How Smart Is Your Dog?

Let’s cut to the chase on how remarkable dogs actually are!

Dogs do remarkable things. They follow complex instructions to herd sheep, they guide blind people through crowded city streets, they detect cancer and other diseases, and they seem to pay close attention when we talk to them. Of course, we all know that our own pups are well above average intelligence, but just how smart are they really?

Dogs have always been thought of as loyal, highly trainable, and gifted with a great sense of smell for tracking – but not necessarily that smart. Yet in the last two decades, scientists in the U.S. and Europe have been studying the cognitive abilities of man’s best friend, and they’ve made some remarkable discoveries.

They believe that because of the unique relationship between man and dog over thousands of years, dogs have learned to read us so well that, like small children, they can infer meaning from our gestures and use that to solve problems.

Brian Hare, director of Duke University’s Canine Cognition Center and the author of The Genius of Dogs, says, “When judging the intelligence of animals, the first thing we look at is how successfully they have managed to survive and reproduce in as many places as possible. The dog is arguably the most successful mammal on the planet besides us. Dogs have spread to all corners of the world, including inside our homes and in some cases onto our beds. While a majority of mammals on the planet have seen a steep decline in their populations as a result of human activity, there have never been more dogs on the planet than today.” So maybe the smartest thing dogs have done is learn to use our help.

WHAT’S THE POINT?