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Dobermans are the smartest breed

4K views 32 replies 23 participants last post by  Tollers-n-Dobes 
#1 ·
do you guys think dobermans are the smartest of all the breeds?
 
#4 ·
Definitely

My 2 youngest Dobies, Crystal and Willow, would steal food off the counter at any opportunity they got.
So I soon taught them that their paws had to stay on the floor and no to stealing food.

My mother inlaw came round one day in summer, the kitchen door was open to the garden and we sat in the living room drinking coffee.
Willow and crystal kept getting up and disappearing only to come back a few minutes later, lay down then look at each other before trundling back into the kitchen.
At first I thought they were just going out side and then coming back to check we were still there, but after about the fifth time I though what are they up to.
When they did this again and came back liking their lips I was definitely suspicious.
I remarked to Wilma that the girls were up to something and as I hadn't left any food out why were they licking their lips .

She jumped up and shrieked " my cake"

Apparently she had made us a cake and had left it on the kitchen table as it was still warm.

We ran to the kitchen to discover what my two clever little babies had been up to.

They had been sneaking off into the kitchen each time and taking a very small nibble each and then coming back as if nothing had happened. As it must have tasted so good they couldn't resist the temptation of going back for a little nibble more lol.
Hence the looks they kept giving each other before getting up and leaving the room " shall we, go on, you first, if we just take a nibble they will never know !!

Bless them they could have easily just eaten the full cake.

Boy did we laugh.


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#11 ·
For many people, there is no difference between smart and intelligent, because the words seem to be interchangeable. However, there is a difference between the meanings and use of these words.

Smart can be applied to learned inferences, such as making smart business or emotional decisions. Smart is an earned status. When we study and learn, we become smarter in the subject matter. Book smart or street smart, we have to put effort into becoming smarter.

Intelligence, on the other hand, is something with which you are born. Your IQ is a measurement of your intelligence, and doesn’t change because it is a measure of your ability to learn. This can apply to terms we chronically associate with intelligence, like math, or it can apply to your ability to learn negotiation of emotional issues. In either case, it is inherent, and it simply stems from your genetic makeup.

Smart can also be applied to sarcasm. We have ‘smart alec’ answers, or we can be ‘smart’ when answering a question or talking in a conversation. We don’t apply intelligent to the idea of being sarcastic.

Intelligent is used as a higher level of measured intellect. We give a higher compliment when we tell someone they are intelligent, versus when we tell them that they are smart. Intelligence is directly related to our own degree of sophisticated knowledge.

Smart can also be applied to describe appearance. If you are a smart dresser, or you represent yourself in a smart way, this in no way implies that you have intelligence. It means that you are appropriate for the conditions, and that you look very good. We don’t imply that you are an intelligent dresser.

Intelligence also implies a certain degree of higher education. Whether you’ve actually completed a higher education, or you have yet to do so, we refer to intelligent people as those we assume to have completed a higher level of education than high school. While there are those who are intelligent who never go to college, the implication is essential when understanding the description offered.

Summary:



1. Smart is a learned application.

2. Smart is an earned status.

3. Intelligence is the measurement of your ability to become smarter through learning.

4. Smart can be applied to sarcasm.

5. Intelligence infers a higher degree of intelligence when compared to smart.

6. Smart can be used to describe appearances.

7. Intelligence implies higher learning levels, and higher education.



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#12 ·
let's see now.............i decided to look up smart in the dictionary. :)

ok.

1. to cause or feel a sharp, stinging pain. - yes. :)

2. to suffer from wounded feelings, shame or distress. - yes. :)

3. having or showing quick intelligence. - yes. :)

4. clever or witty. - yes. :)

5. neat or trim in appearance. - yes. :)

6. elegant on fashionable. - yes. :)

7. brisk or vigorous. - yes. :)

8. sharp or keen. - yes. :)

9. equipped with electronic control devices, as a missle. - not sure. hahahah

10. containing built-in electronic processing power : a smart terminal. - hmmmmmmm



Well..........I would say Doberman are pretty darn smart.

Hugz to ALL Doberman!

good morning DT!
 
