How to Measure a Dog's Intelligence

Happy Brown and White Dog on a Walk (Courtesy: MobilityDog.org)

Who’s a smart boy? Who’s a clever girl? Why, your dog of course! You have the brainiest dog around, no doubt about that.

Nevertheless, the debate over dog intelligence – how to measure it, whether it varies significantly by breed, which breed produces the smartest animals – continues to rage on.

One Study of Intelligence by Breed

A group of Finnish researchers performed an exhaustive analysis* of canine intelligence using a broad battery of tests and including a wide range of breeds. They evaluated:

• Sociability – The enthusiasm with which the dog greeted the tester, an unknown person.

• Exploration – The amount of time the dog spent roaming the testing room, as opposed to staying close to his or her master.

• Gesture response – The degree to which the dog responded to such gestures as pointing toward food and could decide whether to react to a gesture rather than approach food it could see.

• Inhibitory control – How well the dog could circumvent a barrier to obtain food, rather than reaching directly for a treat.

• Problem-solving – The dog’s success in determining where a treat was hidden and navigating a fence to obtain food.

• Memory – The dog’s ability to remember the location of food after an elapsed time and to recall the location of food when misled by a human gesture.

Results Suggests Purpose Influences Intelligence

The researchers found significant differences between individual dog breeds for five of the seven cognitive tests they conducted. Breed differences appeared for:

• Measures of social cognition.

• Inhibitory control; and

• Spatial problem-solving ability.

Differences were also evident for activity level, greeting of an unfamiliar person, and exploration of a novel environment.

Both inhibitory control and social cognition are likely to be important in the development of breed-specific traits, both historically and in the present day. For example, inhibitory control may be valued in herding dogs, which are required to suppress their predatory tendencies. The Border Collie and Australian Shepherd were among the highest-scoring breeds in the inhibitory control evaluation.

An Inquisitive Australian Shepherd (Courtesy: Pixabay.com)

In contrast, the Malinois and German Shepherd were some of the lowest-scoring breeds in this area. These dogs are often used in working roles requiring high responsiveness, which is frequently associated with low inhibitory control and high impulsivity.

Human-directed behavior and socio-cognitive abilities may be highly valued in pet dogs and breeds required to work closely with people, such as herding dogs and retrievers. In these tests, the Kelpie, Golden Retriever, Australian Shepherd, and Border Collie spent the largest proportion of their time on human-directed behavior during challenging tasks.

In contrast, the ability to function independently may be important for many working dogs, such as detection dogs. In this study, the two breeds demonstrated almost complete independence during a cognitively challenging task (spending zero percent of their time on human-directed behavior); the German Shepherd and the Malinois.

German Shepherd Looking into Camera (Courtesy: Pixabay.com)

Context Matters

Dog breeds (and individual animals within a breed) may vary widely in the components that we humans lump together to define “intelligence.” Moreover, what is “smart” in one canine context (impulse control among herding dogs, for instance), may not be beneficial (or even counterproductive) in another context (German Shepherds that must react quickly when guarding property, for example).

The researchers also point out the inevitable nature/nurture dichotomy. They acknowledge that the differences that emerge from their study may exist not only because of genetic differences between breeds but also because of variations in the dogs’ life experiences (socialization and training, for example).

They also acknowledge another somewhat surprising factor that may affect measures of dog intellect (especially when determined by trainability); canine skull shape and brain size. More on that in the next blog.

Reference:

* Junttila, S., Valros, A., Mäki, K. et al. Breed differences in social cognition, inhibitory control, and spatial problem-solving ability in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). Sci Rep 12, 22529 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26991-5.