Has your dog mastered dozens of tricks, or can it barely manage to understand ‘sit’?
Dog intelligence experts have revealed five simple tests that can prove whether your pet is the next canine Einstein.
From the brainiest Border Collie to the dopiest Doberman, these tests are used to reveal dogs’ different strengths in laboratories around the world.
However, the experts caution pet owners that viral dog intelligence tests trending on social media might not tell you much.
If you really want to know how socially intelligent your dog is, you need to see how it responds to your cues and communication.
For example, you can hide a treat and see if your dog can find the snack just by seeing where you look.
Or, give your dog an impossible task and simply wait and see how long it takes for them to ask for your help.
So, do you think your dog has what it takes to ace these tests?
From the brainiest Border Collie to the dopiest Doberman, experts have created five tests that will reveal your pups’ different strengths and weaknesses (stock image)
1. The towel test
On social media, one of the most popular tests for a dog’s intelligence is the so–called ‘towel test’.
Dog owners can take a towel or blanket, place it over their dog’s head and see how long it takes for them to get it off.
Dr Zazie Todd, a pet psychology expert and author of ‘Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog’, told Daily Mail: ‘Whenever your dog is faced with a new situation in which they need to do something, it’s a test of their problem–solving skills.’
However, Dr Todd also cautions that the towel test might not be the best way to check these skills if your dog is nervous or shy.
Dr Todd says: ‘For some dogs, having a towel placed on their head will be a negative experience.
‘In general, it’s better to use tests in which dogs have the opportunity for a positive experience, like working out how to get a delicious snack.’
A simple test you can do at home is to take a muffin pan and place a treat in a few of the holes before pushing a tennis ball in over the top.
On social media, dog owners have been putting towels over their dogs’ heads to see how quickly they solve a new problem
Let your dog see you do this, place the tray on the ground, and see how long it takes for them to work out a way of getting the treats.
2. The hidden treat test
Another related test, designed to assess your dog’s ability to learn and recall information, is the hidden treat test.
And, like many of the other tests, it involves having your dog do some mental work to get a tasty treat.
Dr Todd says: ‘Hide a treat when they are out of the room, then let them in to find it. This first stage is making them use their nose.
‘Then do it for a second, third, and fourth time, and see how many goes it takes before they start running to that spot to check for a tasty treat.’
As long as you hide the treat in the same spot each time, an intelligent dog will soon work out that they don’t need to sniff about to find their food.
‘This is assessing their memory for the fact that this is now a place where they can sometimes find nice food, says Dr Todd.
Some dogs have much better abilities to learn and retain new information than others. To test this, hide a treat or toy while they are out of the room. Keep hiding the treat in the same spot and see how many trials it takes for your dog to run straight to that same spot (stock image)
‘Many dogs will make that connection within just a few trials.’
3. The cup test
This next test is essentially a variation of the classic shell game, in which players need to keep track of a ball under one of three cups.
Dr Juliane Kaminski, director of the Dog Cognition Centre at the University of Portsmouth, told Daily Mail: ‘A simple test in the area of social cognition is to take two identical–looking cups, hide food under one cup and then communicate the correct location of the food to the dog by pointing to the correct cup or just looking.’
If your dog is able to choose the right cup just from your signal, it means that they are good at understanding and following your gestures.
‘We think that this is one of dogs’ outstanding skills and something they are even better at than humans’ closest living relative, the chimpanzees,’ says Dr Kaminski.
To make the test more challenging, show the dog which cup the food is under before rearranging the cups a few times.
Dr Kaminski says that this is a tough test for a dog’s ‘physical cognition’, which is their understanding of the physical world.
A variation of the shell game for dogs is a good way of testing their ‘physical cognition’. Show them a treat under one of two cups, move the cups around and see if they can guess where the treat is now
She adds: ‘You swap both cups in full view of the dog and still dogs find it very hard to follow the cup with the food.
‘This is because we believe that dogs lack what we call “object permanence” – an understanding that objects are still present, even if they can’t be seen.’
4. The trust test
If you’ve spent some time on TikTok, then there’s a good chance that you might have seen the famous ‘wall test’.
The test is very simple; you pick up your dog and slowly move them towards a wall.
The idea is that an alert, independent dog will stop itself from hitting the wall with its paws, while an obedient and trusting dog won’t stop itself.
This is probably one of the most famous viral dog intelligence tests on the internet, but experts say it might not be as useful as social media suggests.
Dr Kaminski says: ‘I have to say that it seems somewhat harsh and doesn’t align with the types of cognitive tests we’re accustomed to using. I’m not entirely clear on what aspect of ‘intelligence’ this test is meant to assess.
One of the most popular ‘intelligence tests’ on social media is the wall test. Owners slowly move their pets towards a wall to see if the dog is intelligent enough to stop itself from colliding
‘Typically, tests we use are designed to evaluate specific cognitive functions such as logic, reasoning, memory, and problem–solving, rather than creating an uncomfortable situation and observing the dog’s reaction to that.’
Similarly, whether a dog independently prevents itself from hitting the wall or trustingly allows itself to collide doesn’t tell you much about its personality.
If you want to understand more about your dog’s personality, a better test is to give them an unsolvable task.
For example, you might place some treats inside a clear box that your dog has no way of opening, then measure how long it takes for your dog to look to you or another human for help.
Dr Katriina Tiira, a dog psychologist at the University of Helsinki, told Daily Mail: ‘The thing that influences most on trainability is the willingness to turn to humans in unsolvable tasks, and not the success in solving difficult problems.’
5. The barrier challenge
In order to scientifically assess dogs’ intelligence, Dr Tiira and her colleagues at the University of Helsinki have created a standardised set of tests known as the SmartDog Battery.
One of these tests, officially known as the V–detour test, is a great way of testing your dog’s spatial reasoning.
A better test for your dog’s social intelligence is to give them an unsolvable task, like placing treats in a sealed box, and see how long it takes them to turn to a human for help
To test a dog’s impulse control, place some treats behind a barrier where they can see them. Then time to see how long it takes for them to make their way around the barrier. The faster they move to the treats, the more impulsive they are
The test is very simple: you make a V–shaped barrier that the dog can see through but can’t get over – a corner of their crate or a piece of wire fencing works great.
Show your dog a few treats and then place them on the other side of the barrier without walking around it yourself, then let your dog go.
Your dog will probably run straight up to the treats and try to eat them through the fence at first, before working out that they need to walk around the obstacle.
Use a stopwatch to see how long it takes them to get to the treats – the faster they are, the smarter your dog is.
Not only does this test your dog’s spatial reasoning, but it also assesses a characteristic known as ‘inhibitory control’, which is the ability to suppress impulses and resist distractions.
Earlier studies had thought that more impulsive dogs would take longer to figure out they needed to go around the barrier rather than through it.
However, Dr Tiira found that the opposite was actually the case: The faster a dog solves the V–detour, the more impulsive they are.
Dr Tiira says: ‘In everyday life, actually, these fast problem solvers had more management problems at home, and were more impulsive.’
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .