Is your breed smart? Really, now. Have you ever read any book or article about any breed of dog, where the article was written by people who love that breed, and that book or article admitted, "Our breed is sort of dumb?"
Nope. You read the same thing in every dog book: "The Miniature Curlyhaired Pumpkinhead is an extremely intelligent breed."
Balderdash.
There are a few dog breeds in which superior reasoning skills have been genetically built into the breed for generations. Almost without exception these breeds were developed to be working
dogs. They herded livestock, guarded their owner's home, hunted for birds, game animals, or vermin. Such work required greater intelligence than was required by breeds developed to be companions or lapdogs.
Aside from these working breeds, intelligence varies like this...
l Some individuals are geniuses.
l Some are bright.
l Some are average.
l Some are below average.
l And some poor souls couldn't hit water if they fell out of a boat.
"Oh, lucky me! I have one of the geniuses!"
Are you sure?
l Some breeders and owners claim intelligence when their dog is simply acting from instinct or stumbles upon the solution to a problem accidentally.
l And some breeders and owners claim high intelligence for their entire breed...
Then you find out that this breed is the only breed they have any experience with. Even worse, they haven't done any real training with their breed. They simply exhibit at dog shows,
which are beauty contests based on structure, grooming, coat and color, and proper gait.
Intelligence and trainability matter not a whit at dog shows.
Now, such an opinion isn't very objective, is it?
Evaluations about intelligence are much more accurate when:
l You've worked with hundreds of dogs,
l of many different breeds,
l doing activities that truly require intelligence and reasoning skills.
Only then can you compare breeds objectively.