[very_vizsla]

I've been reading this blog called itchmo, over the past fews days. they have posted some info on the smartest & stupidest dog breeds according to vet dr. stanley coren. here are the links to the articles, what do you think? i have to agree with the border collie being the smartest.

http://itchmo.com/read/top-10-not-so...reeds_20070706

http://itchmo.com/read/the-top-10-mo...-dogs_20070705

[briteday]

I found the most obedient and trainable dogs to be about the same as my observations. And the comments were accurate.

There are a lot of breeds that I find less obedient. However that trait is outweighed by other special abilities those breeds possess. I guess they wouldn't do well in an obedience ring though. I have to agree on that.

[Curbside Prophet]

Stanley Coren explains very well what the issues are in measuring intelligence. However, I think he does a disservice to dogs by attempting to rank them. People don't read him carefully and I've read many writers who have interpreted the rankings improperly.

For one, comparitive psychologists look at the dog not in the environment it is adapted to, but rather in artificial, contrived environments. How does one breed compare with another in the *wrong* environment? I think is the *wrong* question to ask.

Dr. Raymond Coppinger writes this in Dogs - A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution.

Implicit in the claims that breeds can be ranked according to intelligence, or temperament, is the assumption that intelligence and temperament are genetic traits, and breed specific, and are measurable. It implies that intelligence exists more or less along some continuum. To say that border collies are smarter than Afghan hounds is to assert that the genetic configuration of the border collie's brain enables it to learn more, or more quickly, or perhaps to be able to solve more problems, than an Afghan hound. And it is just not true. A classic experiment that selected for maze-bright (smart) and maze-dull (stupid) rats concluded that within several generations, strains of rats had evolved with different intelligence quotients. Later investigations, however, determined that the rats had actually been selected for their shyness about entering the maze ("stupid"), or willingness to enter ("smart"). The observed results had nothing to do with intelligence.

Dr. Coppinger goes on to say...

I believe that thinking about the learning abilities of dogs in terms of intelligence is to miss the essence of dogs. No breed is more or less intelligent in any general sense. They are all just different in what they are capable of learning. The innate motor patterns are the qualities of each dog that the trainer is shaping. And displaying innate motor patterns is what makes the dog feel good.

More times than not I hear of people claiming that their dog is "stupid" or "dumb". And usually what follows such claims is frustration on the owners part and possible punitive measures applied to the dog's parts. This isn't fair to dogs, and anyone making such claims is speaking a foreign language to me.

Plus, anyone who owns a mini schnauzer knows that mini's are the brightest breed of all.

[TheChinClique]

Well, I have always said that Tank is not the brightest crayon in the box...I guess Mr.Cohen agrees

I think American Eskimos should be on the smart list. They are REALLY intelligent...way too much so for their own good!

[Keenan]

I had a Border Collie Golden Retriever mix and most people assumed he was dumb. He was far from it, he just didn't listen to anyone and he did his own thing for some reason.
As far as trainability I'd say collies and shepherd are what most people would consider "smart". Right now I have a 5 month old Aussie and she already sits, speaks, lays down, stays and shakes on command. I really don't work with her a whole lot either.

[gizmobaby]

I think all dogs are smart, just like kids. They all have the potential and ability to be the smartest dogs and defy the stereotypes...people just need to have more faith with them. Given though that some do learn faster than others.......

My dog is smart but acts dumb, which I've noticed. Like for example, he can jump onto high things pretty well for a dog his size. Very agile and fast. But sometimes, he prefers to be pampered so he pretends as if he can't jump onto things and instead just stands on his hind legs waiting for me to pick him up, which I can disprove once I put food in front of his face. lol

[echo8287]

I've had several different types of dogs and their intelligence was different in varying degrees. My daughters Yorkie was an extremely fast learner. One day she was playing with a piece of food(throwing it up in the air) on the sofa and it fell off and went slightly under the sofa. I was watching her thought process.There is a tall rug beside the sofa. She jumped off, looked under the sofa, decided in a second, she could not get it with her nose . Then she reached under the sofa with her paw and tapped the piece of food several times,about 3 feet to the end of the rug and pulled the piece out from behind the rug and ate it.That took some deductive reasoning and problem solving.
I had a Dalmatian that could do a few tricks, but was a free thinker. She could catch fish out of the lake with her mouth like a bear. She figured that out by herself.
I had a half Lab/ half German Shepard that could get the newspaper out of the newspaper box and bring it to the door.
David

[icepaw]

I think Dobermans are one of the smartest dogs. Then again I am a little biased because they are my favriout.