Obedience versus Intelligence

Puzzle-solving and Problem-solving

June 12, 2023

Got Elio a new puzzle yesterday and wanted to talk about the different kinds of dog intelligence. Something that has REALLY started to bother me among the dog-research community is the lack of distinction between obedience-intelligence and problem-solving-intelligence. This is because if you have ever read a “top ten smartest dog breeds” article here’s some you’ll see on EVERY article — Border Collie, Labrador Retriever, maybe German Shepherd. On the other end, if you’ve ever found a “top ten least smart dog breeds” I can guarantee you AT LEAST half of the listed dogs will be a primitive dog breed (think Chow Chow, Afghan Hound, Basenji…). The problem here is that, clearly, whatever “science” is being done to formulate “smartest” and “dumbest” dog breeds is taking no account for obedience versus intelligence. The Border Collie is one of my favorite examples of a breed that exhibits BOTH. They are excellent at obedience, able to distinguish whistles from their shepherd from nearly a kilometer away in order to move sheep in certain directions, and they are excellent problem solvers when not following human direction. The Belgian Malinois is a great example of incredible obedience-intelligence. They will quite literally attempt anything they are told to when tasked by their human, even if they probably can’t do what’s asked of them. They’ll still try. They THRIVE on human direction and look for it in order to do their job efficiently and excellently.

And now we get to the breeds almost never given credit for just how intelligent they are. Primitive breeds are independent thinkers, because the early humans that domesticated their not-so-distant wolf ancestors needed them to be. If a Cirneco dell’Etna sees a rabbit, they’re not going to bother with “looking to human for direction” tactic. They’re simply going to take it down in the most efficient possible manner. Cirneci have less need for obedience-intelligence. Just like Dingoes. Check out the 2nd and 3rd pics for some of my favorite multi-stage problem solving I’ve seen.