Scientists named smartest dog breed
Dogs are like children to their owners, and everyone believes their pet is the best and the smartest. However, there are dog breeds whose high brain development has been scientifically proven. For a long time, the Border Collie breed held the top spot, but now everything has changed.
Countryliving shares which breed scientists have named the smartest,
Which breed did scientists name the smartest
In the study conducted by scientists from the University of Helsinki, breeds considered to be the smartest participated. These include:
- Belgian Malinois
- Australian Kelpie
- Labrador Retriever
- Golden Retriever
- Scottish Sheepdog
- German Hovawart
- Spanish Water Dog
- Shetland Sheepdog
- English Cocker Spaniel
- Australian Shepherd
- German Shepherd
- Finnish Lapphund
- Border Collie
All breeds underwent ten ability tests - seven cognitive and three behavioral tasks.
In particular, the dogs were required to navigate a transparent V-shaped fence to reach food that they could see, and to read human gestures, responding to five movements: constant pointing, brief pointing, foot pointing, pointing while looking away, and eye tracking.
The scientists studied the dogs' independence skills and their interaction with humans when assistance was needed to complete a task - for example, retrieving food from a closed box.
After completing all the tasks, the scientists announced the winner: the Belgian Malinois. Dogs of this breed performed well in most tasks, earning 35 out of 39 points. However, even this breed had some shortcomings.
For example, the Malinois didn't perform as well on the task where they had to retrieve food from a transparent cylinder.
This breed, by nature, is a herder. In addition to intelligence, a defining trait is its high endurance.
Malinois (photo: pixabay.com)
The Australian Kelpie took second place, earning 26 points out of 39. In third place was the Labrador Retriever with 25 points.
Border Collies, once considered the smartest dogs, only came in fourth place. Fifth place went to the Golden Retriever.
Scientists explain the high intelligence of the Malinois by their historical purpose. These dogs were bred for herding livestock, which required quick responses to commands, independent decision-making, and a high level of self-control.
Years of selective breeding have reinforced the most important qualities of this breed, making the Malinois not only intelligent but also hardworking and resilient.
Which dog has the highest IQ
Famous dog expert and professor Stanley Coren, in his book "The Intelligence of Dogs," noted that intelligence is divided into three categories:
Instinctive Intelligence – this refers to what the dog was bred for by humans.
Adaptive Intelligence – how well the dog adapts to its environment.
Working and Obedience Intelligence – how diligently the dog wants to work for the benefit of humans and perform tasks.
According to Professor Stanley, the ranking of the smartest dog breeds is as follows:
- Border Collie
- Poodle
- German Shepherd
- Golden Retriever
- Doberman Pinscher
- Shetland Sheepdog
- Labrador Retriever
- Papillon
- Rottweiler
- Australian Cattle Dog
The Border Collie is highly valued for its instincts and work ethic, being easy to train and scoring very high in obedience and agility.
In second place are Poodles, known for being very easy to train and exceptionally intelligent dogs.
Earlier, we wrote about which dog breeds begin to freeze even at -5°C.