Scientists have named the smartest dog breed

It is very difficult to argue with the fact that dogs are the smartest human pets. But even among these animals there are intellectuals who are smarter than their fellows. Scientists from the University of Helsinki have set a goal to find the smartest breed of dog. They spent a lot of time and effort, but found the answer to a question that occupied many.

In their study, Finnish zoologists studied 1,000 animals belonging to 13 of the most popular breeds. Of course, the purity of the experiment can be called doubtful, because the International Cynological Federation recognizes 355 breeds. What can we say about the countless crossbreeds. But let's not be too demanding, because the researchers have already spent many months to get the result.

The Belgian Shepherd Malinois was recognized as the smartest breed. During testing, dogs of this breed scored 35 points out of 39 possible. The second place with a solid margin was taken by border collies, who scored 26 points. The third place was awarded to Howavart dogs with 25 points.

Dr. Saara Yunttila, who led the study, shared an interesting observation regarding the intelligence of dogs:

Some breeds were frankly disappointed. The Golden Retriever and Labrador, who are considered by many to be professors in the dog world, took only 13th and 9th places. It turned out that they perfectly understand human gestures, but showed poor results when solving spatial problems.

As for the malinois, one of the authors of the study, Dr. Katrina Tiira, said this about this breed:

Among the tasks offered to dogs of different breeds were voice commands and the perception of human gestures. Scientists also studied the ability of animals to get out of difficult situations. The dogs were offered to find a way out of the maze or get a treat, the way to which was blocked by some obstacles.