The site was last updated on

24 Aug 2000

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.