#13 ·
Frankly we don't have the best tools for measuring animal intelligence and most experiments designed to test dog intelligence focus on biddability.

When you're talking about the supposed 5 (or 10) smartest breeds, I think it really comes down to the individual dog. A very smart doberman may be smarter than a not-so-smart border collie.

But again, "smart" is pretty subjective.
 
#16 ·
Frankly we don't have the best tools for measuring animal intelligence and most experiments designed to test dog intelligence focus on biddability.

When you're talking about the supposed 5 (or 10) smartest breeds, I think it really comes down to the individual dog. A very smart doberman may be smarter than a not-so-smart border collie.

But again, "smart" is pretty subjective.
Bolded mine.

This is why I don't like "intelligence" lists. A biddable dog might not be a very intelligent dog. A dog that doesn't listen might be very intelligent indeed. Aren't wolf hybrids supposed to be smarter because they have the wolf's bigger brain size? And they're some of the hardest dogs to train because they go "meh" at most common motivators that domestic dogs get wiggly at. Sighthounds and chows and sharpei are supposed to be dumb as rocks, but many sighthound owners have told me that they just want to do things their way and don't really care that you have a cookie :p

The smartest dog in the world will always be my dog ;)
 
#20 ·
I understand what you are saying but that is independence rather than intelligence.
There are plenty of escapologist dogs, just look on you tube. I have one, she is an English Bull terrier, supposedly a fairly stupid breed.......she not only opens a crate from within but opens the OTHER dogs crates to let them out, round door handles by moving her paws in different directions at the same time....
This 'stupid' dog shows very high problem solving skills she has done and still does a number of very 'clever' things.

The point I was making is the wiggly interest in things a wolf wouldn't look at is because dogs 'development' is stunted compared to Wolves. Not my opinion, look it up.
 
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#21 ·
Well, they are definitely high up there! However, I think they are beaten by the Border Collie, who is first, and they are the fifth smartest.
 
#23 ·
Mmmm Dobie v Collie

Which one is smarter

Border Collie - chases sheep for a living
Dobie - gets waited on hand and foot

Border Collie - lives outside - sleeps usually in a kennel
Dobie - lives inside - sleeps usually in their owners bed

Border Collie - eats table scraps or the cheapest food the farmer can get
Dobie - the best food and most expensive their owner can get.

Border Collie - spends all day out in the rain
Dobie - rain!! No way - spends all day in front of the fire

Border Collie - has to make do with the coat it was born with
Dobie - various expensive coats provided for - including Jammies and rain coats

Get my drift lol.

Now which is smarter 😄




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#22 ·
May not be the smartest, but my dobermans have been the smartest dogs I have ever had. Well, except for the weimaraner doberman cross that was the very smartest dog I have ever seen for just having good sense and judgement.
 
#25 ·
I watched my mother's Standard Poodle apparently abandon a mouse he'd chased under the bed.

Only to return with my grandmother's Chihuahua, who flushed the mouse out for him.

I am not sure my Dobermans have that kind of reasoning ability.

They are, however, smart enough for me!

(I had a cat who liked to bring mice in, but didn't kill them; that's where the mouse came from in the first place.)
 
#29 ·
No.

Having had the pleasure of living with and loving one of the most brilliant dogs ever, I have stories about him that would raise the hair on your neck, I would say No.

My collie is proving to be pretty smart...he is a rough collie not a border collie. I don't think he will be my Strider's league though. Not many dogs would be in Strider's league. Strider was a GSD, none of my other GSD's were in his league either although they were very intelligent. My aussie Sierra was so biddable that she seemed to have super intelligence, she was intelligent, very but again, not in Strider's league.
 
#31 ·
Well, having been up close and personal with border collies and with dobies, I think that Border collies are more trainable, they have more self-discipline if you like and if they were people, we would probably say they all had obsessive compulsive disorder. This actually makes for a great dog for following repetitive orders though and they give 100% of their attention to any task you give them. They do have great memories and a very strong drive to please that motivates them to try to solve any problem we give them even when they don't know the answer - the combination makes for a very nice dog to work with.

