Smartest Dog?

Yeah, of course I know that being smart doesn't really depend on the breed at all, but the indivdual dog. I was just going for the breeds I like best [] []

 Hmm....has anyone read the story called Jim the Wonder Dog in the Chicken Soup for the Cat and Dog lover's Soul? Now that is really neat. He was a Engliish Setter I think.....I'll have to look again, but anyway, he was a dog that was able to identify anything you asked him to, even things in different languages, morse code, etc. Very interesting.

I've met some really amazingly smart dogs of all kinds. I've met some that were dumber than rocks too.. [8|] I'd have to say border collies are right up there on my top smartest dogs list. But, of course the Dogo argentino would have to be the very most intelligent dog ever. []

Yep it's all how you interpret smart.
 
Now I personally don't consider a dog to be intelligent when it does 20 sits and downs, in a row because someone told it to. The dog who, around sit #10 gets up and rolls their eyes and walks away...is IMO much smarter. lmao...
 
There's criminal intelligence, book smart, butt kissing smart, wheedling smart, all different kinds!
 
Personally the dim bulb is IMO the easiest dog to live with. *laffin*

While I have to agree with Glenda about GSDs (from what I've heard--I mean--don't they use them for police work?).

I have to say that Marley is the smartest dog! Just last weekend my Dad was trying to affix the drain covers in my backyard, because Marley would just pull all of them off. --He thought it didn't go with his landscaping. ---So...Dad put a screw in them to keep them on. Marley found it more difficult to pull one off, but managed. So, Dad had to put another screw in them to keep them on! While he was putting the second screw in them...Marley took off with his screwdriver! He really did not think those drain covers went with his landscaping!!!

[]

ORIGINAL: janobonano

Rupert was one of the easiest dogs to potty train.

 
vizslas are pretty easy to potty train. Kobe now even rings a bell when he needs to go outside and use the restroom. Now that's a smart dog. []

Sorry to burst your bubble...but Marley has been ringing a bell to go outside since he was 4 months old!!! []

Aussie sheps in the 40's? Please.

Who made this list?!?

Border collies are really smart, so they say.  I agree with those who say it's relative.  I think most of those lists are based mostly on trainability or the ability to guess what we want and how to get it done.  Certainly working-bred Border collies are high on that list. 

I get my sheep put up in a pen by getting the heads pointed at the pen gate and telling Ben "Steady up."  He then works back and forth, pushes and lets up pressure, to put them all in (about 45 sheep, some ewes with lambs, and two rams), with no commands.  I wouldn't even know where to tell him to be.  That's pretty smart in one way. 

But all dogs bred for some function display those kinds of smarts, if they are still bred with that function in mind.  Even dogs bred to be strictly showy or companions, like my Chinese crested, are smart in those "functions" - Zhi is quick to read when I want to cuddle and when I need to be entertained.

However, if Ben is on the other side of the fence and I whistle his recall whistle, he'll come to the fence and stop, confused.  He thinks literally and it makes him look REALLY stupid, sometimes.  Most of my Border collies are like this.  I have to give them a "Go to the gate" command. Sigh.  Most Border collies have a VERY hard time generalizing and that makes them really difficult to train, sometimes.  they pick up things quickly but don't apply them generally for a long time.

You'd be hard pressed to teach my Maremma sheepdog, Tully, to fetch a dumbell back over a jump.  But he's one of the smartest dogs I know.  He constantly has to make assessments about what in his environment is normal, new but acceptable, new and needs investigation, or a potential threat.  He then has to determine the best way to balance keeping the sheep safe and defusing the danger. 

Tully and his canine partner Lu demonstrate the ability to work in teams to maintain the flock safety and address threats.  He can gneralize in a flash - I taught him ONCE a "get back" command meaning "don't worry about that" and he understands it in all contexts.

I never taught them any of this.  So is it intelligence?  Or "just instinct". I think it's smarts.  If I call Lu or Tully when they are on the other side of a fence, they will walk around before attempting to come to me.  Smarter than a Border collie?  Hmm.

ORIGINAL: brookcove

Tully and his canine partner Lu demonstrate the ability to work in teams to maintain the flock safety and address threats......

I never taught them any of this.  So is it intelligence?  Or "just instinct".  I think it's smarts. 

