Not sure what the criteria were, but the CBS Early Show has listed its picks for the ten dumbest breeds of dog. THESE ARE NOT MY CHOICES! However, I’d love to hear your opinion. Listed below are the ten they picked, shown from the smartest of the bottom ten to the dumbest.
10. Basset Hound
9. Beagle
8. Mastiff
7. Pekingese
6. Bloodhound
5. Borzoi
4. Chow Chow
3. Bulldog
2. Basenji
1. Afghan hound
Write to me at [email protected] or simply leave a comment to this post. Show me examples to disprove these picks – I’ll bet some of you have really smart Afghan Hounds!
Tomorrow…The Early Show’s picks for the ten smartest dogs.
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
Basenjis are far from dumb…in fact, many of them are smarter than their owners! The thing about a Basenji is that they’re very cat-like, including being aloof like cats. They aren’t going to fawn all over you and hang on your every word. Their attitude when asked to do something is, “What’s in it for me?”
This is all very false. I have a basenji and have been around basenji’s and they are very far from dumb. Border Collies are apparently the first smartest dog in the world. Are there any border collies that have learned most commands in sign language? There is a whole program that trains these intelligent basenjis to know sign language to communicate with deaf children. Basenji’s are extremely far from dumb. In fact, they are so smart some refuse to learn commands just because they know they dont have to wor for food. If thats what this is referring to, then basenjis arent ALWAYS easily trained but they are the farthest from dumb.
Oh, here we go again- same old debate!
First of all, what crteria are we using to measure intelligence? Trainability? Memory? Problem- solving capacity? There is more than one aspect of intelligence.
Personally, I’m not surprised that the herding and working breeds, on the whole, do well in intelligence studies. These dogs tend to be very serious, eager learners who work well with people and respond to most training methods well. Other breeds actually may be more intelligent but we would not consider them so, because they don’t use their “smarts” in ways that we want them to.
Take the dog, for example, that constantly finds a way out of its yard. Or the dog that has learned how to open the door to the treat cupboard. Very good problem- solving capacity, but inconvenient for us, so we label them as stupid. They aren’t. They are capable of learning what we want them to do- they just have their own agenda. Pretty clever, if you ask me.
People have a bad habit of rating animal intelligence by how much the animal wants to please us.
Hounds, like borzois, afghans, and bassets are bred to work independently from their human handlers. Unless you work closely with one to build their drive to please you, they are going to think about how to please themselves.
Personally, I think borzoi and afghans are smarter than most other breeds. It took me 3 days to housebreak my first 9 week old zoi puppy, and 2 days for my second 9 week old zoi puppy. It takes me about 3 minutes to teach them a new behavior (like “Sit” “Stay” “lay down”, etc.). It takes another 3 months to convince them they should do it when I tell them to.
They don’t blindly obey like herding breeds (german shepherds, border collies, etc.) Those breeds will sit 40 times in a row just because you say so. A borzoi will sit 3 or 4 times. The fifth time they will look at you like you’re an idiot, then wander off to eat some food and take a nap.
dur. it doesnt take a smart dog to follow basic instinct. (such as smell) bloodhounds are dumb. Oh excuse me, “stubborn”
I propose we change the name of the list from “Dumbest Dogs” to “Most Stubborn Dogs.”
Chow chows are extremely stubborn, but far from dumb. They are very smart and extremely sensitive to the tone of your voice; if you sound like you mean it, they’ll listen to you… technically. If you give them a command in baby-talk, you might get a “B*tch, Please” look.
However, the “official” way trainers determine intelligence is by counting how many tries it takes to get them to learn a new trick, and preform it on a single command. 4 tries is an intelligent dog, 12 tries not so much. The chow chows I’ve owned generally fall in the 4-6 range, depending on the dog, the trick, and the proposed reward.
it sounds like your a little to dramatic about this whole story.
Look, this person SAID this isnt her list, if you are looking this up, then you obviously want to know. This person said “THIS IS NOT MY OPINION, JUST A LIST FROM A GROUP OF OFFICIALS.” there is no need to get upset at an innocent person. There is no such thing, as a dumb dog, just stubborn, ignorant, etc. Those breeds just tend to be slower (mind wise), and less responsive. I said TEND, just for the record. It is just tipically speaking. People are entitled to their opinion, but there is no need to get mad at the author of this site.
i own two bassets they are far from being dumb they just do things when they decide to ,not when you want them to.its their way, or their way ,i just live here.
I have a chow mix, and if i might say, he’s clever. But in a bad way. What i mean is, he knows its bad to poop in the house, but if he poops and i dont find it then he thinks its okay to poop in that area. so he will go to his place and poop and then when i finally find it and yell at him 4 it, he looks confused, and he’s off to find another spot…Chows arent dumb. They just think extremely different from the rest, atleast, mine does.
Weiner dogs should be on the list, my mom got one (I wanted a border collie) and that idiot will never stop whining when she is not around and he’s fully grown!
I have to agree with The Dog Lady and everyone else who said so, intelligence is inversely proportional to stubborness. Having a mind of their own makes them smarter dogs that not. They aren’t stupid, they just have the capacity to think outside your will. For example, people at the dog park think my dog is stupid because she doesn’t bring the ball back when I throw it, but, like other Boxers, she decided it’d be more fun to make me chase her for it. Just like I’d make her earn a treat or the ball, I have to earn the ball back. I don’t think a stupid dog could make that connection.
