The 10 Smartest & Dumbest Dog Breeds

[ihartgonzo]

I have a few issues with the list...

I am SURE there are plenty of intelligent Labs. I have just never met one.

I HAVE met lots of very intelligent Beagles. They are clever dogs, but they're stubborn. If you can find something to really motivate them, they are super sharp. Fozzie might be part Beagle... although I think his stubbornness comes from his Corgi genes. He needs to be motivated, but when he is, he picks up on commands faster and more enthusiastically than Gonzo.

 

[Laurelin]

I dont think ANY toy dogs are on the list, but my chihuhua/min pin is one of the smartest dogs I have ever owned. On the other hand, my ex boyfriends chihuahua seemed to be missing a few brain cells, lol.

Nope, the Papillon is on there!

(And you people think I'm exaggerating when I say the little buggers are crazy smart)

See? Proof:

And they're not crazy at all! *wink wink*

ETA: I did notice that they generally picked really dumb looking pictures of the so called 10 dumbest breeds.

 

[PoodleMommy]

poodles belong in the top 10.

However, absent from the bottom 10 were yorkies... or at least mine belongs there... poor thing.

 

[Romy]

People are really bad about basing the intelligence of an animal on their desire to communicate with and please human beings. So according to them, ALL reptiles are dumb (very false! many are extremely intelligent!), fish are dumb, amphibians are dumb....

The more social an animal is, the more intelligent they are perceived. Somehow, cats are exempt from this rule though.

I never understood that. Cats are acknowledged as being "smart", sighthounds are described as "cat-like", and yet they are dumb?

That being said, Strider is probably in the top ten of most intelligent dogs I have ever met. He also has a high dose of "please the human" drive, and gets a lot of comments from ignorant people about how surprised they are that a dog with such a skinny head could be so smart. If he were to take their intelligence test he would fail though, just because he's been trained to do the opposite of a lot of those things..like not eat food off the floor EVER, if I put something on his head he must leave it there until I tell him to take it off, etc.

The only two really stupid dogs I have ever met were a terv, and a cocker spaniel. They were weird, like something was just not there. Not typical of their breeds or anything. The terv would meet you, love to see you, and as soon as you were out of sight for 5 minutes he would forget you existed and you'd have to be reintroduced over and over again. He was like that even with his owners. The cocker...well.....he was just "special." Even then, that was just from what I saw of them. They very well could have had other facets of their intelligence that were pretty high, and I just never saw it in action.

 

[Dekka]

The list is total bunk.


JRTs should be in the top 3

seriously thats stupid. There are smart and dumb individuals in any population.

 

[AlphaDobe]

My top three
German Shepherd
Australian Cattle Dog
Bull Terrier

As for Sage my Doberman, He is well.. Sage lol.

 

[bubbatd]

They should have tested Chaz dogs !!! Obviously we have the cream of the crop here .

 

[Lyka_01]

Is there any ranking for the most lazy dog in town??? lol...
probably my dog will rank in top one...
sad to say but true...
Anyway Laurelin...
I like your dog, I think your dog is a smart one...
I like this photo:

 

[Romy]

They should have tested Chaz dogs !!! Obviously we have the cream of the crop here .

Obviously!

I think the key with this forum's dogs, more than anything, is that we actually spend time training them, working them, finding out what motivates them and building the kind of handler/dog relationship that drives a dog to do what is asked. Most dogs out there have a lot of unrealized potential, someone just needs to see it and bring it out.

 

[mrose_s]

I think most of those lists are flawed. Like said earlier, they rate on trainability not intelligence.

For instance a mallie may not be considered as bright as a BC why? Because I mallie uses its head to work things out, thats very intelligent.

The ACD is the 10th smartest, IMO they should be right up the top. They are so invredibly bright, but they don't alwaysh follow instructions, they were bred not to.

The BC will always be atthe top because of their incredible eagerness to please, no matter what the job.

 

[DanL]

Funny how everyone thinks their dog should be at the top of the list!

 

[PixieSticksandTricks]

I have a few issues with the list...

I am SURE there are plenty of intelligent Labs. I have just never met one.

QUOTE]

EXACTLY! Lol im sure smart ones are out there. But every lab I have ever met was dumb as a box of rocks lol.

I grew up with a Beagle (Bonnie) and she was one of the smartest dogs I ever owned. Did she do things just to please us? No she did it when she knew she would get instant gratification. Stubborn at times? Yes. Stupid? Far FAR from it.


Poodles definately deserved their place on the list. The Mini Poodle (Gideon) I also grew up with was extremely smart.


Gotta say though I was happy Cocker SPaniels weren't on the list. Since I am constantly being TOLD that they are one of the dumbest dog breeds. I do have to say though Tucker is as a dumb as a post in almost everything he does lol. But Maggie is anouther very smart dog.

 

[Saintgirl]

Not that I am saying that Beagles should be on the top of the list, but I certainly don't agree that they are one of the top 10 dumbest breeds. My beagle has put me through all of my obedience paces, and then some. Not because he is stupid, but because true to his breed---he is STUBBORN!!! I could easily agree that a beagle is on the top ten of the most stubborn breed lists, however not the dumbest. With consistent training and patience they are great little dogs.

My Saint, and I do love him to death, is not the brightest boy out there. He is easy to train, wants to please, and obeys wonderfully. But just because he is a good boy who listens well does not make up for his lack of general smarts. We call him the brawn of my trio pack, but certainly not the brains!!

 

[Renee750il]

I've yet to see a measure of canine *intelligence* that wasn't one dimensional and didn't register trainability more than actual intelligence.

