Posted on 04/28/2008 1:05:46 PM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
The CBS "Early Show" ran a story this week about dogs and their intelligence, or lack thereof. In the story, they shared their list of the top 10 smartest and top 10 dumbest dog breeds. These were their picks.
#10 Dumbest: The Basset Hound may be so sad-eyed because it was ranked the tenth least intelligent dog breed.
2 of 20 : #10 Smartest: The immensely trainable Australian Cattle Dog was called the tenth smartest breed. 
3 of 20 : #9 Dumbest: Don't tell the Westminster Kennel Club, but Uno, the beagle who won their 131st annual dog show, belongs to the ninth least intelligent dog breed. 
4 of 20 : #9 Smartest: The Rottweiler was called the ninth smartest breed. This one looks a tad surprised by the ranking. 
5 of 20 : #8 Dumbest: This Mastiff hangs its head in shame over being ranked the eighth least intelligent dog breed. 
6 of 20 : #8 Smartest: The Papillon, ranked eighth smartest, floats like a butterfly and knows its ABC's. 
7 of 20 : #7 Dumbest: The Pekingese is more famous for its "dustmop" look when groomed correctly. This one must be getting a haircut to avoid being associated with the seventh stupidest dog breed. 
8 of 20 : #7 Smartest: The most popular dog breed in the nation is also the seventh smartest: the Labrador Retriever. 
9 of 20 : #6 Dumbest: We know the Bloodhound has a brain somewhere beneath all those lovable wrinkles, but the "Early Show" rankings had them pulling sixth among the dumbest breeds. 
10 of 20 : #6 Smartest: The Shetland Sheepdog's agility, as shown here, helped it rank sixth smartest. 
11 of 20 : #5 Dumbest: Borzois are considered the fifth least intelligent dogs. 
12 of 20 : #5 Smartest: The Doberman Pinscher's intelligence is on full display here on a rescue mission. 
13 of 20 : #4 Dumbest: This Chow Chow can live with being considered the fourth least intelligent breed, so long as you keep its hair nice and fluffy. 
14 of 20 : #4 Smartest: Golden Retrievers were fourth on the list of smart dogs. 
15 of 20 : #3 Dumbest: The Bulldog was rated the third stupidest dog breed. 
16 of 20 : #3 Smartest: Loyal workhorses, the German Shepherds were ranked as the third smartest breed. 
17 of 20 : #2 Dumbest: The Basenji is considered the second least intelligent dog breed, but hey, it could be worse. 
18 of 20 : #2 Smartest: Love 'em or hate 'em, Poodles were ranked as the second smartest dog breed out there. 
19 of 20 : #1 Dumbest: Stylish and mysteriously ancient, the Afghan Hound nonetheless merits the dubious honor of being ranked the single least intelligent dog breed. 
20 of 20 : #1 Smartest: The Border Collie was ranked the single smartest dog breed. Do you think this one looks just a little bit proud of it? 
LOL!
Smart dog.
Both Goldens and Labs have split up into show type dogs and field type dogs.
The field types of both breeds have TONS of brains but diverge from the show standard in the looks department. The field Labs are rangy and tall on their legs, more like hounds, and the field Goldens have almost no coat.
The show breeders don't breed for brains, so that's what they DON'T necessarily get. They may get it by accident, but that's not what they're aiming at.
So you may get a smart show Lab or Golden, but if you want a better chance of a dog with brains, you're better off going for the field dogs.
How right you are about chows. Anyone who would say otherwise has never been up close and personal with one. They only give their alegience to a human once. Thats why they can only be a one owner dog and thats for life, either the humans or the dogs.
Yep, you better give them a job or they will make one up and you may not like it.
I jumped up and it ran off the deck into the back yard and just stood there. I tried to coax it over but it just wouldn’t come so I laid back down. About 10 minutes later it did the same thing and when I got up it went back out into the back yard. Again I tried to coax it over but it just kept its distance.
Again I laid back down and again the dog came up onto the deck but this time it laid down at the foot of my lounge chair and allowed me to pet it and it stayed. I then went into the house and got a leash and came back out and attached it to its collar and tethered it to the deck railing.
I then went into the house and called the local humane society and asked if anyone had reported the dog missing and they said yes and asked me if I would bring it to them. I told them I only had a 2 seater car and that the dog wouldn’t fit so I asked them to give me the owner’s phone number so I could call them about the dog. They informed me that that was private info and that they could not give me that information.
I then gave them my phone info and requested they have the family call me if they called back. About an hour later, I got a call from the humane society who said that the family had called again and if it was ok they call me………DUH! I already requested that.
Anyway, about 15 minutes later the family called and as it turned out, they were in my neighborhood looking for the dog. A few minutes later the two sons showed up in their vehicle and reclaimed the dog.
Here is the kicker: the dog had wandered thru multiple subdivisions covering a span of about 4 miles to finally end up at my place.
