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The site was last updated on
24 Aug 2000
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Intelligence is the ability to solve problems, invent or produce
behaviors - problems, invents and behaviors that has an affect at some environmental
activities. Environmental activities are, for example, social meetings,
considerations of demands and Geographical, Physical and climatically
conditions.
There are seven important intelligence: linguistic intelligence, logical
intelligence, conceptual intelligence, musical intelligence, physical
intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, inter-self intelligence. Also there is
the human intelligence, that has few abilities that dogs might have, too.
The first type is the conceptual intelligence. This is the ability of comparing
the imagination of a shape in the space around - the place of objects, the space
between the objects, and others. A dog that remembers where it's favorite toy is
placed in the house, where his leash and bed is, this type of dog shows this
kind of intelligence. A tail about a dog, Cairn Terrier, who had a very good conceptual intelligence
and with a very clear way of showing it. when he was asked where the family
children are, he ran to the last place he saw them and barked. When these kids
were young they used to play 'hide and seek' with him, a grown member of the
family was asked to count. When the children grew up, they had more places to
hide and more sophisticated and the 'counter' had no other choice but cheat. The
'counter' asked the dog to find the child the 'counter' could not find. He would
ask him to follow one child and when the counting was over, he'd tell him to
show him where that child is. Only you could imagine what calls he could hear
from the hiding spot (such as telling the dog to go away, and calling the
'counter' a cheater). The fact that the dog used his skill of his conceptual
intelligence to find the child, and didn't look for him till he found him, was
based when one of the children tricked both counter and dog. The child would
wait till the dog was called back, and only then would go to another hiding
place, while the dog would go back to the spot where the child hide in the first
time before he was called. The dog would go back the closet where the child
was before, bark - even if the child already moved to the other side of the
house.
The other type of intelligence that dogs also got is the physical
intelligence.
This has the ability of coordination, and moving the body in a skill that are
used in "blind typing", dancing and sports. Dogs who learned to jump
high, or jump while using a trampoline or walk on a board using their balance or
clime a ladder - these dogs have this type of intelligence. The obedience
competitions and the Agility courses for dogs measure this intelligence.
Other abilities that dogs have are in the inter-self
intelligence. This is the self knowing, and knowing it one's limits. This
intelligence will be shown in a dog that hesitate or refuses to jump over a jump
that is too high or wide for him. The inter-self intelligence, theoretically, is
a very important characteristic, in order to find you must presume that the
dog is able to adapt in some conscious, or even pre adaptation: measure the
jump's height, judge this information by it's self ability, maybe even imagine
to what height he could jump, etc. There are, obviously, other ways to explain
what the dog is doing in these circumstances; those will be written next.
The next intelligence type that dogs have shows that fact
that they are pack animals. This interpersonal intelligence, that allows the
ability to communicate with others or have a part in the pack, such as being the
'alpha leader'. There is not doubt that wild dogs know well who their 'alpha
leader' is and behave the right way with it. Dogs use social signs like these
also with humans and other dogs, such as looking at the owner while wagging it's
tail and hope the owner to share it's food. These are the evidences for this
type of intelligence. The interpersonal intelligence is shown when the dog is initiating
a group game with other dogs or try to express it's need to man. More, the interpersonal
intelligence is the base for all communication of the dog with the things
around: if a single is not aware of the units around it and does not understand
that those can have a direct affect on itself, that is, it has no need in communications.
The reader might wonder now: why are all of these abilities and behaviors are
taking a part of the phrase 'intelligence' ? This questions brings us back to
the start and the question of self-conscience. Some psychologists say that the
conscience, and maybe even the high intelligence, was created first of all to
allow animals to contest with different conditions. To know how to combine with
other members of the unit in the same species, watching their actions, guessing
their meanings and desires, finding the right mate, watching over the 'new born's
acts - all these, for some psychologists, are the most complex action animals
need to handle with.
