Video of the program.
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3998170n?source=search_video
Off topic a little but funny...E-mail I received a few days ago.
The Purina Diet.
-——When someone asks you a dumb question wouldn’t you like to respond like
this?.....
Yesterday I was buying a large bag of Purina dog chow at Wal-Mart for Athena the wonder dog and was about to check out. A woman behind me
asked if I had a dog. What did she think I had, an elephant? So since
I’m retired, with little to do, on impulse, I told her that no, I didn’t
have a dog, and that I was starting the Purina Diet again.
Although I probably shouldn’t, because I’d ended up in the hospital last
time, but that I’d lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care
ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that
it works is to load your pants pockets with Purina nuggets and simply
eat one or two every time you feel hungry and that the food is
nutritionally comple te so I was going to try it again. (I have to
mention here that practically everyone in the line was by now enthralled
with my story.)
Horrified , she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog
food poisoned me. I told her no; I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish
Setter’s ass and a car hit us both.
I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he was
laughing so hard!
WAL-MART won’t let me shop there anymore.
I’ve owned two and both are exceptionally smart animals. In fact, anytime I meet other dogs I’m always profoundly grateful that my choice was the Golden breed. Of course, good owners usually have a lot to do with the outcome of the animal, too...
My dachshunds on the other hand, have all been incredibly smart.
The heads are very different (although there's some variation in the breeds). Also, look at the long hair on the chest and the legs. And the Golden puppy fluff on the pup.
They are assessing trainability, not intelligence. My much beloved Chow Chow was the most intelligent animal I have ever known, but quite stubborn. Her understanding of vocabulary, body language, judge of character, and just being able to read my mind were unbelievable. She could do things on a whim, with no training... When I would get home late, she would shake my socks around. One time, under my breath, I commented in an even conversational tone, “Why don’t you do something useful like get my pajamas?” She came back with my pajamas in her mouth. The amazing thing is I could never even train her to fetch a toy.
She made up her mind to just give up after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The cancer had already spread, and after five days she wouldn’t eat or drink anymore. I had a very quiet talk with her, explaining that one of the things I loved and respected most about her was her love of life and indomitable spirit— I asked her to please, just for me, fight this thing to the end since a vaccine for her type of cancer was due out in weeks to months. She understood, gave me this look, like “Okay. I’ll fight it to the end. For you.” She begin to eat and drink moments later, and even to the last day of her life she fought with everything she had. It is coming up on a year now since I lost her, and not a day goes by that I don’t think of how much I loved that little bear, or how much I miss her.
English Mastiff’s aren’t stupid at all. They are lazy. That isn’t the same thing.
My dog knows when my wife gets out of bed he can climb up and sleep with me. (I work shift work.) When she is home he sleeps in his dog bed. He just has little interest in exerting himself for anything other than hanging around me.
I think they forgot what the dogs were designed for.
Both Goldens and Labs have split up into show type dogs and field type dogs.
The field types of both breeds have TONS of brains but diverge from the show standard in the looks department. The field Labs are rangy and tall on their legs, more like hounds, and the field Goldens have almost no coat.
The show breeders don't breed for brains, so that's what they DON'T necessarily get. They may get it by accident, but that's not what they're aiming at.
So you may get a smart show Lab or Golden, but if you want a better chance of a dog with brains, you're better off going for the field dogs.
I can't even walk around in my own backyard without the @$#@%^%#&&% things barking at me.
I will admit, though, that all of the dogs individually are smarter than my neighbor. So I guess they've got that going for them.
I can't even walk around in my own backyard without the @$#@%^%#&&% things barking at me.
I will admit, though, that all of the dogs individually are smarter than my neighbor. So I guess they've got that going for them.
Parents have a Border Collie - VERY SMART!
Frankly I love all that are listed.
Of all the animals we raised as kids, she was the momma to all of them.
I could go on and on, but poodles definately earned their top position and probable give the worthy Border a good run for their money...
Basenji’s stupid? If your idea of dog intelligence is a slavish slurping furbag, I guess so.
Mine are brilliant dogs, they just don’t obey for the heck of it. They’ve survived for thousands of years in the Congo, used for hunting small game. In that environment smarts are more important than slipper fetching, afterall you’re in competition with leopards, lions, cape dogs, hyenas... etc...
Plus, the neighbor’s love them because they don’t bark.
Face it... if it isn’t a Basenji it’s just a DOG.
Boarder Collie #1
I’ve never had a dog, but I’ve had quite a few friends and neighbors who had dogs, and I have to more or less agree with the list. Although my all-over favorite dog (or dogs) is the litter of Golden-Labradoodle puppies my neighbors’ dog had one summer... they were so much fun!
I doubt the rankings very much. Basenjis are incredibly clever and seem to spend most of their time outsmarting their owners.
Some dogs are amazingly intelligent and didn’t make the list.
I was at a friend's house, and they had two of them. They distrusted me at first as watchdogs should, and then it became "trust but verify". I was literally watched the entire time by one of them to make sure I was good people. Even if it was a "tailing" distance, it was there. It wasn't an unfriendly watch, just good situational awareness.
They are very manipulative as well. After I was petting one of them, she barked. I made the mistake of responding to the bark.
I wouldn't want to tangle with them either. The two of them killed a deer once. One of their neighbors was very unhappy about it. The response "They are elkhounds. That's what they do."
Have to disagree about the Basenji. We had two of them and the female was so smart it was almost scary. Basenji’s are a very different breed of dog. They are cat-like and are aloof. This alone might make them seem dumb to people who don’t understand the breed.