Smartest Breed?

[emc]

So what would you say is the smartest breed? I've read that it's the Border Collie.
--------------------------------
The Dog Shop

[jesse_3]

Do you mean the fastest learner (with tricks?) or figuring out different situations?
Personally, I think that it really depends upon the dog!! Any collie is really very intelligent with anything you could throw at them...But there are exceptions to that!! lol!

[Buddy Blaze Lover]

Border collie and poodle...NO question!!! lol, I would know with a border collie of my own!!

[lbaker]

The science journal my Association publishes has had several articles in the last year about dog DNA and dog ability to "learn" words etc. In every case studied it was the Border Collie, paws down (being the roommate of six Border Collie/Aussie Shepherd mixes I was, quite frankly, not surprized!).

[cloverfdx]

Just my opinion and just a little biased, The Border Collie .

[Kfamr]

I think it's assinine to state that there's a smartest breed. That's like saying there's a smartest race when it comes to humans.

I think anyone would say that their breed of dog is the "smartest" - when I comes down to it, personally I think it depends on training. You can teach a kid to add and subtract, and you can teach them to multiply and divide as well... You can train a dog to sit and stay, and you can teach them to pick a specific toy out of the bunch, ect. I've seen these tricks done from a small Schnauzer all the way to my Mutts.

ALL dogs are smart if they're given the chance to be.

[lbaker]

I agree Kay, I was mostly just being a smarty pants. Sorry.

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

I think all dogs could be classified as "the smartest breed". It's jsut that some dogs love to please their owners a bit more than others, and those are the ones that learn things quickly. But if I were to choose the most intellignet breeds I'd have to say the Border Collie, Poodle, Toller and Aussie Shepherd.

[Kfamr]

Originally posted by Orangutango
It's jsut that some breeds love to please their owners a bit more than others, and those are the ones that learn things quickly.

DOGS*****

[Tollers-n-Dobes]

Originally posted by Kfamr
DOGS*****

That's what I meant. lol I was going to edit my post and then got side tracked by another thread.

[cocker_luva]

i think all are the smartest...i mean, look at them, they have to learn a whole new language and they understand a great many words! they study our body language, our tone and are understanding our own language; sometimes two!

[cali]

border collies lol I have been around mahy differnt breeds and border collies just pick things up easier, I agree that youi can teach any dog well, i mean look at blair one might consider him smart as a freetyle, agility and flyball dog, but he is actually extremly stupid lol no offence to him but he is as dumb as a doornail! however I think smart consitutes as dogs that pick up on things that they were never tought, for example Happy can find something a mile away by simply describing it to her, I did not teach her to do that, I was just trying to find something that I dropped so I described it to Happy and she found it lol I did not teach her to play ctach with me or how to play basketball or soccer or football but she can do it all, and usually win lol I did not teach her what any of her toys names are, I just make up a name and ask her to bring it, she will find what she thinks I am asking, point at it as if to ask if this is the toy I want I say yes and she brings me the toy. she will go anywhere I ask, she will go where I point and from there move forward, backward, side to side, sit, down, stand, whatever in that spot, I did not teach her to do any of that she has just always done in in her own. Perky is not a BC but I believe she is equally as smart, because she can problem solve, when my dad left a hunk of cheese on the top of the desk he moved the chair to the other side of the room so the dogs could not get it, Perky proceeded to push the chair to the desk, and use it to climb on the desk and eat the cheese, when she wants the house to herself she gets the dogs all riled up, then runs to the door while they are all in a frenzy askes to go out, you open the door the rilled uo dogs get exited and run outside, meanwhile perky has got the house to herself with the object of her disire lol that is what I call smart, not what you can teach a dpg but what a dog can figer out for itself.

[Suki Wingy]

It's hard to tell, but among the smartest are the poodle, hearding breeds, and the primitive breeds like the basenji and the carolina dog. The Dalmatians are also very smart. Smart is not willingness to preform tasks or please the owner . Some dogs know more than they choose to show.

[wolfsoul]

When people do those "smartest breed" tests, they aren't judging a dog on it's intelligence. They are judging it on it's obedience.

It is not fair to judge a breed's intelligence on it's obedience. They say border collies are smartest and afghans are dumbest, based on obedience-related activities. Well it's completely unfair to take a border collie and compare it to an afghan. A border collie is bred to work alongside man -- it's bred to take commands, and to be eager to please. A border collie is bred to be obedient. Most herding dogs are this way. Afghans are bred to RUN AWAY from the owner. An owner can not tell the dog where the prey is -- the afghan needs to find it for himself, and therefore he relies on himself alot more and alot less on the owner's pleasure and the owner's needs. Sighthounds are this way. You just can't compare them -- they are bred to think and act in completely different ways.

That being said, I DO believe that some breeds are just more intelligent than others, and I'm not just talking about obedience...There are just some that seem to pick up on things or understand things better than others -- in my own experience. I'm not sure what it is alot of the time. I've seen two different breeds do the exact same thing, and deep down I always know which one I think is smarter. I disagree that comparing breed intelligence is like comparing human races, because human races were not bred to do specific things, and that type of instinct in people is not held strong anyways.

[Kfamr]

Originally posted by wolfsoul
I disagree that comparing breed intelligence is like comparing human races, because human races were not bred to do specific things, and that type of instinct in people is not held strong anyways.

You always misinterpret when I use a comparison like this.


What I meant in comparison to "breed intelligence" and human races, is the fact that it's just as asinine to say something like "Mexicans are smarter than Puerto Ricans" as it is to say "Border Collies are smarter than German Shepherds."