Let's imagine our selves an animal that has everything it needs. It has feet to
move, the ability to hold objects and move them from place to place, a sense
system that helps it collect stimulus's from around, and a center in it's mind
to collect information and use it. What's missing to this imaginary animal is
the self-conscience, that "inner-eye". Now, let's compare it to
another creature, exact the same as the one before, only this creature do have self-conscience,
that "inner-eye" that allows it to test it's own mental feeling. It
might be hard for us to say which is who from the out side, though they both
will show a level of intelligence and thinking, both will have behaviors of
feelings, all beside what we usually say it's "desires ",
"moods" and "longing". Although we might see the same
actions in the other animal too, only these will be shown by a mental 'automatic
pilot', and the other creature uses it's self-conscience and
thinking about it's actions. A creature should 'know' how to combine with the
other members of the unit by 'guessing' what another member might feel about
something, or try to 'think' what would it make it own 'feel'. Every member of
this unit, to become 'one of the unit', must know how to combine the right way
with the other members. If so, by this theory, to be a member of a unit, the
creature must have both intelligence and self-conscience. If this
theory is right, we could add and say that the fact of the complex-social unit
life is the evident for the intelligence and the self-conscience
in animals.
All the types of intelligence we talked about till now are
well shown in dogs, but some others have few thoughts about, one of them is the musical
intelligence. It is hard to believe that dogs actually have this 'musical
intelligence', though dogs can't estimate the value of classical music. Every
time I watched the free dances competitions, where the dogs should move by the
beat of the music. When the dogs moved by the movements of their owners, the
illusion of dancing was only by the human's reaction to the beat. There are some
stories that might change this way of thinking, like "my dog loves it when
we listen to Mozart and other classical music such as this. Every time we do, he
comes and lie down by the loud-speakers. But, when I put rock music, he leaves
the room". It's hard to decide if the dog does prefer one type of music, or
maybe he is just more sensitive to some sounds that the human ear can't hear. I
was also told once about a Basset Hound dog, that every time the family would
sit around the piano and sang, he did too, but when they stopped, he did the
same. Does this mean we should give the dog the ability of musical
intelligence ? I would not say that this can't be true, but I personally
don't believe in this ability in dogs. It is well known that wild dogs and
wolves howl when one of the members do, it is more likely to think that it's a
way of communication - when a member of the 'pack' howls, the other would say
"we're here!" or "we're in the same pack!".
The next type of intelligence is the logical
intelligence. In humans it is shown in the ability of solving problems, make
use in mathematics techniques, find scientific solutions. Anyhow, there is a
limit of the dog's logical intelligence. Although, there is no
doubt that dog can solve mathematics problems. But for the proportions of size
and weight, that are concepts of the mathematics' world, usually dogs are
thought that they can't think is these terms. The English writer Samuel Johnson
(18th century) said that there is nothing such as logical
intelligence is dogs:
"Haven't you ever noticed", Johnson asked, "that dogs have no
comparative ability? when two pieces of meat are in front of a dog, one big and
other one small, he'll bite joyfully in both the same way".
Daniel Greenberg, editor of the 'Science and Government Report' magazine,
offered the following experiment to show that Johnson's theory was wrong. This
experiment can be does even at home. First, you need to make few meatballs in
few sizes, some smaller and some bigger than the others. (if you have a big dog
such as German Shepherd of Rottweiller, the small ones should be in the
size of Ping-Pong balls and the big ones in the size of tennis balls; if it's a
miniature dog such as Yorkshire Terrier, or Miniature Schnauzer, the small
balls should be in the size of a Marble and the big balls in the size of a golf
ball). Make sure the dog is watching you when you make the, and put both balls,
small and big, on the floor. Mostly, the dog will eat the ball that is closer to
him, no matter if it's the big or the small one. This choice might seem like the
dog didn't see any different between the two balls, but seems that it is just
opportunism, that shows the mentality of the dog that shows that "it's
better to hold one bird, than see both on the tree": the closer meatball is
the easiest to get. On the other hand, if you'd put both ball in the same
difference of distance, it is most likely that it will take the big one first.