That made my day but also alerted me to a potential problem with dealing with the humane society…………
You should see our bedtime ritual. Dogs are already in the bed when we get ready to go to bed, so hubby pushes the sleeping dogs aside so he can crawl into his spot. Then the female 75 lbs, who is the alpha, picks out her favorite spot (which is near my husband), then the male 90 lbs finds his spot (also as near to my husband as he can), and I get what’s leftover, LOL. Thank the Lord for king size beds.
Sounds like your dog practices the sport of bed wrestling:
The age old sport of bed wrestling has been practiced between dogs and humans for centuries. It is very subtle, slow-moving, and can take all night, so it isn’t much of a spectator sport. To the combatants, however, it is very intense.
It starts out with one or two humans placed lengthwise in a bed, with a dog curled up at the bottom near their feet. For a human to win, all he or she has to do is stay in the same spot until morning. This is not as easy as it seems.
For the dog to win, it takes cunning, persistence, patience and the agility of an eel. The dog has won the wrestling match when it has worked its way from the bottom of the bed to the top, with its head on the pillow and its body under the covers, stretched out to its utmost length-but crosswise in the bed. The dog must do this without actually waking the humans, who will have nightmares about being crushed, and will find themselves in the morning desperately clutching the edge of the mattress to keep from falling on the floor.
My next door neighbors have 2 English Mastiffs and have had a series of others, according to them they are the dumbest breed around. The wife would like to have a different breed but her husband won’t hear of it.
Maybe your is an exception, because they have had about 5 in the last 15 years.
I can't even walk around in my own backyard without the @$#@%^%#&&% things barking at me.
I will admit, though, that all of the dogs individually are smarter than my neighbor. So I guess they've got that going for them.
I can't even walk around in my own backyard without the @$#@%^%#&&% things barking at me.
I will admit, though, that all of the dogs individually are smarter than my neighbor. So I guess they've got that going for them.
No my Lab is dumber than your Lab.
It's almost entirely obedience based. Very little problem solving or other activities.
So a breed like an Afghan that is bred as a sighthound is going to have little if any proficiency in obedience. While the Border Collie, that is bred to obey complex commands for herding, is going to star. And gundogs are not tested for retrieving and scenting, the skills in which they are absolutely the tops.
My personal opinion is, it's a list that's pretty good on the edges but fuzzy in the middle. In other words, yeah, Afghan Hounds really ARE dumb, and Border Collies really ARE smart.
My dog as a kid was a Border Collie. I could bend your ear for hours with stories as to how smart that dog was.
She was born from a litter that the owner didn't want. He promptly drowned all her litter mates. Somehow, she got wind of this, and hid out under his front porch. He didn't even know she existed, for the first week of her life. When he figured out she was there, the story got out, and my Dad took the dog in, hardly two weeks old then, figuring she might be a useful working dog on our dairy farm. That she was, for her whole long life.
She loved riding in the car. The first time we were ever going to take her to the Vet was when she was about a year old. We were taking her into to get spade (fixed.) We figured we'd just jump in the car as usual, and she'd jump in with us, tail wagging as usual, and off we'd go. But she took one look at us, and headed for the hills (literally). It tooks us several hours to find her and order her into the car. To this day, I have no clue how she knew that she didn't want to go for a ride that day.
Each summer, we put the two year old heifers on a neighbors hillside pasture for the summer. Several other farmers did the same. At the end of the summer, we'd borrow a truck, and drive up to the pasture. The dog would go up in the wooded hills, upwards of a mile off, find our heifers (not the neighbors, she remembered which were ours) and bring them back and put them on the truck, for us to tie down and take home. By that point the heifers were as wild as young deer and could jump five foot fences in a single bound. She controlled them in part by nipping at their heels. Have you ever tried nipping the heels of a six hundred pound wild animal, strong enough to jump five feet in the air, while it's doing its level best to crush your skull, when you're twenty five pounds soaking wet? We just stood by the truck, rope in hand, while the dog did all the work.
I'd love to have another Border Collie. But I'd never do so unless I had a herd of sheep or cattle or something of similar challenge, and a minimum of ten or twenty acres of land that needed tending (keeping down the woodchucks, bringing the cows to the barn to milk, something.)
I agree..mine is very smart.
I had a cat once that practiced those same tactics. He
was a beautiful gray and black tabby who weighed 22 pounds
and he was not fat. He was long and tall and one of our
friends thought he was an ocelot. But he was prettier than
that, I thought.
Oh I agree Afghans probably are really stupid. In that case I think it’s not because they’re hounds, but because they’ve been bred by show people entirely for hair for the last 50 years.
I was speaking mostly about the bloodhound and beagle, and perhaps the basset, being potentially unfairly evaluated. They are breeds who are typically not good at obedience, but they aren’t dumb, they’re differently wired.
Parents have a Border Collie - VERY SMART!
Frankly I love all that are listed.
Of all the animals we raised as kids, she was the momma to all of them.
I could go on and on, but poodles definately earned their top position and probable give the worthy Border a good run for their money...
Smart of dumb. I don't care. They're adorable and fun.
#9 another beautiful doggie!!!
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