Top 10 Intelligent Dog Breeds, Study Finds

Is talent in a given field an exclusively human phenomenon? We do not know if there are bees or gifted elephants, to name a few species, But now there is evidence that there is talent in one specific area, in at least one non-human species: the dog.

In determining the intelligence of man’s eternal companion, an important factor to consider is race, which is why WebMD has published a ranking of the naturally smartest breeds:

1. Border Collie

2. Poodles

3. German Shepherd

4. Golden Retriever

5. Doberman Pinscher

6. Pastor of Shetland

7. Labrador retriever

8. Butterfly

9. Rottweiler

10. Australian Cattle Dog.

The first on this list, the Border Collie, is also the star of a new study just published in Scientific Reports, which found that while the vast majority of dogs have trouble learning the names of objects (in in this case, toys), when tested under strictly controlled conditions, a handful of gifted dogs learn multiple toy names seemingly effortlessly.

A team of researchers from Family dog ​​project at the Department of Ethology of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, presentation 40 dogs for an intensive three-month training program intended to teach them the names of at least two dog toys, which is the minimum amount needed to be able to assess whether dogs can distinguish objects based on their names. The training protocol included daily dog-owner interactions, where the owner repeated the toy’s name multiple times, and weekly sessions that also included a dog trainer.

“At first, we hypothesized that developmental factors, such as neuroplasticity in the puppy stage, may have played a role in causing puppies to learn object names faster than adult dogs. , we recruited puppies and adults for this study, “said Claudia Fugazza, principal investigator of this project.” We were surprised to find that despite intensive training, most dogs, regardless of their age, did not showed no signs of learning. Even more surprisingly, 7 adult dogs showed an exceptional learning capacity: not only did they learn both names of the toys but, at the time of the study, they learned between 11 and 37 new names of toys ”, continues the searcher.

Among these 7 dogs, 6 already had a vocabulary of toy names at the start of the study; The seventh dog, named Oliva, previously did not know the names of the toys, but learned 21 in just two months, keeping pace with the other 6 more gifted word learning companions. This may suggest that the exceptional ability to learn the names of objects does not necessarily presuppose previous experience.

“The 7 dogs that have demonstrated this exceptional talent are the Border Collies, a breed intended to cooperate with humans for breeding purposes.Shany Dror, co-author of the study, reports.

In addition, in the literature, some dogs of other breeds are said to have acquired vocabulary skills. For example, an earlier study found this ability in a Yorkshire terrier. While it may increase your odds, being a Border Collie is neither necessary nor sufficient to be a “Gifted dog who learns words.”

“We are intrigued by this extreme interindividual variation of a cognitive trait (the ability to learn names of objects) and we believe that this is only the beginning of a journey that will lead us to better understand the roots of talent, that is, why some individuals, humans or other species, are gifted in a certain area “, concludes Dr Adam Miklósi, head of the ethology department and co-author of the study, who believes that dogs, thanks to their evolution and development in the human environment, constitute the ideal model species to meet the challenge to study the origins of talent and the variation between individuals in terms of cognitive abilities.

The study focused on dogs of the Border Collie breed, which in previous studies turned out to be the smartest, in total there were nine puppies and nine adults. Other breeds in the study included Border Terrier, King Poodle, Tony Poodle, Australian Shepherd, Schipperke, Kelpie, Vizla, Whippets, Schnauzer, Weimaraner, Mudi, Mongrels, and Labrador Poodle.

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