science

The Intelligence of Dogs

The Intelligence of Dogs is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Intelligence of Dogs rather than just read about it. In short: The Intelligence of Dogs: A Guide to the Thoughts, Emotions, and Inner Lives of Our Canine Companions is a 1994 book on dog intelligence by Stanley Coren, a professor of canine psychology at the University of British Columbia. The book explains Coren's theories about the differences in intelligence between various breeds of dogs.

Key takeaways

The Intelligence of Dogs belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Intelligence of Dogs to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Intelligence of Dogs from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Intelligence of Dogs: A Guide to the Thoughts, Emotions, and Inner Lives of Our Canine Companions is a 1994 book on dog intelligence by Stanley Coren, a professor of canine psychology at the University of British Columbia. The book explains Coren's theories about the differences in intelligence between various breeds of dogs. Coren published a second edition in 2006. Coren defines three aspects of dog intelligence in the book: instinctive intelligence, adaptive intelligence, and working and obedience intelligence. Instinctive intelligence refers to a dog's ability to perform the tasks it was bred for, such as herding, pointing, fetching, guarding, or supplying companionship. Adaptive intelligence refers to a dog's ability to solve problems on its own. Working and obedience intelligence refers to a dog's ability to learn from humans.

Methods The book's ranking focuses on working and obedience intelligence. Coren sent evaluation requests to American Kennel Club and Canadian Kennel Club obedience trial judges, asking them to rank breeds by performance, and received 199 responses, representing about 50 percent of obedience judges then working in North America. Assessments were limited to breeds receiving at least 100 judge responses. This methodology aimed to eliminate the excessive weight that might result from a simple tabulation of obedience degrees by breed. Its use of expert opinion followed precedent. Coren found substantial agreement in the judges' rankings of working and obedience intelligence, with Border Collies consistently named in the top ten and Afghan Hounds consistently named in the lowest. The highest ranked dogs in this category were Border Collies, Poodles, German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, and Doberman Pinschers. Dogs that are not breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club or Canadian Kennel Club (such as the Jack Russell Terrier) were not included in Coren's rankings.

Evaluation Coren's book presents a ranked list of breed intelligence, based on a survey of 208 dog obedience judges across North America. When it was first published there was much media attention and commentary in terms of both pros and cons. Over the years, Coren's ranking of breeds and methodology have come to be accepted as a valid description of the differences among dog breeds in terms of their trainability. A 2009 measurement of canine intelligence using another method confirmed the general pattern of these rankings, and Coren included an updated study using owner ratings of dog trainability and intelligence in the 2006 edition of the book. The value of survey-based cognition findings have been dismissed by some cognitive researchers and dog trainers. The 1995 edition of Coren's book lists 130 dog breeds, and assigns them to 79 ranks with some ties, grouped into six descending categories.

See also List of dog breeds List of individual dogs

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Intelligence of Dogs

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Intelligence of Dogs claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Intelligence of Dogs before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Intelligence of Dogs ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Intelligence of Dogs

In research: The Intelligence of Dogs appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Intelligence of Dogs in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Intelligence of Dogs is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1994 non-fiction books, Animal intelligence, Dog behavior, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Intelligence of Dogs outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study The Intelligence of Dogs in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Intelligence of Dogs means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Intelligence of Dogs out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Intelligence of Dogs in simple terms?

Why does The Intelligence of Dogs matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Intelligence of Dogs?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Intelligence of Dogs.