Watching Bimmer, Kharma and now Tallulah - all in the same day to day circumstances - it's apparent that canine intelligence is every bit as varied as human intelligence. They approach things differently and use very different problem solving skills. They each show an excellent grasp of cause and effect and using inductive and deductive reasoning skills - they don't always use them in the same way, much like a mathematician would use a different approach to solving a situation than a philosophy major.

 

[Sweet72947]

The only two really stupid dogs I have ever met were a terv, and a cocker spaniel. They were weird, like something was just not there. Not typical of their breeds or anything. The terv would meet you, love to see you, and as soon as you were out of sight for 5 minutes he would forget you existed and you'd have to be reintroduced over and over again. He was like that even with his owners. The cocker...well.....he was just "special." Even then, that was just from what I saw of them. They very well could have had other facets of their intelligence that were pretty high, and I just never saw it in action.

That Terv doesn't sound stupid, he sounds like he had a short term memory loss problem going on, poor thing.

But I see what you guys are saying about trainability and intelligence. Daisy is highly trainable, partly because she's a real foodie, but I wouldn't consider her the sharpest tool in the shed.

Benji, well, I wouldn't put "Benji" and "trainable" in the same sentence. But he's quite a smart dog, just doesn't care about doing tricks and obedience that much.

 

[RD]

I've yet to see a measure of canine *intelligence* that wasn't one dimensional and didn't register trainability more than actual intelligence.

Watching Bimmer, Kharma and now Tallulah - all in the same day to day circumstances - it's apparent that canine intelligence is every bit as varied as human intelligence. They approach things differently and use very different problem solving skills. They each show an excellent grasp of cause and effect and using inductive and deductive reasoning skills - they don't always use them in the same way, much like a mathematician would use a different approach to solving a situation than a philosophy major.

I see the same thing in my household, even with three dogs of the same breed. Yes, they're all intelligent creatures, but they reason differently and they have different motivations.

Zaphod, who is a huge klutz and looks like a complete moron, is actually a pretty bright dog. He just seems to take pleasure in breaking things and careening through the house, skidding on the tile floors and knocking over every lamp we have.

 

[Zoom]

I have a few issues with the list...

I am SURE there are plenty of intelligent Labs. I have just never met one.

QUOTE]

EXACTLY! Lol im sure smart ones are out there. But every lab I have ever met was dumb as a box of rocks lol.

I grew up with a Beagle (Bonnie) and she was one of the smartest dogs I ever owned. Did she do things just to please us? No she did it when she knew she would get instant gratification. Stubborn at times? Yes. Stupid? Far FAR from it.


Poodles definately deserved their place on the list. The Mini Poodle (Gideon) I also grew up with was extremely smart.


Gotta say though I was happy Cocker SPaniels weren't on the list. Since I am constantly being TOLD that they are one of the dumbest dog breeds. I do have to say though Tucker is as a dumb as a post in almost everything he does lol. But Maggie is anouther very smart dog.

Come meet Virgo sometime. The fact that she's smart is one of the biggest reasons I kept her, not because I have any huge love for the breed or anything. She's stubborn as all get out sometimes, but boy howdy is she smart!

 

[OutlineACDs]

The ACD is the 10th smartest, IMO they should be right up the top. They are so invredibly bright, but they don't alwaysh follow instructions, they were bred not to.

The BC will always be atthe top because of their incredible eagerness to please, no matter what the job.

The ACD isn't higher on the list because they bond very tightly to one person and will work for that person over anyone else. BC's and ACD's are both workaholics, but the border collie will work for anyone who gives them work, the ACD would rather entertain himself and wait for his person to ask him to work than to just work for anyone.

 

[Laurelin]

Come meet Virgo sometime. The fact that she's smart is one of the biggest reasons I kept her, not because I have any huge love for the breed or anything. She's stubborn as all get out sometimes, but boy howdy is she smart!

Petey was really smart too.

 

[RD]

The ACD isn't higher on the list because they bond very tightly to one person and will work for that person over anyone else. BC's and ACD's are both workaholics, but the border collie will work for anyone who gives them work, the ACD would rather entertain himself and wait for his person to ask him to work than to just work for anyone.

Try asking my BCs to do something! :lol-sign: I've met BCs that will work for me (though I've met ACDs that work for me too) but I'd hazard a guess that 90% of herding dogs are one-person dogs when it comes to stockwork. When I work someone else's dog, I can tell that the dog would rather their own handler be in that field with them!

I don't really like it when people gush over how smart Border Collies are... I don't think they're smarter than other breeds, (maybe more rational problem solvers, and more tuned in to the wants and needs of their people due to selective breeding) they just have the drive to work and be useful, and I do believe they have a desire to please their person. If their respected handler asks something of them, they are eager to do it! If they weren't, they wouldn't be particularly useful stockdogs.

On the subject of intelligence.. What defines it, if not trainability? Does their skill in observing and adaptation = intelligence?

Last week, I was at a meeting for the board of our local humane society, and my dog Eve accompanied me as my service dog. I have a panic disorder and her job is to alert me to oncoming panic attacks. About halfway through the meeting, she not only alerted me but immediately got up, picked up my purse and made her way to the exit door. I never trained her to carry my purse, I never asked her to leave my side... But she seemed to understand that my usual course of action after she alerts me is to get up, gather my purse and head outside or to a bathroom. That kind of observation and reasoning (she knew the purse was going with us, she just figured she'd take it this time) makes me consider her very intelligent, but the only reason I see it so clearly is because it's in the form of helping me. Most people don't pay so much attention to their dogs when the dogs are only helping themselves.