
The Border Collie is often thought of as the smartest dog in the world because of its herding instinct. But scientists have discovered that the Belgian Malinois may be the most intelligent dog.
A Malionis is the first choice for those who need a sniffer, guard or police dog, and now the data shows that they are the perfect choice as they are independent, problem solvers, quick to respond and good at reading of people.
More than 1,000 dogs from 13 different breeds were recruited and their competence tested in 10 tasks (seven cognitive and three behavioral). They were then evaluated by smartDOG experts.
"Most breeds had their strengths and weaknesses," Saara Juntila, study author and a doctoral researcher in dog cognition at the University of Helsinki, told The Telegraph.
"For example, the Labrador Retriever was very good at reading human gestures, but not so good at spatial problem-solving," she said.
Then Dr. Juntila stated that "some breeds, like the Shetland Sheepdog, scored equally in almost all tests, ie, they had neither too high nor too low scores for any test".
While the Belgian Malinois excelled in many of the cognitive tasks, scoring very well in most tests,” added study author Dr Katriina Tiira, owner and CEO of smartDOG.