Top Ten Intelligent Dog Breeds - Dog Intelligence Un·veiled

Stanley Coren's 'The Intelligence of Dogs: Canine Consciousness and Capabilities' received a mega hype in media - more than any other dog book published recently. Coren is a dog trainer and an experimental canine behaviorist, who approaches is subject quite seriously, which makes Coren put forth the various historical views of dog's behavior in the most fascinating way.

In his book, "The Intelligence of Dogs", Coren discusses three types of canine intelligence.

• Adaptive Intelligence: This is specific to the individual animal -- depends on individual dog, which is measured by canine IQ tests. Adaptive Intelligence is the ability to learn new things and solve problems.
• Instinctive Intelligence: Instinctive Intelligence is also specific to the individual animal and is measured by canine IQ tests.
• Working /Obedience Intelligence: Working Intelligence or Obedience Intelligence is breed specific. Different breeds of dogs show different degree of Working /Obedience Intelligence.

Coren considered all these three types of canine intelligence while analyzing the dog intelligence. The analysis comes down to the dog's ability to learn, remember and obey the commands that have been taught. Below are the top ten dog breeds (with no 1 being the most intelligent breed of the ten) measured by analyzing the degree of intelligence. These dog breeds require less than 5 repetitions to understand a new command and have been seen obeying the first commands 95% of time.... that means 95% better than any other breeds.

1) Border collie
2) Poodle
3) German Shepherd Dog
4) Golden retriever
5) Doberman pinscher
6) Shetland sheepdog
7) Labrador retriever
8) Papillon
9) Rottweiler
10) Australian cattle dog

Well, that's really an awesome work by Mr. Stanley Coren, but at first I was a bit confused, because I know terriers understand commands too perfectly and owners are really happy with their intellectual companions! I mailed Mr. Clifton letting him know about my confusion, although I wasn't really aware of whether he had already read about Coren's work. I had to wait not more than a day and was hit back with his return reply. He already had read about the dog intelligence and Coren's work. Here's the copy of his short explanation:

"Hi Arindam
Good to know that you are carrying out your studies on the subject. You are perfectly right. I have also seen Mr. Gordon's Fox Terrier, 'Bruno' understands commands perfectly and that makes Gordon quite happy, but not always. Bruno is just a bit too stubborn in obeying Gordon's commands mindlessly, although he's one of the brightest canine companion I've seen ever.

The dogs that are bred to work with human, like the ones you are owning, really do great in obedience. The gene play it's role here and compels the animal to look to the alfa member of the pack (their owners/trainers) for direction.

Thanks and regards
John Clifton"