Canine Intelligence: Whats your story? - Page 4

Centurian, more thoughts on what your dog did -

When hunting prey, I think it would be quite natural for some members of a pack to circle around and cut off the animal(s) the other members were chasing. Could be why your dog acted the way it did - genetic instincts related to hunting.

Sunsilver ,
yes , a possibility - i agree , thank you for stating that. As you mentioned " genetic Instincts" .. .. that also lends to the notion that Intelligence has a genetic component . That is to say that Intelligence is a passed on trait.
In reply to a previous post on this thread.. I do know people , especially in Germany , that do take very much into consideration , breeding for intelligent gs. Difficult as there are many variables in doing so , and because of that , not always predictable in outcome within the progeny.

Wild dogs in Africa have different hunting tactics and game plans for different species and for both single animals and herd situations for those individual species. They learn these "lessons" from the older dogs as juveniles. Many domesticated dogs are "dumb" because they have only humans to learn from after 8 weeks of age and humans as a species are poor teachers for dogs. Humans raised in Romanian orphanages with little love or interaction with other children have much lower IQ and never develop proper intellectual or social skills. Why would solitary dogs raised with humans be any better?? Intelligence in dogs is primarily a reflection of their environment.

http://center4familydevelop.com/helpromanian.htm

http://www.livescience.com/21778-early-neglect-alters-kids-brains.html

Hund
yes he was Bedwins Kennel but dont remember his registered name. But I do recall my friend talking about a lot of this behavior was coming from a dog called Vello

@Mithuna, never mind; it will have been a long while ago now, to remember such details with someone else's dog. ;-)

 

I expect Griffiths was referring to Vello zu den Sieben- Faulen. This was a (too) large dog, so he was never angekoert;  also, fingers pointed at him as one of the 3 dogs behind spreading Pituitary Dwarfism, given that he in his turn was descended from Osnabruckerland dogs where dwarfism

was first identified, and that 7 out of 8 litters in the main

Study on it featured Vello as an ancestor.  But he was in

A LOT of pedigrees, none the less.  Sired the 'B' litter v.Lierberg.  Jalk Fohlenbrunnen was linebred on him, 

as were the VA dog & Italian Sieger (1976) Frei v Holtkamper See, a Canto W son;  4 US Champions; in total 4 Lierberg litters (all to Betty v Eningsfeld, dam of the 'B' brothers);  and the well-regarded Aust.CH  Barry v Status Quo, plus many more. 

He reportedly was a dog of high trainability.  Founded  possibly Germany's most successful "working" line.  Would have featured in a lot of Griffiths stock;

I am prepared to believe he saw something good in that /

maybe the dog itself, if he'd had hands on him.  He does

know what he is doing, despite the tricks he got up to ! 

I can't find any more detailed references to Vello's temperament, but will post again if I turn up anything of interest.

Germane to this thred, (and, come to that, the "Bloodlines"

thred, lolz), Vello's influence will probably have been

a  LONG WAY BACK in your friend's dog's pedigree.

His dates are:  b 1956; d  196?(unconfirmed).

I know breeders who DO take into account what's that far back in a dog's pedigree. The one I'm thinking of thinks Bodo and Bernd are 2 of the dogs to always look for in pedigrees, as well as Lord and Held v. Ritterberg.

Heck, when you've been breeding for over 40 years, even your OWN lines go almost that far back!

Hund

The dog Im talking about was around in the early 80's. He was def over sized and could not be shown, but he was exceptionally intelligent with little training. He was like a person with a role in his family; a role which he did very well.

Sounds like the inheritance was working, then!
Yeah, guys, I don't know 'cos I don't breed, but
its always seemed to me it's WORTH knowing
about good dogs (and bitches) way back in the lines
you are using currently, simply because you never
know when the genetic dice will fall in your favour.
Doesn't hurt to stack your odds a bit, rather than rely
on random outcrossing !
Whether I'd religiously believe, as it seems some
do, that you can almost 'guarantee' getting certain
traits in ALL the puppies you can produce just by
continuing to linebreed on particular dogs strikes
me as hope over experience, though, and a recipe for
ultimate bottle-necking, if you overdo it. Still ...
that thred is closed down now, not really any point
rehashing it. Back to the 'intelligence' theme of
Mithuna's OP: your friend's dog sounds like a grand
specimen anyone might have been proud to own,
whatever the reasons he was as he was.

Wow where do. I begin? Great stories on the post. I haven't been on in quite a while...one of my favorite stories about my gsd is when he was young 6 month old pup I was walking him across the street in the cross walk. A car sped up towards us, he didn't see us and I didn't see the driver suddenly my gsd instinctively let out a bunch of big barks at the car(his body was facing the car) The driver screeched on his brakes and was super close to hitting u sand hand signaled a shocked sorry. I immediately super praised my dog ( hell he saved my life:) after this whenever I'm walking in a cross walk with my dog or I'm standing on the corner and waiting for the light to change my dog lets em know with a bark that were here!!!Even if the light is green for the driver turning right. I love it !!! He may not know the traffic rules but he knows how to protect his human and for that I'm eternally grateful!
So I consider that a combination of intelligence, protection and loyalty that our gsd have. Praise and letting them know they've done good helps too😄

Absolutely, giebel ! Dog is forced by circumstance of car
heading straight at him (and you) on the crossing to bark
in surprise / warning; you make big deal of praising dog;
dog learns to apply that lesson to all future 'crossing the
road' situations. Simples. Constantly reinforced by your
pleased reaction each time he barks as you set off across
a street. Bit more extreme than 'seeing eye' training, but
essentially a similar result LOL.

Thus a combination of automatic & trained response.
Very clever and useful, but not evidence of 'intelligence'
per se.   We humans might well screech, if a vehicle

seemed to be heading straight at us;  pretty involuntary reaction, we wouldn't wait to give it "thought" before our surprised yell(p).