How Smart Is Your Dog?

 

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The close bond between humans and canines is very much reinforced by the fact that dogs are considered to be more intelligent than other common domestic animals like cats, guinea pigs, canaries and betas. This is probably true but what does it mean?

Dogs seem to have a large range of intelligence across the specie. Some appear bright, others less so. How is this determined? Ordinarily, a dog that can be trained to follow commands is thought to be more intelligent than one that ignores instruction. A dog that delivers the paper or hunts down an escaped convict is more intelligent than one that spends most of its time on the couch. Of course, nowadays few dogs even have the opportunity to fetch a newspaper but if they did would it be evidence of intelligence? Most dog owners would think so. But they might be wrong.

Dogs that are easily trained to do simple tasks might not be as clever as dogs that refuse. Perhaps following the instructions of a master isn't indicative of the sophisticated thinking that humans see as intelligence. A dog that walks away and lays down after its owner throws a ball across the lawn has his own priorities that don't include chasing balls. He may know through experience that later there will be a strange substance in his dish that he's come to recognize as food even if he fails to retrieve the ball. Would that make him stupid?

If there's even a germ of reality in this analysis it could be extended to other common animals, humans for instance. Infant males and females are trained from birth to do some things and refrain from others. If they quickly adopt those standards they're considered more intelligent than others that need a longer toilet training regimen or take their time learning to read. While parents and neighbors are happy to see children adopt the routines of their culture, it might not mean all that much in the intelligence of later life, however it might be described. If it's described as being able to follow orders and conform to established standards then some bright people are being held to the same standards as pets. A case could be made that the educational system is just that, a mechanism for training rather than education. A production of uniformity rather than a development of the unique assets of each individual.