This shows that the ability of the dog to compare between the two sizes of the
balls, is based on a mathematics background, though a primitive one.
I was also told about a story when two men went hunting with a Golden Retriever
named Buck. In the evening when the hunters went back, they suddenly noticed
that they forgot both hats in the field. Buck's owner taught the dog to fetch
any object he point's at. Therefore, instead of bringing the hats back, he sent
Buck to bring them, while both man watched him. Both hats, one small hat and the
other a cowboy-hat, were one next to the other. On the start, the dog picked the
big hat first and then tried to grab the small one but didn't manage to hold
them both. He dropped both hats on the ground and analyzed the situation, then
picked up the smaller hat and put it into the big one, then with his both paws
smashed it harder into the big hat. Then, he picked the big hat in his mouth,
that now was a kind of a 'bag', and with a wagging tail came back to his owner's
car.
There is no doubt that the dog used it's logical intelligence to solve
it's problem, and remember that the dog placed the smaller hat into the bigger
one, that shows that the dog used a some kind of a quantity judgement.
Dogs are also able to more than that, some dogs may even have the ability of
counting. There is a story about a Golden Retriever dog named Poko. The owner
held a box with object he asked the dog to fetch, and he told me that he use
these to train the dog. "She can count till four without any mistake and
till five with only few mistakes", he said. "I'll show you. Choose a
number between 1 to 4".
I chose the number 3. As the dog was watching us, her owner threw 3 objects from
the box between the high bushes, to different directions and distances. After I
bowed to make sure that the object can't be seen from the dog's point of view,
from where she stood, the man said "Poko, fetch!" and didn't point to
any of the objects. The dog went to the closest object and brought it back. The
owner took is from her mouth, and again said "Poko, fetch!", and the
dog went to search for the 2nd object. When she came back, he asked again
"Poko, fetch!", and she went on to bring the 3rd object. This time as
well, when she gave the object to her owner he again said, "Poko,
fetch!", but this time the dog didn't move from her place, just looked at
him, barked once, went to his left on the 'heel' position and set.
The man turned to me and said "she knows she brought back all 3 objects and
that these are the only ones I threw away, She count her running. When there are
no more objects to bring, she lets me know with the bark that means ''all the
objects you threw are here, silly', and just wait for the next task I give
her".
The man did this exercise for few more times in the half an hour after, and
every time he threw a different number of objects, from 1 to 5, and to make sure
that there was no connection between the commands and the hiding way, I and
another person did the same with the dog as the owner, and every and each time
she did the same. One time we even asked a person that didn't know how many
objects were hidden and so he couldn't tell the dog a different command. Yet, no
way we did it seemed to affect the dog. She didn't miss not even once.
True, no one would say that dogs are 'Math Geniuses' or great logistics, but
it's only fair to say that dogs do have the ability to adapt to mathematics and
logistical problems. Nevertheless, with the ability of comparing one thing to
another, the ability of counting that it's base is math, and it's ability of
solving new problems - all these prove thinking and logic.
The last type of intelligence is the linguistic
intelligence. For sure, dogs can't talk and therefore they can't get to the
high abilities of speaking. Anyhow, only in the world of Fantasy a dog
might be used as a poet, the stand that a dog can't have any words to speak
with, is a far-away stand.
The linguistic intelligence of the dog is very important for man,
though, we want to have a communicational relationship with our dog; and that is
very important for the dogs, though they are pack animals, and need to communicate
with the other members. When the shape of the 'pack' and the activities are
higher leveled, the communication and language should be higher as well. Wild
dogs and wolves keep a stable hunt as a group, watch the status of every pack
member and split the tasks such as taking care of the puppies and the feeding.
These activities show that there must be a communicational system with each
other in these animals.
This shows that dogs must have the conscience of thinking, and them selves.
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