Border collies, poodles, shepherd dogs – several dog breeds enjoy the reputation of a particularly strong intelligence. Some leaderboards and competitions have a clear winner in the question. However, according to one expert, it is not that simple.
Dogs are trendy. Nobody knows exactly how many there are in Germany, but one thing is clear: there are more and more. In the Corona year 2020, the sale of dogs increased by 20 percent according to the Association for German Dogs. The most popular dog breeds in Germany are: the German shepherd, the dachshund and the German Wirehaired Pointer.
Whether big or small, long-haired or short-haired – the preferences of dogs vary greatly. What unites many people, however, is the desire for a dog with which they can play games and teach commands. And not without reason: Studies show that dogs are particularly good at recognizing gestures and following cues from humans. In corresponding experiments, they usually performed better than wolves, chimpanzees or even small children.
But which dog is the smartest? The intelligence of dogs has been researched since at least 1976, with various media recently reporting on a study the results of which allegedly show that the Belgian shepherd variety Malinois is the most intelligent dog breed in the world. The ranking of the US psychology professor Stanley Coren from 1994 is still popular when answering this question.
Coren asked 208 dog competition judges which breed they thought was the most intelligent. The Border Collie took first place, closely followed by the Poodle and the German Shepherd Dog. But does such an approach make sense? Only to a limited extent, says Sven Wieskotten to ntv.de, a self-employed biologist in the field of animal husbandry and animal training.
“The list reflects the trainability and the obedience of the dogs, which were produced through a long selection and co-evolution. However, this is too short,” says Wieskotten. “Intelligence is not only to be equated with the ability to learn. It is rather the totality of differently developed cognitive abilities. These include, for example, abilities to solve linguistic, mathematical and meaning-oriented problems.”
In fact, the Border Collie’s reputation for being a particularly intelligent dog doesn’t just stem from Coren’s list. In 1999, the Border Collie Rico became famous throughout Germany when he appeared on “Wetten dass…?” proved that he could match objects to 77 different words. According to his master, the Border Collie Chaser, who died in 2019, was even able to remember 1022 different words, and in the so-called “Smart Dog Challenge” of the University of Budapest in 2021, six Border Collies made it into the last six dogs.
“Border collies are definitely at the forefront when it comes to learning and communication,” says Wieskotten. “However, intelligence in dogs is a term that we use too much from a human perspective.” A dog is not generally intelligent if it listens well to its master’s commands. In other areas – for example, the sole survival in the wild – completely different dog breeds would do best, according to the expert.
What should be taken into account with the supposedly particularly intelligent dog breeds such as the border collie or the German shepherd also applies the other way round to dogs that are generally regarded as less intelligent. In Coren’s rankings, the Afghan Hound, the English Bulldog and the Chow Chow came last. According to experts, however, that says little about their intelligence, but instead could rather be an expression of a certain stubbornness.
“I could also ask: What is more intelligent? To always pant opportunistically after your master so that you can somehow get your treat or just wait in the corner until the treat comes by itself?” says Wieskotten. “Of course, that’s also a sign of intelligence: that you just wait and know that you’ll get your food anyway.”
If you are thinking about getting a dog, you should ask yourself what you hope to gain from living together. For someone who wants a dog that can learn a lot of commands, a Border Collie is probably a good choice. If you want a particularly quiet companion or a guard dog, you may be happier with another dog by your side.
“It’s quite similar to us humans: We have brilliant mathematicians, for example, who win international prizes, but still have room for improvement on a social and technical level,” says Wieskotten. “Then we have a craftsman who is possibly much better on a social level than the mathematician. To generalize – he is intelligent, he is not intelligent – is difficult.”
By the way: Intelligence in the animal kingdom has nothing to do with the size of the brain. Capuchin monkeys, which with human training can operate phones or microwave ovens, carry just 50 grams of brain in their heads. Whales have by far the heaviest brains of any living creature. Their brain weighs around six times that of a human. However, it is not known that they are six times as intelligent as humans.
(This article was first published on Saturday, January 28, 2023.)
