Are Dogs Dumb? - Page 2

It's been noted (and I'm not sure by who), that a dog has the cognitive ability akin to a 2 y/o child. Somewhere within that cap, are varying degrees of intelligence. Some dogs learn faster than others, and are more trainable. Indeed, the domesticated dog no longer is a hunter/gatherer, but because they're inherently a predatory creature, could potentially fend for themselves if they needed to. Man has just done a good job, at evolving their utility.

However, I've read that domesticated dogs have the intellect of about a 2 year old child......HOWEVER...herding & working dogs have been tested & shown to have intellects that approach a 6 year old child, the generally accepted age at which reasoning (cause & effect concepts) is beginning in humans. Does that mean herding breeds can do rudimentary reasoning? I have not read of any proof of that, but I have read some interesting articles on how dogs can recognize & read human facial expression, & follow a human gaze to identify an object correctly. The dogs tested did 100% better than wolves, not surprisingly, but they were not able to recognize other canids expressions as readily as they were able to recognize a humans. That surprised me. There were other tests that involved doing MRIs of the dogs brains when they saw a familiar person, & when that person petted another dog; the studied dogs brain lit up in the same places a humans brain would have lit up to suggest happiness, & jealousy. Not surprising to those of us who interact with dogs to finally have some scientific acknowledgement that dogs have emotions; but I guess it surprised the scientists. I think that was a National Geographic magazine article, a couple years old, now. jackie harris (BTW the article stated the dog was not sedated for the MRI, it was trained to remain motionless-pretty good training!)

 Good question.  Every time I answer yes to this question they end up teaching me something new I didn’t know before.  It may be that we just aren’t smart enough to fully appreciate their intelligence.

taking the word "Dumb" literally we have a 14 month Bitch that has a range of barks and call to let us know what she wants
i.e. can i go out please, another Dog wants to come in, we are out of water, etc

all self taught of course