Who is smarter?

I thought I’d reproduce Maneki’s comments on my earlier posting since it’s food for thought:

Maneki’s:

Some years ago, a study came out listing the most and least intelligent dog breeds. Border collies were among the geniuses, and chows & huskies were deemed idiots.

When people looked a bit deeper into the research, they realised that what was being tested was not the dog’s innate “intelligence” (however that might be defined) but rather each breed’s willingness to do what humans asked. Chows and huskies, being aloof and not especially interested in pleasing humans, scored low. Breeds with tight bonds to their humans rated as more “intelligent”.

We can only judge an animal’s intelligence on our own human terms. Turned out to survive on their own, I think my cats would do better than I, so who is the more intelligent? Frankly, I think if they were asked, they’d say they find me rather dull-witted. 🙂

And my response:

I know what you mean. Sometime last year, Bobby and I participated in a training programme for dogs (for the fun of it!). I had asked if Bobby would be too old to participate in it, and the trainer said no dog is too old to be trained.  So, the trainer tried to get Bobby to do all kinds of things, but Bobby simply refused. He couldn’t even get Bobby to leave my side by enticing Bobby with food. Finally, he told me, “Your poodle is one-heaven-of-a smart dog. He knows exactly what he wants and refuses to listen to me.  He can’t even be bribed with food!  He’s motivated by you, not by food.”

Then he told me that way back when he was training dogs for the Singapore Police, they had wanted a black poodle squad, but it failed because all the poodles refused to listen to them!

A vet told me long ago that Golden Retrievers and Poodles are “smart”. I wonder if that meant they would listen or they had their own minds and refuse to listen!

For Bobby, it’s definitely the latter.