Emily Anthes, a science reporter for the New York Times, wrote a story early this year on how Dogs Build Their Vocabularies Like Toddlers. It featured an adorable picture of Miso, a 6-year-old male border collie from Canada, who knows the names of about 200 toys. She followed this up with an article this month In Defense of Dumb Dogs, confessing that her dog Watson is at the other end of the intelligence spectrum—knowing only the word “treat” and then needing to be led to it due to his poor hunting skills.

I found it very interesting that, though scientists figure that dogs may be on par cognitively with children between 1 and 3 years old, many owners claim that their pets are as smart as a 5-year-old. This is obviously a case of parental bias with dogs being treated as a member of the family, as evidenced by only 6% of owners in a 2025 YouGov survey admitting that their pet was below average. I love stats like this!

I have enjoyed dogs all my life and observed a surprisingly wide range of mental capability. My guess is that about half were below average. ; ) The smartest and best trained pets were a series of Springer Spaniels my father owned, all named “Dixie”—the last of which lives on after Dad passed away early last year at the age of 95. He loved to send his current Dixie off to play the piano. But none of the Dixie’s learned to sing like the beagle Buddy Mercury did.

Of course, canine intelligence varies greatly by breed. See a report by the American Kennel Club (AKC), updated April 6, for the top 20 results of a Study Measuring Canine Intelligence Ranks Breeds as the Smartest. I am not at all surprised to see the border collie being the “paws down” winner. While in Scotland years ago, I watched Bob and his owner demonstrate their sheep herding. It was amazing!

My favorite breed, the golden retriever, comes in at number 4. My wife and I owned two goldens—one (a male) being far more intelligent and fun than the other (a female), but both were adorable and great with our 5 kids. The springer spaniel achieved the #13 rank.

Another, older, list by the same scientist, Stanley Coren, starts off just a bit differently but goes on to rank a total of 100 dog breeds. Check it out here in this post by HubPages. I see that the beagle fared very poorly, though any dog that can play the piano and sing ranks highly in my estimation.

PS: Professor Coren attributes 51% of a dog’s intelligence to its genes and the other 49% to environmental circumstances. Such exactitude bothers me—I’d just say about half and half and suggest that a ‘nature-versus-nurture’ stat like this is very debatable. However, seeing how well my dad did with his dogs by nurturing them far more than me or my six younger siblings (all of us very jealous, ha ha), I am certain that environment makes a big difference in bringing out native intelligence.