Assessing Dog Intelligence
There are a lot of people who naturally assume that a dog that learns quickly and easily is more intelligent than one who takes longer to train. Some people believe that the dog that learns faster is just more willing to obey and that it has nothing to do with how smart they are. They often think that dogs who are escape artists or wily hunters are actually the ones with the brains. Opinions vary as to the intelligence of guide dogs as well. One school of thought says that since they learn certain cues and signals they are just trying to please their masters each time they perform. The other school would remind us that in fact they must learn a lot of complex commands and must constantly be on the alert. They are responsible for the safety of their human companion and new situations arise all the time.
Various ways of measuring a dog’s intelligence have been devised. Some of them evaluate how they respond to specific events, while others see how many human words they can recognize, a vocabulary test of sorts. Ask yourself this question; if you place a dog in a room he isn’t normally allowed in, is he more intelligent if he waits quietly to be let out, or if he tries to figure out how to open the door and escape (or barks to be let out)? The point is that there are different ways to interpret tests and scientists who study canines may look at test scores and methods from various subjective viewpoints. So evaluating dog intelligence is open to as much interpretation as is doing it for humans.
Stanley Coren wrote a book entitled “The Intelligence of Dogs” in 1994. He talks about different ways of measuring how intelligent dogs are and goes further by breaking them down into categories. He looks at adaptive intelligence or how he learns as he is established in his environment, instinctive intelligence which is inbred, and working/ obedience intelligence, and how well he does with commands.
Coren has designed a series of tests that anyone can administer to his or her dog to evaluate how they measure up. The problem is that if you wish to test a dog before you adopt him, the results might not be what you want. Some of his recommendations are that the dog is one year old at the minimum, should have been living with the tester for a period of some months, and been in the same environment for more than two months.
You can devise your own tests to measure how intelligent your dog is and you can read about it in books and on the Internet in great detail. It really seems that a dog’s IQ score shouldn’t matter that much. If you are adopting or already have a pet dog in your family, then what you should be interested in is his temperament and his willingness to follow your commands, at least enough so that he has some manners. If you want a dog for a specific job, then you would talk to breeders about various characteristics in different breeds. Chances are anyway that your interpretation of any tests will be as subjective as the test itself.
Today’s dog is in a new era as far as his learning programs are concerned. During the last 20 or so years dog training has taken on an entirely new look. Humans have become more enlightened in many cases and want to do more with their dogs than just teach them the basic commands. Many people are taking more care with how they choose a dog that will fit in with their families and their lifestyles. They also want to understand more about their four-legged friend’s motivation so that they can learn to use behaviour modification when it’s called for. More people than ever before are opting to take their dogs to a trainer, but they aren’t just picking a name out of the phone book. They want to know that the obedience trainer they choose is well-qualified and actually has insight into dogs and why they act the way they do. As a result you’re much more likely to find someone to help you with your dog who has received special training on a much deeper level than in the past.
Your goals should be to find someone who understands what motivates dogs, how to reinforce or eliminate certain actions without punishing them, can teach your dog to perform any task you wish him to, and knows the difference behind bribing him to do something and rewarding him for doing it right.
To gain this knowledge there are some basics they need to study that are at a much deeper level than they formerly did. For instance they should understand the specific ways that dogs learn, how the various learning theories have evolved, how to use psychology in training, and the differences that breeds will make in dog behaviour.
Since we’ve been talking about dog psychology, some terms to be aware of are classical and operant conditioning techniques. These are terms commonly heard in the psych world. An example of operant conditioning would be to employ positive reinforcement. Say you want to teach your puppy to sit on command. If you use a treat to shape them into position, add a word such as “good” or use a clicker, and then give them a treat when they complete the task, you are positively reinforcing his behaviour. You would add the command word (“sit”) after a few practices so that the dog would end up being lured into the correct position.
In the traditional method, you physically push down on the dog’s rear end while telling him to sit and he eventually learns to associate the word “sit” with the action. Generally speaking, traditional methods use more physical force such as pulling on the leash or even jerking them into position.
Canine learning theory holds that positive reinforcement is a much more sensible as well as kinder way to teach your dog to behave appropriately. Not only that but it works very well as a dog is more likely to respond positively to someone who cares enough to have his best interests as heart as well as just the human viewpoint. You are much less likely to see neurotic behaviour in a dog that is trained without being bullied. These are just a few points about learning theory, but it should be enough to help you want to join the millions of dog lovers who are moving away from the traditional “I’m the human and you’re just the dog”, school of thinking.
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