All of us who have had dogs know that in some cases they show an intelligence that leaves us amazed. One of the curiosities of dogs is that these furry ones are very intelligent. In fact, and for a long time, those of us who have dogs have fallen into this detail: they attend to us when we speak to them, they feel emotions and they sense ours. They are that pleasant support in difficult moments and in moments of joy with which to share experiences.
No matter their breed or how many times you scold them for barking at the neighbor, dogs have something unique, something special that has always made us think that they have a particular intelligence where awareness and emotion are not exempt, something that, finally , scientists have had the detail to support. At Supercurioso we not only love dogs, we also like to know about them, so today we will talk about the intelligence of dogs. Would you like to know more? Continue reading! 😀
How is the intelligence of dogs?
For Frank Kafka to say, in one of his well-known dog phrases, that: “All knowledge, all the questions and answers are found in the dog” is because he faithfully believed in the intelligence of dogs; the question is why? Surely you have ever fallen for those moments when you sit on the sofa and your dog stares at you as if he were psychoanalyzing you; At that moment you will surely ask yourself, what do dogs think about? Well… We can assure you that it is more than you think.
Neuroscientist Gregory Burns tells us that their brains are very rich in neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, which are able to interact with the brain stem and caudate, in the same way as young humans. This, in essence, confirms one thing: dogs are intelligent.
Namely, their level of brain activity would be the same as that of a two or three year old. But, let’s go a little further, what does it mean to say that dogs have consciousness? What does the famous intelligence of dogs mean? It is something complex and at the same time disturbing, because intelligence implies having a sense of morality, a perception of situations, having one’s own idea of what the world is with oneself integrated into it, also including one’s own sense of actions what we do
So, according to the scientists and thanks to the FMRI scanner, It follows that dogs are capable of feeling emotions just like people. With this it is concluded that they feel abandonment, rejection and lack of appreciation as we do. But we are going to break down little by little the studied intelligence of dogs.
Types of canine intelligence
According to Stanley Coren in his book titled “The fabulous intelligence of dogs” he explains the different theories about the differences in intelligence between dog breeds, because, believe it or not, there are more intelligent dog breeds. Before continuing, we must start from one thing: Dogs are smart, yes, but not all of them have the same level of intelligence. In this sense, canine psychology professor Stanley Coren establishes three aspects of dog intelligence in his book:
1. Instinctive intelligence
The intelligence of dogs is activated according to a concept that experts call “functional homology”, that is, their habits, their customs, their way of understanding the world is based on associations with certain actions, smells and sensationsIt is precisely from these factors that the well-known language of dogs arises…
They feel joy when they see us come home after work because they know that they are going to have company, affection, caresses, food, all emotions that they always associate with certain daily scenes. For Coren, dogs are intelligent because they have the ability to carry out tasks for which they are bred such as herding.
2. Adaptive intelligence
As we already mentioned, the intelligence of dogs is a very difficult parameter to define, because for some it may be the ability to learn something quickly, while for others, dogs are intelligent, as long as they have the ability to solve problems. by themselves. The latter is precisely the factor that determines the adaptive intelligence of dogs. Let’s think about how they are animals that live in the city, and little by little, they learn to avoid cars or to stop when they see movements on the road.
3. Intelligence in work and obedience
How many times have we not watched videos on YouTube to teach our dog that there are specific places to go to the bathroom? Surely more than once. Well, what Coren describes in This type of canine intelligence is the dog’s ability to learn from humans.. Knowing our rules of coexistence, for example, is a notion that the dog only knows when he grows up, but it is not instinctive.
Likewise, they intuit our suffering, our insecurity or our fear, a kind of sixth sense that scientists dare to call as “basic empathy” something that in a certain sense makes them unique for caring for people with disabilities, little furry angels that never cease to amaze us.
Finally, we will give you a curious fact about the intelligence of dogs: Coren found which is the most intelligent dog in the world. If we gave a percentage to the dog breeds to determine which of all of them is the most intelligent, the winner would be the Border Collie, followed by the Poodle, the German Shepherd, the Golden Retriever and finally the Doberman. According to his research, these large dog breeds understand new commands with fewer than 5 repeats. That is, they obey the first order 95% of the time.
But there is still more… Did you know that they can understand more than 160 words? They can understand human language without the need for classes or arduous lessons. We don’t have to yell at him. And, according to Stanley Coren, they can solve small mental problems similar to those of a two-year-old child. Without a doubt, dogs are one of the most intelligent animals in the world and it is something that little by little we have discovered.
We could conclude with another interesting question: can dogs dream? Be that as it may, all this shows us that we still have a lot to learn from animals, those beings that make our lives so happy. Tell us, do you think dogs are intelligent? Or, on the contrary, are you a deserter of dog intelligence? Do not hesitate to share your answer with us, we read you!