Dogs Are Smarter Than Wolves

Scientists are finally catching up to what we dog owners knew all along – dogs are very smart! I was very interested to read the article, Why your dog is smarter than a wolf, in the Christian Science Monitor.

Here is the part I found most interesting (and amusing):

Until recently, domestication was thought to have dulled dogs’ intelligence. Studies in the early 1980s showed that wolves, from which dogs probably descended, can unlock a gate after watching a human do it once, while dogs remained stumped after watching repeatedly.

That never sat well with Vilmos Csanyi, the recently retired head of Mr. Miklosi’s department. Mr. Csanyi, who had dogs of his own, suspected the dogs were awaiting permission to open the gate, that they regarded opening the gate as a violation of their master’s rules.

In 1997, Csanyi and his colleagues tested 28 dogs of various ages, breeds, and closeness to their owners, to see if they could learn to obtain cold cuts on the other side of a fence by pulling on the handles of dishes while their owners were present. Dogs with a close relationship to their owners fared worse than outdoor dogs. But when the dogs’ owners were allowed to give the animals verbal permission, the gap between the groups vanished. Read more …

So here the previous scientists thought the dogs were being dumb, when they were just being well-behaved!

The article goes on to explain how dogs can guess answers by watching their humans for clues. And dogs are great at imitating people too. Dogs have been with humans for so long, that interacting with us is part of their makeup now.

So don’t let anyone tell you that dogs aren’t smart!

Tags: Behavior