How Smart is Your Dog?

Posted in News on January 21, 2010 | one comment

I know, everyone thinks their dog is the smartest one on the block, myself included.

A new study has found dogs, at least certain breeds, are like little sponges.

An article in Miller-McCune Magazine reports some dogs are tops in understanding language. The American Psychological Association’s annual convention featured top canine researcher Stanley Coren. He gets into the minds of our canine counterparts and discovered through his research that dogs are as smart as 2 year olds and can comprehend 150 words and the really smart ones can understand 250! Wow, and all this time I’ve been repeating the same words to my dog Meeko….”sit, stay, come” and he’s probably been calling me an “idiot.”

Coren also found dogs are “consciously deceptive” and trick people into giving them what they want. “And they are nearly as successful in deceiving humans as humans are in deceiving dogs,” Coren said.

So here are the breeds at the top of the pack:

1. Border collies

2. Poodles

3. German shepherds

4. Golden retrievers

5. Dobermans

6. Shetland sheepdogs

7. Labrador retrievers