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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2015 5:05:22 GMT
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Post by manygoatsnmore on May 15, 2015 5:27:02 GMT
I don't know that I'd call some of those listed breeds as least intelligent just because they are the least willing to blindly follow human leadership, lol. Letting them do what they were bred to do, such as Great Pyrs for LGD and bloodhounds for tracking, and they will show quite a bit of ability!  |
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2015 6:21:09 GMT
We would not be so strongly attached to our dogs if they had opinions about politics.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2015 14:40:58 GMT
Saw a bunch of Jack Russells at a snake breaking exercise one time, funniest thing I've ever seen with dogs. They'd go for the snake every time, then do back flips when the e-collar hit the. My dog figured it out on the second snake. The Jack Russells all had to go around five stations twice. Don't know if they were dumb or just stubborn but it sure took them a long time to get the message.
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Post by here to stay on May 15, 2015 17:36:27 GMT
Maybe this is more a list of eager to please from the bottom up. My family had a Beagle at one point that could be taught to do anything inside the house- she had a repertoire of tricks that was amazing- but all obedience disappeared the second she could squeeze through the door as it was opening. She was gone and we were just dust in her rear view mirror.
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Post by Maura on May 15, 2015 17:39:56 GMT
Some of those dogs are pretty dumb. But, there are also those that are bred to be independent and just won’t do what you want, even though they know what you want. It is interesting to note which breeds learn quickly, which are happy to obey. I like a smart dog, but a smart dog isn’t for everyone. If you really want a cuddle bunny, you don’t need a high IQ mutt, you need an English Bulldog. I guess as long as they can be housebroken and learn not to jump on people, the dog is smart enough.
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Post by willowgirl on May 17, 2015 3:20:04 GMT
I have had a basenji and an Afghan hound (the two lowest-ranked breeds on the list). Basenjis, IMO, are very intelligent; they're just not particularly interested in doing what YOU want them to do! Afghans, OTOH, while exceedingly sweet dogs, are dumber than a box of rocks. |
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Post by Otter on May 17, 2015 19:27:27 GMT
Trainable and intelligent are different things, true, but that doesn't mean that they never go together. A trainable dog is always an intelligent dog, but an intelligent dog may not be a trainable dog.
But I have to disagree with some of you. No dog is purposely bred to be independent to the point of untrainablility - not a pyr, not a bloodhound. What you have today is the result of 30-50 years of not being bred for anything at all. Easily 95% of pyrs I have personally met (and I've personally met a lot) are crap as LGDs, any dog who could be trained to not kill livestock, bark, and stay in a fence would do just as well. But honestly, they don't need to do anything other than that for people to think they are exceptional and breed them, regardless of intelligence *or* trainability. Not at all like in they Pyrenees Mountains, where dogs who leave the flock for any reason, or who bark at nothing, have their throats slit. Seriously.
Bloodhounds are bred to track, and that doesn't take a lot of direction. But a dog who just catches wind of whatever catches it's fancy and then takes off after it is of absolutely no use at all. They MUST be at least a little trainable to be able to do their job. You don't need to control their every move like a Border Collie, but the dog must take the scent you give, alert you to any changes in it, follow your direction as to whether or not those changes are important, and do it at a controlled pace that you can follow. If you think that doesn't take training, you've never worked a hound.
When the dogs were bred to do specifically that, dogs who couldn't were killed. It was that simple. As that became less acceptable, failures were handed off to folks who had the luxury of not needing a dog to do a job, who were told things like "hounds are independent". Which means something *very* different to people who don't work dogs than to people who do. And then when dogs are bred for anything except for ability to do the job that brought them into being, trainability suffers, regardless of how much was there to start with.
Today, all breeds should be bred for trainability. The #1 thing that we cull dogs for (and dropping them at a shelter doesn't feel the same as taking them out and shooting them yourself, but functionally, it is) is inability to be an easy pet = which is a simple lack of trainability.
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Post by LauraD on May 17, 2015 22:22:59 GMT
I had a Basset Hound that lived to the ripe old age of 14. That dog knew what you wanted - she just chose to do what SHE wanted. If they happened to coincide then everyone was happy. If not, then she was. Attachments:
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