Dogs are like babies: everyone thinks theirs are exceptionally smart. But how do you know if your dog is really intelligent or just cute? Of course they respond to their own name, or to a good word (“walk” or “treat”) or bad (“vet” or “bad”) – although that may have more to do with survival than a solid command. of the English language.
But now, a recent article published in the magazine Nature, indicates that some dogs are capable of a skill previously thought to be limited to humans. Here’s what you need to know about that and how to find out if your dog is secretly a genius.
How to Take a Doggy IQ Test
In the study published in Nature, researchers found that some dogs can learn the name of a new object after hearing it just four times. And, according to Dr. Jan Hoole, a biology lecturer at Keele University who wrote about the paper The conversationis it possible to replicate the test at home with your own dog. Here’s what to do:
- Start with a baseline test. Place different objects that your dog knows in front of him.
- Stay out of sight of your dog and say, “Bring [name of toy/object.]Keep track of how many items they could identify based on their name alone. If they have been able to identify many of the known items that way, you can take it to the next level to see how quickly they can learn the names of new objects.
- Show the dog two new items, tell them the name of each object, and let them play with it for a while.
- After repeating the name of each toy four times, ask the dog to choose one of the two new toys. (Don’t include one that is known so they don’t pick new ones through the elimination process.)
- Do this repeatedly and keep track of how often the dog picks the correct item when you ask for it by name.
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In the study, the first two dogs were able to identify one of the new toys more often than accidentally – but when the experiment was repeated with 20 other dogs, none of them showed this level of ability when it came to getting the name quickly to learn. of a new object.
But does this actually show anything?
It depends on. The researchers pointed out that more work needs to be done before it can be determined whether some dogs are truly gifted in the intelligence department, or whether it is a product of training or their breed (or a combination thereof).
For example, Hoole notes that border collies and Yorkshire Terriers are both known for being mentally motivated, and may perform better on a test like this. On the other hand, dogs traditionally used for hunting or racing – such as salukis and greyhounds – may not be interested in toys or pleasing their humans, and refuse to cooperate in the training or testing of the experiment.
But that doesn’t mean they aren’t smart: Just like humans, dogs aren’t all motivated by the same things. (Except treats.)