You don't get the same with a dobie. Now, dobies vary hugely depending on the lines - I have seen Dobies with no drives really and others that have chased birds off cliffs and dam walls to their deaths. I have seen Dobies that can't seem to master even simple commands, Dobies that master them easily but then because of their temperament and relationship with their owner, aren't motivated to perform and then others that are just putty in their owners hands. I think this is common with breeds that were originally protection breeds because for many generations now, there are lots of dogs that haven't been bred for any purpose and so working ability and how trainable they are have not been factors considered for selecting which dogs to breed for a long time in some lines.

Most border collies are great contenders for pure positive reinforcement training. I find with Dobermans (of working lines with decent drives) you need to teach and shape behaviours with positive methods but then introduce some stress or compulsion if you want to create consistency. If you can obtain Dobies from working lines (and there aren't many) with SCH/IPO titles, they are very smart dogs. Now everyone wants a Malinois because they are considered easier to train and you get the better picture. The more I watch them work, the more it seems that they just combine good working drives (aggression, bite, prey etc) with the OCD like a Border Collie.

When they do these tests to put together a list of most trainable (not intelligent) dogs, I would love to know where they got the dogs from. Show line dogs can be almost a different breed from the working lines, not necessarily less intelligent of course but if you're not assessing intelligence and trainability, you can't guarantee that it will be in the next generation. Depending on the breed as well, some will pick up a new task more quickly. If you were teaching herding, obviously a BC is going to excel beyond a Dobie. But then my Dobie learned to 'run the blinds' the first time we ever tried to teach it because it was something that was interesting to him - when his brain is in gear, he learns new things on the first try, and retains it.

I don't know, I would love to see a new breed intelligence test put together. Even more than that, I would love to see intelligence and trainability become an essential criteria for breeding dogs. Intelligence + trainability = a safer dog, a dog that is more useful and a dog that can accompany their handler more places.
 
#32 · (Edited)
A smart dog will develop more intelligence with less human intervention. IOW, it you let a dog be a dog they will learn to think and reason better than if you dominate their time and baby them.

I read an article similar to that thought, tho don't know where it is now, and once I began to think about the article and my Blue, it all made sense. Again...father was a doberman and mother was a weimaraner...his brain took after the doberman side.

I had stepchildren and didn't have the time to fool with and train him like I had my other dogs, but he developed an intelligence superior to any dog I have ever had growing up that way. He learned to think for himself reason what he needed to do for each situation he might be confronted with. You could literally see his brain working in his eyes.

Example; My ex and I received some mallard ducks which we hastily put in a low fence pen with a kids swimming pool with water...husbands idea. One left before we got the second one in.:)

The next morning, I heard Blue at the door with his, "there's trouble, Mom" high pitched bark. I quickly got dressed and went to the door, asking, "What is it, Blue? He takes off toward the duck pen and I follow...no duck. I look at Blue and ask, "Where's is he?" Blue takes off across the road toward the lake and I run following him and see the neighbor's dog, Argus, just as he was picking up the duck by its breast. I hollar, "Argus, you drop my duck!!!", which he did and everyone lived happily ever after.

Just one of many heroic Blue true stories...
 
#33 ·
Dobes are definitely intelligent, but I would definitely not label them as the most intelligent.

I've lived with many dog breeds, and regardless of her (very high) level of trainability, the most intelligent, smartest dog I've ever lived with was my Toller/Border Collie mix, Tango. Her thought process was entirely different from any of my other dogs. Sky, a Dalmatian we had for a while, was nearly as intelligent as Tango. And Dance, my Toller, is pretty high up there in intelligence as well although not quite as high as Sky and Tango. Jesse, our first Miniature Dachshund, while totally not biddable or into training at all, was also incredibly intelligent and a big thinker in her own right. She just used her intelligence for trouble LOL.

Of the Dobermans I've owned, I honestly can't say that any of them even really compare to the most intelligent dogs I've lived with. They're definitely intelligent, but also have a tendency to come across as rather daft sometimes compared to my above mentioned dogs. That's nothing against them, as they certainly process things and learn new things (either from experience or because I taught them) quickly, but it's different. Other Dobermans would probably rival mine, but based on my own experience with the breed, I can't honestly say that they're the most intelligent.
 
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