''The Intelligence of Dogs'' is a 1994 book on

dog intelligence Dog intelligence or dog cognition is the process in dogs of acquiring information and conceptual skills, and storing them in memory, retrieving, combining and comparing them, and using them in new situations. Studies have shown that dogs displa ...

by Stanley Coren, a professor of canine

psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thr ...

. The book explains Coren's theories about the differences in intelligence between various breeds of dogs. Coren published a second edition in 2006. Coren defines three aspects of dog intelligence in the book: ''instinctive intelligence'', ''adaptive intelligence'', and ''working and obedience intelligence''. Instinctive intelligence refers to a dog's ability to perform the tasks it was bred for, such as

herding Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group (herd), maintaining the group, and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. Herding can refer either to the process of animals forming herds in ...

pointing Pointing is a gesture specifying a direction from a person's body, usually indicating a location, person, event, thing or idea. It typically is formed by extending the arm, hand, and index finger, although it may be functionally similar to other ...

, fetching, guarding, or supplying

companionship The concept of interpersonal relationship involves social associations, connections, or affiliations between two or more people. Interpersonal relationships vary in their degree of intimacy or self-disclosure, but also in their duration, in t ...

. Adaptive intelligence refers to a dog's ability to solve problems on its own. Working and obedience intelligence refers to a dog's ability to learn from humans.

Methods

The book's ranking focuses on working and obedience intelligence. Coren sent evaluation requests to

American Kennel Club The American Kennel Club (AKC) is a registry of purebred dog pedigrees in the United States. In addition to maintaining its pedigree registry, this kennel club also promotes and sanctions events for purebred dogs, including the Westminster Ke ...

and

Canadian Kennel Club The Canadian Kennel Club (or CKC), founded in 1888 and chartered under the Animal Purebred Act, is one of the national kennel clubs of Canada. It maintains breed registry, breed registries services for those purebred dogs approved for its control b ...

obedience trial judges, asking them to rank breeds by performance, and received 199 responses, representing about 50 percent of obedience judges then working in North America. Assessments were limited to breeds receiving at least 100 judge responses. This methodology aimed to eliminate the excessive weight that might result from a simple tabulation of obedience degrees by breed. Its use of expert opinion followed precedent. Coren found substantial agreement in the judges' rankings of working and obedience intelligence, with Border collies consistently named in the top ten and

Afghan Hound The Afghan Hound is a hound that is distinguished by its thick, fine, silky coat and its tail with a ring curl at the end. The breed is selectively bred for its unique features in the cold mountains of Afghanistan. Its local name is ( ps, تاژ ...

s consistently named in the lowest. The highest ranked dogs in this category were

Border collie The Border Collie is a Scottish breed of herding dog of medium size. Widely considered to be the most intelligent dog breed, they are descended from landrace sheepdogs once found all over the British Isles, but became standardised in the Ang ...

Poodle The Poodle, called the Pudel in German and the Caniche in French, is a breed of water dog. The breed is divided into four varieties based on size, the Standard Poodle, Medium Poodle, Miniature Poodle and Toy Poodle, although the Medium Poodle var ...

German Shepherd The German Shepherd or Alsatian is a German breed of working dog of medium to large size. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various traditional German herding dogs from 1899. It was originally bred as a herding dog, for ...

Golden Retriever The Golden Retriever is a Scottish breed of retriever dog of medium size. It is characterised by a gentle and affectionate nature and a striking golden coat. It is commonly kept as a pet and is among the most frequently registered breeds ...

s, and

Doberman Pinscher The Dobermann (; ), or Doberman Pinscher in the United States and Canada, is a medium-large breed of domestic dog that was originally developed around 1890 by Louis Dobermann, a tax collector from Germany.American Kennel Club The American Kennel Club (AKC) is a registry of purebred dog pedigrees in the United States. In addition to maintaining its pedigree registry, this kennel club also promotes and sanctions events for purebred dogs, including the Westminster Ke ...

(such as the

Jack Russell Terrier The Jack Russell Terrier is a small terrier that has its origins in fox hunting in England. It is principally white-bodied and smooth, rough or broken-coated and can be any colour. Small tan and white terriers that technically belong to ot ...

) were not included in Coren's rankings.

Evaluation

Coren's book presents a ranked list of breed intelligence, based on a survey of 208 dog obedience judges across North America. When it was first published there was much media attention and commentary in terms of both pros and cons. Over the years, Coren's ranking of breeds and methodology have come to be accepted as a valid description of the differences among dog breeds in terms of their trainability. A 2009 measurement of canine intelligence using another method confirmed the general pattern of these rankings, and Coren included an updated study using owner ratings of dog trainability and intelligence in the 2006 edition of the book. The value of survey-based cognition findings have been dismissed by some cognitive researchers and dog trainers. The 1995 edition of Coren's book lists 130 dog breeds, and assigns them to 79 ranks with some ties, grouped into six descending categories.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Intelligence of Dogs Dog training and behavior Animal intelligence 1994 non-fiction books Books about dogs Natural history books

Methods

Evaluation

See also

References