EON

Toronto – According to ongoing research, the average family dog is actually a toddler — with a tail and snout.

Stanley Coren, a canine researcher, says that dogs are able to sniff out a problem and solve it and are more like primates than we originally thought.

Studies and behavioral measures indicate that a dog’s mental ability is somewhat like that of a 2 ½ year old child. Dogs can put together pieces of information to a greater extent than anyone ever thought.

Studying at the University of British Columbis, Stanley Coren has written several books on dogs and their behaviors. He has reviewed studies to find out that dogs have ability during play time. They are able to intentionally try to deceive another dog or person in order to receive rewards. They are almost as successful in deceiving humans as humans are at deceiving dogs.

Coren also states that the average dog is able to do basic math, but this is nothing new to the veteran dog breeder John Mitchell. Dogs can count up to either four or five and will notice errors in easy computations such as 1+1=2 or 1+1=3.When dogs communicate; they understand a total of 165 words, signals and sings.

Dogs are great at body language and picking up signals and gestures. For example, a dog knows when you come home and have had a bad day and will sit by your side until he knows you are ok. Dogs create a strong bond with humans through communication and just listening to others around them.

There are three different types of dog intelligence: adaptive (how dogs learn from their environment for problem solving), instinctive (what dogs are bred to do) and working and obedience (‘school learning’). Different breeds differ in their intelligence. Border Collies lead in instinctive and obedience intelligence.

The following smartest dogs are: poodles, German shepherds, golden retrievers, Dobermans, Shetland sheepdogs and Labrador retrievers.