Smartest and Dumbest Dog Breeds
The Early Show on CBS did a segment last week on the smartest and dumbest dog breeds. I’ve heard of some breeds not being as bright as others, I’m not sure what their criteria was.
Anyway, they say the dumbest breeds are:
1. Afghan Hound
2. Basenji
3. Bulldog
4. Chow Chow
5. Borzois
6. Bloodhound
7. Pekingese
8. Mastiff
9. Beagle
10. Basset hound
and the smartest are:
1. Border Collie
2. Poodle
3. German Shepherd
4. Golden Retriever
5. Doberman Pinscher
6. Shetland Sheepdog
7. Labrador Retriever
8. Papillon
9. Rottweiler
10. Australian Cattle Dog
Like I said, I’m not sure what they’re basing their rankings on exactly. I’ve known a pretty smart beagle and a dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks poodle so it’s a safe bet that it’s all relative anyway!
What do you think of the lists?
[image: flickr]
Tags: Dog Breeds, Dogs, dumbest, Pet lists, pet-articles, pet-pictures, Pets, Pets online, smartestRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Afghan Hound, Australian Cattle Dog, Basenji, Basset Hound, Beagle, Border Collie, Borzois, Bulldog, Chow Chow, Doberman, Dogs, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, Mastiff, Papillon, Pekingese, Pet Articles, Pet Pictures, Pet lists, Pets, Pets online, Poodle, Rottweiler, Shetland Sheepdog
6 opinions for Smartest and Dumbest Dog Breeds
Linette
Jun 23, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Border Collies rock! They’ve been my favorite breed since I was growing up. The one we have now (Emily) is super smart, she learns in a snap, she loves to do tricks, and picked up obedience commands like she’d been doing it all her life.
If she just didn’t have a totally unreasonable fear of thunderstorms and anything that goes boom…
Heather
Jun 23, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Linette: Our little Honey is afraid of thunder and firecrackers too! She also doesn’t like water. I wish we knew what had happened to her before she came to us, but we can deal with it and as I’ve told my husband if that’s her only imperfection then she’s pretty perfect to me! :D
julo
Jul 1, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I have two issues with this list. The biggest of which is that Corgis didn’t make the top ten list! Corgis are way smarter than some of the other breeds on that list. I’m indignant. ;)
Second, I agree with you Heather, I’ve met some smart beagles too. I always understood that beagles were easily distracted by smells, not that they’re dumb. That’s not a very nice way to put “not as obedient or smart as other breeds” is it?
Courtney
Jul 9, 2008 at 5:38 pm
The list makes sense to me. If you know a lot about dog breeds, you notice the majority of the dogs in the smartest list are either Herding or Working Group dogs. These dogs were bred by nature to obey and work with humans.
The breeds on the dumbest list, on the other hand, are mostly from the Hound group. These dogs were bred to be independent of handlers and refer to following their sight or nose to get around.
Heather
Jul 10, 2008 at 11:45 am
Hi Courtney! That’s a very good point, re: if the dogs “listen” to us then they’re smart. There were quite a few on the “dumb” list that really surprised me.
Toni
Aug 22, 2008 at 4:21 pm
I have owned a Basset Hound and I currently own a Mastiff. I have to say that Bassets are not the smartest dogs out there, but a Mastiff is much smarter than a Basset.
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