Why your dog is smarter than a wolf

[n2doc]

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY - At Eotvos Lorand University's Department of Ethology, visitors are usually greeted not by a security guard, but by a delegation of friendly mongrels, tails wagging. Dogs have the run of the place. They play in classrooms, visit faculty members in their offices, or nap in the laboratories. Animals here are no surprise - ethology is the zoological study of animal behavior - but the total lack of cages is.

And why would there be, asks research fellow Adam Miklosi, who leads much of the research here into the cognitive abilities of man's best friend.

"If you were studying human behavior, you wouldn't keep your subjects in a cage for 20 years and then ask them some questions?" he asks with a smile. "These are animals who've been brought up in a normal way, which allows us to see and understand them in their natural environment, which is the human environment."

After a decade studying dogs in their human habitat, Mr. Miklosi and his colleagues have accumulated a body of evidence suggesting that dogs have far greater mental capabilities than scientists had thought. Dogs' smarts, it turns out, come out in their relationships with people.

more:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1026/p17s02-sten.html

Comment: of course, the measure of "inteligence" is hugely influenced by how one chooses to test it....which is why we always underestimate the intelligence of animals, IMHO

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Thanks for posting this. I am reading it to my German Shepherd.

He is not at all surprised.

[IndyOp]

2. ROFLMAO

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Thanks for the laugh! Unfortunately, neither my Golden Retriever nor my Lab seem to understand a thing I read to them.

Why am I so attracted to adorable, but (sweetly) dumb?

[BrklynLiberal]

7. But Goldens and Labs are the SWEETEST furbabies.

Give them a couple of extra belly rubs for me.

[I Have A Dream]

11. I had read somewhere that labs and golden retrievers aren't...

very intelligent. (It was in a work of fiction, but it was basically the theme of the book.) However, they're so often used as assistance animals that I feel that they MUST be extremely intelligent. What are your thoughts?

[IndyOp]

15. Goldens and Labs are very, very sensitive and

desperate to please people. Retrievers were bred to take on simple tasks to serve people like fetching game from water. They can be very 'responsible' -- obstinate about focusing on one task until it is done (think: tennis ball fetching fixation). I actually think that the fact that they aren't quite as sharp as some other breeds makes them better assistance animals -- they don't get bored with their jobs.

I don't think anyone is ever going to have a philosophical discussion about whether dogs or wolves are smarter with a Golden or a Lab. I just don't think this is an issue they comprehend. I can see a Border Collie being especially interested in this issue -- after all, they have to compete with wolves: Wolves want to eat sheep and Border Collies want to protect them.

I do, however, engage in conversations about World Peace with my Golden on a regular basis. He pays attention - Goldens are all about getting everyone to 'love' -- :loveya:

I think that virtually all breeds are smarter than most pets reveal because we don't work with them enough to allow them to really show what they can do.

:bounce:

[Mend]

5. My five German Shepherds read the article and we are

discussing it now. I will let you know our thoughts after we have chewed over it a bit.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. I am soooooo jealous that you can have FIVE!!! I wish I had room for

more.
They are like potato chips. It is very difficult to have just one.
Here is my boy with the cat that thinks sh eowns him.

[Mend]

13. your dog and cat are really beautiful....I wish I could put a photo on but

of mine....I am lost in photobucket....someday I will figure it all out.

[tenshi816]

3. My dog is a border collie,

so I'm not surprised by this. Riley is smarter than some of the people I know (or so it seems sometimes...) and he continually surprises me at how quickly he learns new things without us even trying to teach him.

Edited to say that my dog learned a long time ago how to open all the doors in the house, so we have to keep the outside doors bolted to keep him from opening them.

[smirkymonkey]

10. Border Collies seem to be exceptionally intelligent dogs .

I saw a demonstration in Ireland of a Border Collie rounding up and herding sheep and responding to his trainers cues. It was amazing how effective and intelligent this dog was. And it was so sweet and friendly too!

[I Have A Dream]

12. Hey, I saw a demonstration in Ireland also. Wonder if it was the same...

one. That's when I fell in love with Border Collies. My understanding from what the owner said is that they absolutely NEED to work and learn to feel as though their life has purpose -- nothing makes them happier.

I can't have a dog because I'm allergic, but, if I could, it would be a Border Collie. (However, I think that they'd require quite a bit of time dedicated to keeping them learning so that they can be happy.)

[tenshi816]

16. If you make sure they have plenty of exercise

and talk to them a lot (mine seems to "understand" on the level of about a 2-year old child - I can tell him to do things in the same way I did my children at about that age, and he responds accordingly, things like "go get your ball", "go downstairs", "go into the kitchen", and so on), you'd be fine with a border collie.

Plus, as I said in another post, he knows how to open doors and gates, and how to find certain places on the moor without me taking him there. We can start out on walks to certain destinations and he just goes on ahead and I catch up with him 20 minutes later, to find him sitting there waiting for me.

On the downside, we had to train him not to run sheep on the moor, something that goes against his nature, and he compensates by trying to round people up.

Edited to finish a sentence...

[DemExpat]

14. I have my second Jack Russell now....and read somewhere that

Jack Russells and Border Collies are 2 breeds of exceptionally intelligent and active dogs that go nuts if they don't have work to do everyday.
Lots and lots of good exercise around games that feel like work for them - usually involving a ball!

If they don't get what they need each day, problem behavior arises.
Dog pounds here are filled with Jack Russells who are too much work for the owners who thought they were just precious little dogs!

I am addicted to having a dog in my life - love their company and their inspiration.

DemEx

[donsu]

4. reading the whole article doesn't really have dogs smarter then wolves

dog's relationships with humans changes the dynamics.

I'd say the intelligence was equal when taking humans out of the picture. dog's learn things from humans that wolves in the wild do not. studying wolves living with humans might add more info.

in life my trusted friends have been my dogs and cats.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Have to wholeheartedly agree. You know they would NEVER abandon you

"in life my trusted friends have been my dogs and cats."

[donco6]

9. This part is interesting:

Until recently, domestication was thought to have dulled dogs' intelligence. Studies in the early 1980s showed that wolves, from which dogs probably descended, can unlock a gate after watching a human do it once, while dogs remained stumped after watching repeatedly.

That never sat well with Vilmos Csanyi, the recently retired head of Mr. Miklosi's department. Mr. Csanyi, who had dogs of his own, suspected the dogs were awaiting permission to open the gate, that they regarded opening the gate as a violation of their master's rules.

In 1997, Csanyi and his colleagues tested 28 dogs of various ages, breeds, and closeness to their owners, to see if they could learn to obtain cold cuts on the other side of a fence by pulling on the handles of dishes while their owners were present. Dogs with a close relationship to their owners fared worse than outdoor dogs. But when the dogs' owners were allowed to give the animals verbal permission, the gap between the groups vanished.

So, dogs are not smarter than wolves, but they are at least as smart, bucking conventional wisdom.