Einstein or Stooge:
Measuring Canine Intelligence

It’s only natural for us to look for signs of intelligence in our dogs. Heck, even doggies that aren’t that bright occasionally display shards of brilliance in their everyday behavior, whether it’s darting out of the path of a falling pot or smiling at the faraway music of the ice-cream truck.

It’s only natural for us to look for things in our pets that we look for in our children or in each other: a keen mind, a sense of humor, loyalty and compassion. But let’s face it; the attribute we tend to brag about most is our dog’s level of intelligence.

There is no one type of canine intelligence. According to Stanley Coren, author of The Intelligence of Dogs, there are three major types of dog intelligence that can be measured by canine IQ tests:

Adaptive Intelligence

This pertains to learning and problem solving ability, relating to the knowledge and skills a dog can acquire during its time here on earth. It also relates to how long it takes for your dog to learn new relationships.

Instinctive Intelligence

This deals with behaviors and skills programmed into the animal’s genetic code. For example, Sheep dogs and Border Collies are exquisite herding dogs. This is an innate quality that these breeds possess and has little to do with training, though some refinement of skills is necessary.

Working/Obedience Intelligence

This has to do with how well an animal can follow commands. This type of intelligence is largely dependant on the breed of the animal. Two perfect examples are the dogs used for guiding the blind and for K9 police work.

In addition, there is also environmental learning, language comprehension, social learning and task learning. There’s also short-term memory and long-term memory. Our point? There’s nothing clear-cut about intelligence. However, scientists are still trying to find ways to quantify the intelligence of man’s best friends.