Quote: mara jessup

I also don't think the "smartest" dogs are always the ones that are the easiest to train. They pick on on things so dang fast that you as a trainer need to be on your toes with what you are communicating.

I’ve always thought it was interesting that the Husky consistently rates fairly low on the “intelligence” scales. Having a highly biddable shepherd and the two northern breeds, I can see how this comparison gets made.

The shepherd is just so much “easier” to train, whereas, the motivating factors for the other two must be at a much higher level. The so called “more intelligent” one is always willing to step up and work on whatever I ask of him. I think his eagerness makes him appear smarter – smarter to my needs and wants. The other two are much more out for themselves – “you want me to do what…. nahhh… haven’t finished cleaning this toenail yet.”

Keeping them interested is a challenge and I think people often mistake the fact that they are “difficult” to train as a sign of “not so smart”. However, I don’t relate intelligence and obedience in the same category.

When it comes to opening doors and gates or figuring out a new toy, the husky is all over it, mastered in minutes. The two are incredibly observant and tend to mimic what they think is interesting. Potty training and pack structure issues are almost non-existent. They are so pack oriented, one or two corrections to any challenging behavior has them on the right track immediately with little need for reinforcement.

They're independent thinkers, easily bored and very athletic, which makes them a bit of challenge if they haven’t had enough energy draining exercise. But once adequately exercised, their observance, agility and bag of tricks never ceases to amaze me.

As far as the number of words goes, I don’t think I’ve really challenged them as much as I could when it comes to vocally interacting with them. I mark everything from stairs to appliances and they quickly associate words with objects and activities. But it’s hard to tell whether it’s what I’m saying or if it’s the energy/focus that’s being projected onto an object/task that they’re actually picking up on.

Fluent, proofed words I can think of would be about 25 for the shepherd, at least 50 for the husky (he’s 9 and just seems to understand everything) and about 15 for the baby.

I do think the stats have the number one contender in the right spot though. Don't know if I ever mentioned this but I think Border Collies totally RULE!

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

 Quote: Reina F. Wishart

... My dog knows maybe 15.. but on the intelligence scale, she doesn't rate very high. I can't imagine my dog knowing 200 words.

Do you have a Pug too?

Lol, she's a Great Dane mix. I just started marker training with her. It's fun! She is still learning that she needs to work for the treat and that I'm not going to just give it to her for nothing. :P I wish I'd started marker training earlier!

You know what they say about humans... 10% brains 90% hard work. Looks like the same idea for dogs!

Louie formally knows only 3 commands (crate, mat, come) and his name, although he defaults to "crate" sometimes when we call for a "mat" haha. My wife and I are odd and probably confusing to him though... we have multiple names for him. When he stretches we'll go "Hi Stretchy!", when he yawns "Hi Yawny!", when he's wagging "Hi Waggy!"... and I sometimes call him "buddy" (ex. "Hey buddy how you doing?"). Probably should have named him Buddy in the first place haha.

My pups Cody, Bindi and Terra know the following commands-
Of course each of their names, then; Come, sit, down, up,stand, through, on, off, yes, good, spin, touch, over, wait, potty, shake, wave, heel, no, enough, treadmill, mat, search (Cody alone knows search), and ask. I do not let them on the couch without them asking. (they give a little whisper bark) The phrases they know are: let's take a nap, in your crate, what should you do? ( I ask them this when I come into the door, they run to their mat without me telling them to go to their mat) Wait, its (I name one of the other dogs) turn. (then the dog I tell this to, sits and waits. as the other dogs get to chase the ball or do whatever I am asking them to do.)

I think this is it. My pups are rescue dogs, cody I got at 12 weeks, Bindi one year old, Terra, one year. THey are mixed terriers, Cody a jack russel mix.

It's been interesting reading all the other input.

I always "talk" to my dogs and expect them to listen.
I don't have any sort of word count but I have often asked my dog Thunder to do something I've not trained for and he just does it.
Word association, body language and inflection of voice are an amazing combination.
Trooper is sort of a evil twin to Odie in the Garfield cartoons.
A dufus with a dark side.

