The designation of the most intelligent breed of dog is a recurring and popular theme (at least, for lovers of these animals). In recent years, many lists have been published, but now a detailed scientific study, based on seven types of tests, shows the first classification in which characteristics related to impulsivity, social behavior, problem solving, are taken into account and weighted. logical reasoning and short-term memory.
In five of the seven tests, results between dog breeds have shown notable differences, the authors of the new study explain, but averaging isn’t easy. In addition, the researchers acknowledge, despite the fact that more than a thousand animals of 13 different breeds have been studied, it cannot be said that the study is fully representative. To complete the recognition of the complexity of this type of study, the researchers explain that their work has shown that there can be a lot of difference between dogs of the same breed, due to their training, experience with humans, age…
The research has been led by experts from the University of Helsinki (Finland) and its results have been published in the journal Scientific Reports, from the Nature group.
The authors found differences between races for measures of social cognition, persistence, inhibitory control, and spatial problem-solving ability. Differences were also evident in activity level, greeting an unfamiliar person, and exploring a novel environment. By contrast, no significant differences were found between races for short-term memory or logical reasoning, the new study’s summary of findings indicates.
The study shows classifications by races in each of the tests, without making a total average. However, when asked by various media, the authors have indicated that the Belgian Malinois breed is the one that achieves the best positions in a greater number of tests. Thus, the Malinois topped the lists in tests before human gestures and in spatial tasks and is fifth in independent behavior.
Border collies lived up to their reputation, coming in second, while the hovawart would come third. On the consolation list, golden retrievers and labradors top the positions for the human gestures test.
Both inhibitory control and social cognition are likely to be especially important traits during artificial selection of dog breeds, both historically and currently, the authors of the new study recall. For example, inhibitory control may be a valuable trait in herding dogs, which must inhibit their predatory responses.
Border collies and Australian shepherds were among the highest scoring breeds on the cylinder test, indicating high inhibitory control. In contrast, the Malinois and German Shepherd were some of the lowest scoring breeds. These breeds are often used in job roles that require high responsiveness, which is often associated with low inhibitory control and high impulsivity.
Human-directed behavior and sociocognitive abilities can be highly valued in dogs and breeds required to work closely with people, such as herding dogs and retrievers. Accordingly, kelpies, golden retrievers, Australian shepherds, and border collies spent most of their time engaging in human-directed behavior during complex tasks. Conversely, the ability to work independently can be important for various working dogs, such as detection dogs.
“In our study, the two breeds that were most likely to be completely independent during the unsolvable task, spending 0% of their time on human-directed behavior, were the German Shepherd and the Malinois,” the scientific team notes.
“In conclusion, many of our results appear to reflect original or current breed function, but several differences between breeds cannot be easily explained by breed function alone,” the study authors write. For example, many of the breeds in our study belonged to the herding group, but there was often great variation in their results on various cognitive tests. The Finnish lapphund received the lowest scores in the gesture tests, while the kelpie and malinois scored the highest in this test, despite the fact that all three were herding breeds.
Similarly, during the unsolvable task, the Australian Shepherd was the breed least likely to drop out of the task, while the kelpie was among the breeds most likely to drop out of the task. It seems clear that the behavior of breeds can vary from one another, even within their breed groups, since different traits may have been selected for (both intentionally and unintentionally) in different breeds, regardless of the breed group they belong to. .
The new results build on findings from several previous studies that have investigated differences between dog breeds in tasks such as orientation, understanding of human gestures and complex tasks. In any case, the new study indicates that these studies should be expanded taking into account many more variables.
For example, the golden retriever differed significantly from the labrador retriever on the complex tasks and the gesture test, even though both belong to the retriever group. “Therefore, our findings highlight the importance of investigating behavioral differences between individual breeds rather than relying solely on breed group categorizations,” they state in their study abstract.
The authors stress that “it is important to note that the population used in this study is not representative of the entire dog population, as findings may differ between countries and cultures.” In addition, they indicate, “the possibility exists that the differences observed in our study are not based on genetic differences between breeds, but rather due to variation in life experiences or training.”
