Re: [PyrNet-L] Wondering...

["Tracy Bassett" <espinay@dynamite.com.au>]

Tony wrote: <<I recently saw a profile of Akita's in a dog magazine, and on
the profile of the dog it listed them as "extremely smart". What other dogs
would fall into that category? I assume Pyreness would be in there, but what
other dogs are considered to be very, or extremely, smart?>>

The Book by Stanley Coren that Nils-Petter referred to is "The Intelligence
of Dogs: Canine Consciousness and Capabilities" released here a few years
ago.  It was very controversial when it was released and continues to be so
to a certain extent - his rating of breeds for their 'intelligence' was
reported quite a lot in the popular press as well as the 'dog' press.
Basically though what Coren does is rate dogs according to their 'Obedience
and Working Intelligence'.  To do this he used US obedience trial records
and talked to obedience judges (as a result the results more or less favour
those breeds which are popular in the US and those more often seen in US
trial rings). To give him his due though, this is one table/section in a
large book in which he also talks about different types of intellegence.  In
addition to working or obedience intelligence, he also talks about
Instinctive intelligence (those skills 'preprogramed' into a dog, such as a
Pyr's LGD ability or a hound's hunting ability etc) and Adaptive
intelligence (learning ability/memory etc - the stuff those dog 'IQ' tests
are for).  He states at one point that :

"Generally speaking, animals that have less clearly defined dimensions of
instinctive intelligence seem to have compensated with higher levels of
adaptive intelligence.  Conversely, dogs with strongly defined dimensions of
instinctive intelligence often seem to be less felxible in their range of
possible behaviours, which is also typical of an animal with lower adaptive
intelligence.  This seems to be a choice that people have made in creating
various breeds.  Humans seem content to sacrifice some of the adaptive
intelligence in certain breeds in order to obtain dogs that need little
training to perform certain functions well."

So, what does all this mean?  IMO all it means is that all dogs are 'smart'
in their own way.  Some have been bred to have a stronger instinctive
intelligence (eg Pyrs) others have a stronger adaptive intelligence (eg
GSD's) and some of these especially excel in working or obedience
intelligence (eg Border Collie's).  While a Pyr may not always excel to the
heights in obedience that a Border Collie does, nor does a Border Collie
excel as a LGD.  And they probably shouldn't really be expected to either
because that is not what we have bred them for.  So, while I would be one of
the first to say it is absolutely fantastic to see Pyrs doing obedience etc
and they CAN do well, the truth is, if you really want to be ultra
competitive in trials, you should get a dog like a Border Collie.  At the
same time, I wouldn't be recommending anyone go out and get a Border Collie
to guard their Goats! :-)

BTW Coren ranks the Akita as 54th in regard to obedience/working
intelligence.  The Pyr is ranked 64th.

Tracy Bassett
Canberra, Australia
espinay@dynamite.com.au
visit my webpage at http://members.dynamite.com.au/espinay/index.htm