 
Both of course []
 
And to second that......being a fellow LGD person I'd have to say there is nothing more incredible than the relationship an LGD has with it's charge as well as the master of the farm.  In general, society knows working dogs who depend on the human partner for direction/control.  In the case of an LGD it's reversed.  The human depends on the dog, the charge depends on the dog and the dog does it's job without commands or instruction. 
 
Not being biased or anything [] I'd have to say that natural instincts and the abilities to sense danger, to differentiate between a real threat and not, to be proactive in keeping the threat at bay, to know when it's safe to leave the charge or not, to work together in pairs or groups for one common goal - all without instruction is true intelligence.
 
I'm always very proud to be involved with a breed who is still used today for it's original purpose.  As a general rule our responsible breeders take pride in keeping the foundation instincts intact and it gives them a chance to not only place show and companion pups but also true working dogs.

the smartest dog i ever met was a poodle.  she was housetrained in 2 weeks.  she looked both ways before she crossed the street.  she knew several words inclduing "dog" "cheese" "mommy" "daddy" "ball" "rabitt" and she knew all of our names.  She would also respond to sentences like "where is Mary?" "go get your leash"  She would go find the person or the object.  and we never really trained her--no classes, no hand commands, no showing her the object and repeating the name--nothing.  it was crazy.  i got drunk at a party and she found the way home while I trailed behind stupidly--it was a 3 mile walk!   4 years after my mother died she would still go into her room when you said "where's mommy?"
 
we now have a cavalier king charles spaniel and while I love her to distraction....she's.....um.......well, she's dumb as bricks.  

    "Every dog owner knows that dogs are smart. But a nine-year-old border collie named Rico is quickly making a name for himself as the Einstein of dogs. Not only does Rico understand 200 words, about the same number as a trained parrot or chimpanzee, but he is also able to learn some new words as easily as a three-year-old child. 
    Scientists are especially impressed by Rico's ability to figure out the names of objects that he has not been trained to recognize. In an experiment in Germany, scientists took seven of Rico's toys and placed them in a room along with one new toy whose name Rico did not know. Then they asked Rico's owner to call out the name of the new toy. In seven out of ten tries, Rico went into the room, figured out that the word he had never heard before must be the name of the toy he had never seen before, and brought the new toy to his owner. Amazingly, Rico still remembered the names of the new toys a month later, even though he'd heard them only once. 
    When human toddlers are learning language, they use their brains to figure out the meanings of many new words. Before Rico, scientists thought that only humans could learn a new word without being told what it means. But many dog owners say they aren't surprised by Rico's knack for human language. They always knew their pups understood them."


Thought that was quite interesting when I read it.

Most of us Border collie people sort of gave a collective yawn when that story first came out.  We routinely spell.  Some of us can't spell anymore.  Border collies are just bred to pick up verbal cues quickly.  I can vary the same whistle tone in a practically infinite number of ways to indicate different things I want (long/short/sharp/soft/loud/quiet/etc) - not to mention the seperate whistle tones which mean seperate commands.

But here's the story of a Border collie, very well bred and who does well in working trials, who took months to figure out a treat ball.

(I'm sure Melanie wouldn't mind but please observe the copyright).

http://home.earthlink.net/~soloriver/moleculo.html

ORIGINAL: marleysmom

Sorry to burst your bubble...but Marley has been ringing a bell to go outside since he was 4 months old!!! []

 
Well sorry to burst your ego bubble, but Kobe's been ringing it since he's been 3 months old. Took him a little less than a week to get it down too. That's what you call a smarrrrt dog. So ha. [sm=dance.gif]

WELL!! Why hasn't anyone mentioned Foxhounds since they are clearly the out and out WINNERS!! []
 
To be honest, I think that more depends on the owner than the dog's breed.  At least in my experience so far! 
If people have a breed that is known for being stubborn, they are less likely to attempt to train them...  If you have the same expectations of any dog regardless of breed, I believe they can rise above and beyond!!!

Often times individual dogs are very smart, and intelligence is not characterized by breed.Supposedly, a very good test to see how smart your dog really is is to put food under a translucent cup, and see how the dog gets to it. They do very good if they knock over the cup to get to the food.