Scientists from Helsinki named the smartest dog breeds

Scientists from the University of Helsinki in Finland have ranked the most intelligent dog breeds. For this they appreciated more than 1000 pets of 13 different breeds.

All dogs were evaluated in 10 different tasks (7 cognitive and 3 behavioral), the results of which were analyzed by the authors of special smartDOG tests. The Belgian Shepherd Malinois became the leader. She scored 35 points out of 39 possible. The second place was taken by the Border Collie with 26 points and only one point behind the German breed Hovawart.

Also participated: Australian Kelpie, Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, Spanish Water Dog, Sheltie, English Cocker Spaniel, Australian Shepherd, German Shepherd, Finnish Lapphund and mixed breed.

Scientists have noted that most dogs have their own strengths and weaknesses:

• So, the Labrador Retriever read human gestures very well, but solved spatial problems worse.
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• The Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie) showed consistently good results in almost all tests, but they were not high.
• The Belgian Shepherd Malinois excelled in many cognitive tasks, showing very good results in most tests.
• Border Collies also performed well on average.

Among the pet tests was the V-walking task, where the dog had to walk around a transparent V-shaped fence to access the food it could see. So the experts assessed the ability to solve problems.

The ability to read human gestures was measured by assessing the reaction to when a person points to something - with a hand, foot, once, constantly, or even looking away.

The researchers also measured how independent the dog was and how quickly it turned to a human for help. For this feature, an unsolvable problem was used, where it was necessary to access food in a box that cannot be opened.

Test data shows that the Belgian Shepherd Malinois ranked first in both human gestures and V-walking task, and was the fifth most independent breed.

The Border Collie lived up to its reputation as an intelligent dog with a second place finish, while the Hovawart took the bronze medal, one point ahead of the Spanish Water Dog. The Golden Retriever and Labrador also scored high on the gesture test, but low on the other two, ranking 13th and 9th respectively.