Posts Tagged dogs
Believe it or not: Some dogs are as smart as a 5-year-old.
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.
Modern breeds don’t join wolves in their call of the wild
When I grew up, dogs mainly roamed free in my Saint Paul city neighborhood. They would create a terrific cacophony of howls when fire engines cruised by, and even more so during monthly testing of civil-defense sirens.
Based on my observations of our dogs and others it seemed to me that they all responded to these wolf-like sounds. So I was surprised to learn that Hungarian scientists observed only 39 of 68 breeds joining in on wolf howling.* Furthermore, they graded the vocal responses by type as follows (making me howl with laughter-ha ha):
- Howl, Bark-howl, Moan, Yelp
- Growl, Growl-howl, Woof
- Whine, Whine-howl
- Bark
The researchers then applied principal component analysis (PCA) that connected the degree of howling to the genetic distance from wolves—ancient breeds (huskies, malamutes and the like) older most likely to join in. This effect becomes more pronounced with age: Older dogs from modern breeds (for example, terriers and boxers) being least likely to howl with the wolves.
Hopefully, I interpreted this study correctly—there’s a lot to it. However, if you have a dog and remain uncertain how they howl, turn the volume up on this video.
By the way, I almost literally ran into a huge timber-wolf sitting on a remote road in northern Minnesota. After I brought our family car to a full stop, the wolf stared me down before sauntering slowly off. That gave me a healthy respect for Canis lupus and their wildness.
PS If you like dogs (as I do!), check out this briefing by Reuters, which includes a short video of the lead scientist and her Siberian husky Bizsu, whose howling precipitated this fascinating study.
Genius dog challenges boggle the mind
Due to the social distancing necessitated by the current pandemic, dogs have become more valuable than ever for their devoted companionship. I have enjoyed owning a number of dogs throughout my life—observing a remarkable range in their intelligence, even within the same breeds. However, I doubt that even the smartest of my canines ever came close to six genius dogs now competing for this world championship in Budapest. They qualified by knowing the names of at least 10 objects. The winner, to be crowned later this month, will need to identify 12 toys with only a week of training.
This feat of memory and recognition seemed impressive by my meager experience with dogs (and limited talent for training them). However, it turns out that a Border Collie named Chaser, who passed away a year ago, knew over 1000 nouns. Incredible! In 2018, he and his owner and trainer, John Pilley, were put to a randomized test (with a surprising twist!) for PBS Nova by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Watch the 6-minute video: You will be amazed.