A man uses his car to walk his Belgian Shepherd malinois in Mexico City./Ivan Pierre Aguirre/AP
A study conducted in Finland has examined what dog breed may be the smartest - and the result could surprise you. A team at the University of Helsinki analyzed the performance of 1,002 dogs from 13 breeds in a series of cognitive and behavioral tests called smartDOG.
Famously-intelligent border collies performed well in many of the tasks, as did golden retrievers and labradors, but it was the Belgian shepherd malinois that scored the highest overall. The breed did especially well in cognitive tests, said study co-author Katriina Tiira. Malinois are often used as police dogs and other service roles.
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The dogs' were tested on their ability to read human gestures (such as pointing fingers at specific directions) and solve problems, like working their way around a V-shaped fence to access a food reward that they could see.
Dorado, a 3-year-old Belgian shepherd malinois, demonstrates how trained rescue dogs locate and signal the presence of people./Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Researchers also investigated how often they turned to humans for help, and their reaction to unsolvable problems, like accessing food in a sealed box.
However the report's authors have also cautioned against drawing too many conclusions. They say the point of the study was to see which breeds performed better in certain tasks, based on their specific traits.
For example, the results showed the hovawart (a German breed) was one of the most independent, and tried to tackle the unsolvable task by themselves rather than asking a human for help. In contrast, the golden retriever turned to humans several times for aid, while the malinois was the most successful at comprehending human gestures. The labrador retriever also did well in that regard.
The Malinois and border collie were also the quickest at spatial problem-solving. According to study co-author Saara Junttila, the results only show how the 13 breeds perform in specific situations.
"Therefore, it would not be advisable to draw too many conclusions from our study results to the more general behavior of a specific dog, as each dog is still, after all, an individual," she said.
The world's dumbest dog breed?
Pet owners who are miffed that their canine companions aren't considered the world's smartest might be naturally inclined to find out if their dogs are counted among the least intelligent breeds. A book published in 1994 might provide a clue.
In 'The Intelligence of Dogs', Stanley Coren, a professor from the University of British Columbia, ranked 130 breeds based on a number of criteria.
A book in 1994 suggested the Afghan hound was the least intelligent dog breed. /Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
The Afghan hound is at the bottom of the list, rated lowest for 'obedience intelligence', which refers to its ability to learn from humans. It was followed by the Basenji (a breed that doesn't bark), the bulldog and the chow chow.