However, I think this list is juxtaposed with mistaken smart dogs and actual dumb dogs. I won’t say which I think is which because it’s not my place. I am suprised, though, that Bloodhounds are “dumb” since they do so much police work. I can’t imagine police would use dumb dogs to do such critical work. When lives are at stake they can’t afford stupidity. But I could be wrong.
Stop it Stop it!
Afghans are dumb dogs except it.
i think the stubbornest in pekingese is confused with being dumb. i find they are very smart but are stubborn as hell. thats why i love them!
Whoever created that list didn’t do much research.
In defense of beagle’s:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/lpa/pubs/detdog3.html
Suzan – I’d have to say I agree with you, as well as many others who have weighed in on the issue. I’m not sure what CBS used as their criterion, or where they got the list, but I have always thought that for the most part, a dog’s “intelligence” is inversely proportional to his stubbornness!
Beth, The Dog Lady
Sandy – I have never seen a small coonhound, bluetick or not. However, I will tell you that once hounds start getting mixed up through unplanned breeding, they all start to look alike.
If you’re really curious, there is a place where you can get a DNA analysis to settle the matter. I sent in my Kayla’s DNA and found that she is mostly German Shepherd and Rott, as well as having minor contributions from a number of other breeds.
Here are the links to the earlier posts on this topic.
http://doggies.com/blog/2008/06/30/what-kind-of-dog-is-that/
http://doggies.com/blog/2008/07/19/kaylas-dog-dna-update/
http://doggies.com/blog/2008/08/09/kaylas-dna-is-in/
Good luck!
Beth, The Dog Lady
I have a golden retriever and a mastiff. yep you can say that it is easier to train my golden retriever than my mastiff breed but i think it is only because a golden retriever tries very hard to please the master meanwhile a mastiff has a mind of his own n won”t do anything that doesn’t make sense for him. And it would depend on the definition of intelligence, is it having a mind of their own or listening to their owner’s wish incessantly? Well, it is fairer to say that these dogs who make to the “dumb” list to be independent thinker while the “smart” dogs are easy to train dogs.
actually, I have a question. We adopted our dog from a local dog shelter and the shelter said she is a beagle terrier mix. I our dog at the dog park yesterday and a guy said she looked similar to a picture of a bluetick coonhound, but she is only 30 lbs, not the typical 45 + lbs. I saw a picture of a bluetick coonhound and she looks quite similar accept for her smallness. Her markings are pretty. She has brindle coloring on her face and tapering down her legs to and on her feet. With this description of her, Could you tell me if there is a bluetick coonhound that is small? S. Dixon
What about a post on the world’s most smartest or most clever dogs??
the TRD or the Thai ridgeback Dog has to TOP that list for sure.. these dogs are the smartest dogs i have ever seen in my 40 years in dogs. check them out at http://www.ThaiDog.com
Looks like people who know nothing about handling specific breeds made up a list of dogs they couldn’t train and called them ‘dumb’. Smart dogs actually tend to be stubborn, because they have stronger wills and need to be ‘convinced’ to learn whatever trick you’re trying to teach them that they feel is ‘silly’. It’s about knowing what motivates different dogs — some perform for toys, others for food, etc. If you don’t know what gets your dog’s attention, it will often seem like they ‘aren’t getting’ what youre trying to train them when in reality, they’re not being motivated to listen to you at all.
What??? Here’s my theory: No particular breed of dog is “dumb”. I think that each dog has it’s own personality… Just like people, I’m sure there are dumb dogs but I don’t think they can be classified by breeds. How in the devil do they figure that anyway?
It’s very hard to judge animal intelliigence. A “dumb breed” that is raised in a home with a lot of attention & care is going to be smarter than an intelligent dog that’s been neglected.
We have 2 greyhounds, ex-racers. One is dumb as a rock, the other is a fairly clever dog. They’ve been treated as livestock for the first 4 years of thier life. They have a lot of catching up to do.
Just picked up an Afghan for foster care today. He was neglected for most of his life. We will see how this has affected him.
And I’ll cast my vote that cats are generally smarter than dogs.
I have 4 afghans and they are far from dumb. These dogs are problem solvers. I definitely think they are smarter than the ones doing the testing because the dogs have them snowed. Like the Bassett, if there is nothing in it for them they won’t listen. If you have never seen a pair of afghans take down prey it is an incredible dance that they do,,,and do it successfully I might add. Not to mention that there are numerous afghan hounds that are championed in obedience and agility.These people must have gotten their information from the book, “The Mind of the Dog”. They guy that wrote that book has obviously never owned an afghan. Otherwise the afghan would be on the list of the 10 smartest dog breeds.
Yo drmusic! Read the disclaimer. These were the dogs CBS picked. This blog is just reporting the news. Can’t we all just get along?
I personally had an Afghan who was far from dumb. She was very easy to train and a wonderful companion, but you don’t see me getting all in a lather about it because someone else thinks the breed is dumb.
Chill out!
I agree with Whattheheck. You need to ask an expert before you post articles like this. Just because a dog appears to be dumb, doesn’t mean he is. They are much like people. Some people might appear to be dumb, until you take the time to understand them. Then you realize how intelligent they really are. This article makes “The Dog Lady” look dumb! I mean…if you are going to criticize something, you need to be able to accept it back if you happen to be wrong. Like you are in this case. I am definitely not impressed with this site! You probably won’t have the nerve to leave this up. But I double dog dumb dare you to do it!
Basset hounds are far from dumb, they’re just stubborn. If they don’t see what’s in it for them to do a trick, they “forget” how to do it. By “forget”, I mean that they know how to do it, they just don’t want to.