Um, lets see.

Mine knows 5/6 whistle commands. Probably 15 german words, a few russian words and a few french ones.
In english; sit, down, stand, bow, roll over, flat, paw, other paw, wave, other wave, pawsup, sendaway, fetch, gettit, ball, toy, orbeeball, kong, gently, walk on, go play, leave it, pick it up, heel, close, back, finish, front, twist, weave, jump, over, through, right, stop, wait, stay, geton, crate, kitchen, bed, downstairs, toilet, out, drop, settle, watch, speak, whine, growl, crawl, bite, ok, drink, search, seek, track, findit, hold, bark, take.

There are probably others but it's really hard to think of everything.

So several of these dogs pretty much have a better vocabulary than mine. At least more languages.

A little disheartening.

Definitely respond to more commands.

I'm always amazed at how my dogs understand body language: that where I'm pointing is where they should look, that where I'm looking is where they should look, and even imitation without training, like my husky trying to turn the door handle with his teeth, because that's how I open the door, rather than digging at the door with his paws. The dogs both recognize the sound of my car's engine on the road as it driven by the house, compared to all the other cars going by even though the road is about 1/8 of a mile from the house. They realize if one dog was carrying a bone, and she comes up no longer carrying it, she must have dropped it back on the trail somewhere and to go back quite a ways to look for it and sniff it out despite it being buried. My husky is a bit picky about rain, and when he hear rain on the roof, he's not rushing to the door when he hears me getting the leashes, but stays on his mat- before he's looked outside and seen the rain. He'll go out in it and enjoy himself, but he's not so excited about it.

I don't know how many words they know. Probably the shepherd knows about 50 and the husky at least 60 or more. Neither is naturally excited about retrieving, so the object ID isn't something I've tackled at all. They can ID all the important people in my life, and remember doggie-relevant things about places we run, even if we've only been there once before (where to turn at intersections, best way to water, etc). If I'm bored and indecisive, I let my husky chose where we'll run in the morning. He usually choses a place we haven't been to in a while.

An interesting note on the issue of intelligence and intelligence rankings. Wolves are considered more intelligent than dogs by most animal behavior scientists. They are conniving, have great memories, and have been known to trick people. The brain size to body size ratio gives them about 20% more brain than dogs. But they fail many of the intelligence type tests dogs pass including inability to interpret pointing by humans despite repeat testing, and a virtual lack of OB trainability. And yet, they far surpass the dogs in other areas of intelligence.

I agree that certain breeds of dogs are generally of higher intelligence (border collies, shepherds, malinois), but I also agree with CJ that many other breeds (northern breeds, akitas, even some of the sighthounds like salukis) can be extremely intelligent, but get bored quickly and may require a huge amount of exercise.

For example, my husky may not go pick up his 'elephant' stuffie when I tell him to, but he will take at up to 10 turns correctly to get us to 'Weston Woods', 'high school', 'Dudley', etc. from our house on sidewalk, roads, and trails, when I ask him to. This was, of course- (he's basically village dog mixed with husky and sighthound), almost completely self taught.

There are breed characteristics than lend themselves to excelling on doggie IQ exams (natural retreive or herding ability both of which involve a large amount of interactiona nd direction from a human for example) while other characteristics (trail finding, rabbit hunting) are less amenable. So, I always look at those IQ rankings with this in mind.

"There are breed characteristics than lend themselves to excelling on doggie IQ exams (natural retreive or herding ability both of which involve a large amount of interactiona nd direction from a human for example) while other characteristics (trail finding, rabbit hunting) are less amenable. So, I always look at those IQ rankings with this in mind."

Great point. Also individual quirks...

For example, one step in one of the IQ tests is to cover the young puppy's head with a light blanket and see how long it takes him to figure out how to get out from under it.

Well, I have a dog who loves to have his head covered by a blanket.