Smart Dog

[mothwing]

Ever since we read this comic Crocky and I wanted to see how Dax would do on an intelligence test. We both never even knew that there was such a thing as intelligence tests for animals, and I'm still agog. What's the point? o.O I can sort of see it for service dogs, but for pets? Who cares?

Meet Dax, my mother's hunting dog.



He is a Pudelpointer, and we already know that he passed the German character test required to allow him in public without a muzzle or a leash in designated areas with flying colours, so I was not too worried about his performance.

But I was still curious how well this goofy, goofy dog:









would do on an intelligente test. In four cases out of five, he did really well.

1. He responds only to his name and not to the cat's or the name of my mother or food.
2. He can figure out how to get at hidden treats and how to get around objects.
3. He knows several commands. (edit: and while I don't think that the ability to be trained says a lot about canine intelligence, I'm impressed by how many words he understands, so I give him props for that).
4. If I pretend to throw something, he doesn't think I really have.
5. The only thing he really didn't do well on was the blanket test.



He stayed like this for over ten seconds, for aaages and I was getting worried about his well-being. Fine, my dog had not been standing at the beginning of the test as required, mostly because he apparently didn't think that I am anyone to tell him to "stay" and lay down.

So after i put the blanket on him he turned his head under the blanket to face me with all but raised eyebrows, but stayed under the blanket. I suppose it was because he knew that something was up and that I had intended him to stay where he was, so it's probably my fault.

After I patted him lightly to let him know he could do what he wants he got up and lo and behold: 







Not too surprising, seeing as how the breed is supposed to be smart, and PPs are only sold to people who are going to train and use them as hunting dogs, so Dax has already completed his dog degree and is even used to testing shenanigans and humans doing strange things.

So he is still the smartest. ♥


My cat probably isn't. He forgets his name occasionally or at least doesn't react to it, he always believes we've really thrown something if we pretend to, and he could never figure out the treat-under-the-glass trick in a hundred years, but who cares.





I don't mind. ♥

Comments

[lordhellebore]

You cat's intelligence does not fit with his name *lol*

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

LOL it really doesn't. It's almost embarrassing just how smarter than our cat Dax is when it comes to problem solving or figuring out how stuff works. That really surprised me; even having grown up with dogs I always assumed cats were smarter than dogs, I don't know why. Well, kitty debunked the myth pretty quickly, though I suppose he's about average.

[lisaquestions.livejournal.com]

You may find this interesting. :)

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thanks for the link, that blog is great (OMG kitty Hogwarts houses! (http://felinesarewonderful.blogspot.com/2010/05/in-which-i-sort-kitties-into-alpha-beta.html) Sev is definitely a beta cat/Hufflepuff. <3)! She does raise interesting points with regards to what the tests test and intelligence in her original post on the study, something that annoyed me about the doggie tests I came across while searching doggie IQ tests, many of which seem to have a big focus on obedience alone. While the smarts really help with training your dog (on the part of the dog as well as the owner), it's really not the only thing there is to it.

I'm curious how Sev will do in a set-up more similar to hers than my plastic-cup one, and how he'll do if Dax is around. He's a single cat, but having Dax solve that puzzle in front of him might satisfy the social component. As-is, he searched around for the treat a bit, to no avail, and then looked at me with his, "And...?"-face.

[lisaquestions.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's why I love her blog (and Amanda Baggs' posts about cats as well), that she approaches feline intelligence as something that isn't measured by how perfectly they mesh with human intelligence, but by what they're capable of.

I was very happy to find her blog after too many arguments elsewhere about how because I didn't see cats as food-seeking automatons, I must obviously anthropomorphize them. I could go on forever about this...

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

I was very happy to find her blog after too many arguments elsewhere about how because I didn't see cats as food-seeking automatons, I must obviously anthropomorphize them.
Oh my god, have these people ever interacted with cats? Or ever, idk, watched cats for more than five minutes? Crocky was a bit like this because due to her millions of allergies she'd never really been exposed to any animals before, but one afternoon with Dax set her straight. =/ I refuse to believe that anyone who has ever really watched cats interacting with their surrounding or their people would believe that they're only about food. Also, anthropomorphising, how? Because the only smart beings are humans because we've been touched by god and everything else only reacts and acts as programmed by their instincts? Lawl. Bless those people, and may they never get pets.

[lisaquestions.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

The first time I came into a conversation like this, I was like, "cats are self-aware, but not like humans." and got into a really vicious argument with someone who kept trying to reduce things to "cats only hang around people for food" (easily falsifiable) and "you want to see cats as humans in animal suits." It was really kind of ironic because the people arguing against what I was saying were basically arguing that cats weren't anthropomorphic enough to have self-awareness, and my point was that we can't judge feline self-awareness on the basis of how much they're like people.

Like the mirror test, I never bought the mirror test because I think it tests for human-like assumptions. I've been told based on the test that cats can't understand mirrors. And I mean, seriously arguing that cats perceive the reflection as another cat even though cats never treat reflections like that.

One of the most vehement arguments I got into was with a vet. I was all how can you think this when you work with animals all the time?

But yeah, it's really weird and frustrating.