotional experiences can help boost the dog’s instinctive abilities as a sign that receiving praise works to perform better.
Most intelligent dog breeds
A recently published article by the newspaper LA VANGUARDIA lists the 10 most intelligent breeds, according to a ranking made by the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest.
The results of the research carried out by the Ethology department of that university showed that the most intelligent dogs could learn new words after they were repeated 4 times.
Ethology is the “branch of biology and experimental psychology that studies the behavior of animals in their natural environment,” according to Eleanor Lawrence’s Akal Dictionary of Biological Terms.
On the other hand, an article in the veterinary news portal Daily Paws adds 5 other breeds to the list that enter the ranking of the smartest dogs.
Denni Riordan, a veterinarian at Riordan Pet Hospital, says that “…generally speaking, “intelligence” is measured in dogs based on how many repetitions of a command they need to realize what you want them to do and how often they follow learned commands the first or second time you say them.”
1. Border Collie
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 14 Kg to 29 Kg | Medium | Energetic, protective, and hard-working | Shepherding |
The Border collie is a herding canine by nature, and the perfect companion for a very active person because it requires a lot of physical activity to be happy and satisfied. In addition, he is excellent for canicross, a modality in which the dog is held by a harness and runs with his owner.
2. Poodle
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 3 Kg to 32 Kg | Toy, small, medium, and large | Energetic and playful | Water retrieving |
The Poodle has a strong and slender body, which makes it an excellent swimmer. This makes it perfect for being a water retriever (hunting in water). Thanks to his obedience, he is easy to train and is often used as a show dog.
3. German Shepherd
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 30 Kg to 41 Kg | Large | Guardian and loyal | Guarding |
The German Shepherd possesses multiple abilities that make it versatile for different activities. These include guarding, due to its strong protective instinct, herding and search, and rescue due to its well-developed sense of smell. Originally bred for herding, its forte these days is guarding.
4. Golden Retriever
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 27 Kg to 34 Kg | Large | Loving and playful | Retrieving |
The Golden retriever is another canine that can engage in a variety of activities due to his developed physical and sensory abilities. Raised primarily as a waterfowl retriever (hunting) dog, but also performs activities such as search and rescue, detection, and guiding.
5. Doberman Pinscher
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 32 Kg to 45 Kg | Large | Loving, loyal and protective | Guarding |
The Doberman pinscher was bred as a guard dog because of its strong instinct to protect. However, nowadays it is requested for other activities such as rescue, police, and therapy dogs.
6. Shetland Sheepdog
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 6 Kg to 12 Kg | Small and medium | Elegant and energetic | Shepherding |
Also known as the Sheepdog of the Shetland, it was bred to herd sheep, clearly. This dog is a hard-working dog always with an excellent disposition and a positive attitude. Because of these qualities, he is also supportive of herding activity.
7. Labrador Retriever
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 25 Kg to 36 Kg | Large | Friendly and very sociable | Rescuing |
The Labrador retriever has been used for multiple working activities. It was bred mainly as its name indicates (retriever) to be a rescue dog or also called retriever in aquatic environments.
It supports tasks such as duck hunter, guide dog, tracker, and search and rescue dog. It is an efficient working dog and has a good character.
8. Papillon
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 3 Kg to 5 Kg | Small | Loving and energetic | Exhibition |
The Papillon dog belongs to the terrier or spaniel breed with descendants of the latter. This means that the main activity for which papillon was bred was hunting and/or companionship. However, because of their beauty, they have always been very showy dogs and in the past, they were the dogs of royalty.
Due to their agility, these dogs stand out in show activities such as dog sports or obedience competitions. It also has a protective dog instinct.
9. Rottweiler
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 38 Kg to 68 Kg | Large | Protective, energetic, and dominant | Guarding |
The Rottweiler is a canine that always proved to be made for work, so in the past, people relied on his abilities. He helped in activities such as guiding livestock to market, and herding carts (the ones that carry livestock objects and food) and his specialty was guarding farms.
Today, his skills are mainly used for security, guarding, and sometimes as a herding dog.
10. Australian Cattle Dog
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 17 Kg to 23 Kg | Medium | Hard worker, trustworthy and brave | Shepherding |
The Australian Cattle Dog is a canine product of many crosses between breeds, to finally create a dog with good herding skills originally from Australia.
Among its characteristics, it proves to be brave and watchful when used for protection activities. It is a dog with excellent energy to fulfill its main job, herding.
11. Pembroke Welsh Corgi
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 9 Kg to 14 Kg | Medium | Social, energetic, and bold | Shepherding |
The Pembroke Welsh Corgi is a dog that, despite his size, is very athletic and agile. He can learn tricks very quickly thanks to his obedience. Because of this agility, the corgi was bred as a perfect specimen for herding because it performs its work actively and efficiently. Another characteristic of this dog is that it has a good guarding instinct.
12. Miniature Schnauzer
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 5 Kg to 9 Kg | Small | Energetic and brave | Hunting |
The Miniature Schnauzer comes from the cross between the Standard Schnauzer and the Affenpinscher. This canine is characterized by being hardy, vigilant and behaving like a courageous dog.
In the past, this dog was bred to hunt rats on farms. However, nowadays it is no longer used for this type of activity, and on the contrary, he is an excellent companion dog.
13. English Springer Spaniel
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 20 Kg to 26 Kg | Medium | Friendly and energetic | Hunting |
The English Springer Spaniel was bred for hunting because he was excellent at it and liked to be in the company of his human hunting companions.
Because it always wants to be hunting, when left unsupervised for a long time, it can damage the objects it chews.
14. Belgian Shepherd Tervuren
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 27 Kg to 30 Kg | Large | Loving, loyal and protective | Shepherding |
This Belgian Shepherd Tervuren is an excellent dog that does his job efficiently as the shepherd for which he was bred. In addition, it has a good instinct as a watchdog, and thanks to its intellect, it has excelled in obedience competitions.
15. Schipperke
| WEIGHT | SIZE | PERSONALITY | MAIN ATTRIBUTE |
| 5 Kg to 8 Kg | Small | Agile, energetic, and loyal | Barge guardian |
The Schipperke is a guard dog that guarded the large open barges used for cargo transport in the past.
There, he hunted small animals that got into the barge, such as rats, reptiles, and birds. Today it has become a very popular breed both inside and outside Belgium. It is pleasant as a companion and likes children so it is a great friend to play a good time with.
Just as you have seen, some dogs have a great mental capacity and can do amazing things. If maybe you have a furry dog that is classified as one of the smartest, what are you waiting for? Bring out their full potential and enjoy the many things you can do together.
