‘Who’s a stupid boy?’ Dogs are far less clever than we thought

Dog owners who’ve asked their pets, ‘Who’s a clever boy?’ may be disappointed to find out that the answer is, ‘Probably not your dog’.

In fact, we’ve seriously over-estimated the brain power of our four-legged friends, new research has shown.

Many of the abilities people think are ‘unique’ to dogs are in fact common in many animals – and previous studies may have given a false impression of how clever dogs are.

Researchers from the University of Exeter and Canterbury Christ Church University reviewed more than 300 papers on animal brain power.

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The studies compared the cognitive abilities of dogs with other domestic animals, social hunters and carnivores such as wolves, bears, lions and hyenas.

Professor Stephen Lea, of the University of Exeter, said the research identified several cases of ‘over interpretation’ in favour of the abilities of dogs in studies.

‘During our work it seemed to us that many studies in dog cognition research set out to ‘prove’ how clever dogs are,’ Prof Lea said.

‘They are often compared to chimpanzees and whenever dogs ‘win’, this gets added to their reputation as something exceptional.

‘Yet in each and every case we found other valid comparison species that do at least as well as dogs do in those tasks.’

The review focused on sensory cognition, physical cognition, spatial cognition, social cognition and self-awareness.

Dr Britta Osthaus, of Canterbury Christ Church University, said dog cognition ‘does not look exceptional’ when compared with other domestic animals, social hunters and carnivorans.

‘We are doing dogs no favour by expecting too much of them.

‘Dogs are dogs, and we need to take their needs and true abilities into account when considering how we treat them,’ Dr Osthaus said.