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The Belgian Malinois took the top spot in canine cognition tests.

If you Google "smartest dog breeds," most lists that pop up put Border Collies in the No. 1 spot, followed in some order by Poodles, German Shepherds, and Golden Retrievers. But a 2023 study of canine cognition from the University of Helsinki puts a whole different breed at the top of the ladder—one that most of us have probably seen before but haven't heard the name of—the Belgian Malinois.

Best known as a police or security dog, the Belgian Malinois is a shepherd breed that looks very similar to a German Shepherd. Both breeds are of similar height and coloring, but the Malinois is lighter weight and its ears are more triangular-shaped, according to the American Kennel Club.

Belgian Malinois, belgian shepherd, dog breeds, smart dog breedsThe Belgian Malinois is a shepherd breed often used for police and security work.Tomás de la Maza/Wikimedia Commons

So, what is it that makes the Belgian Malinois more intelligent than other dog breeds?

The study published in Scientific Reports analyzed 1,002 dogs from 13 different breeds using a battery of smartDOG cognition tests. These tests involve food reward tasks that determine a dog's capacity for memory, problem-solving, impulse control, reading human gestures, copying human behavior, and logical reasoning. Despite a wide field of research on dogs, only a handful of studies have examined cognition of specific breeds instead of breed groups. Additionally, not much empirical research has been done on nonsocial cognitive traits such as memory, inhibitory control, spatial problem-solving, and logical reasoning—all of which were covered in this study.

Belgian Malinois, belgian shepherd, dog breeds, smart dog breedsBelgian Malinois scored 35 out of 39 points on three key tasks in the study.D. Williams/Wikimedia Commons

The researchers identified a few different tests as signifying high intelligence. For the most significant measure of intelligence—logical reasoning—the study revealed no significant difference between the dog breeds. So, according to The Telegraph, the three tests the authors singled out instead for measuring and comparing intelligence were:

- A V-detour test, in which a dog had to detour around a transparent V-shaped fence to get to a food reward, showing some problem-solving ability.

- A human gesture reading test, in which a dog's response to five gestures—constant pointing, brief pointing, pointing with the foot, pointing at something while facing another direction, and following a human's gaze—was measured.

- An unsolvable task test, in which a dog tries to access food in an unopenable box, measuring independence and how quickly a dog asked a human for help.

The Belgian Malinois scored 35 out of a possible 39 points on these three tasks, making it the top scorer for high intelligence overall. Border Collies came in second with 26 points and hovawarts came in third at 25 points.

smart dog breeds, smartest dog, border collieBorder collies are often listed as the smartest dogs, but they scored lower than the Belgian Malinois on key tests.Photo credit: Canva

The study authors point out that there are strengths and weaknesses in most breeds. Some score very high on some tests and very low on others. Some breeds saw middle-of-the-road scores across most tests.

According to IFLScience, one weakness the Malinois showed was in the cylinder test, in which a dog is taught to retrieve a piece of food from inside an opaque cylinder. The opaque cylinder then gets replaced with a transparent one to see if the dog will go around to the end of the cylinder to retrieve the treat, as it did with the opaque one, or try to go directly through the side of the cylinder to get to it. This test measures inhibition, and the Malinois scored among the lowest of all breeds on it.

Every dog has its bright and dim spots, but it's clear why the Malinois is a dog of choice for security work: high intelligence is necessary, of course, but even being low on inhibition can be seen as a plus for a working dog that needs to be highly responsive and act quickly when needed.

belgian malinois, belgian shepherd, smart dogsBelgian Malinois are highly responsive.Giphy GIF by VTM.be

“The Belgian Shepherd Malinois stood out in many of the cognitive tasks, having very good results in a majority of the tests,” study author and owner and CEO of smartDOG Dr. Katriina Tiira told The Telegraph.

“Border Collies also performed well in many of the tests," she added.

Nice to throw the dethroned Border Collie a bone, there.

This article originally appeared two years ago.

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This article originally appeared on 11.06.15


Joy

Sorry Chihuahuas: A super-popular dog trainer reveals the 3 dog breeds he would never own

He's worked with every breed. These are the ones he refuses to live with.

Dog trainer reveals the 3 breeds he wouldn't own.

Garret Wing is the founder of Florida-based American Standard Dog Training. For 20-plus years, he’s trained countless dogs, beginning as a K9 trainer for law enforcement and eventually opening his business to civilians.

Wing has developed a massive following on TikTok, where his tips and training success stories have earned him over 3 million followers. Recently, he released a video revealing the 3 dog breeds he would never own, and it’s been seen over 25 million times.


Unfortunately, these three breeds had to get called out, but everyone has different needs in a pet, and these dogs aren’t a great fit for Wing.

@americanstandardk9

Top 3 Breeds I WOULDN'T Own as a Dog Trainer #dog #centralasainshepeard #alabai #bloodhound #chihuahua #puppy #doglover #dogs #fyp

1. Central Asian Shepherd

“Starting with number 1, the Central Asian Shepherd, also known as the Alabai,” Wing says. “The males can get over 170-plus pounds, and they’re great livestock guardians, but the problem is, I don’t have any livestock,” he continued.

2. Bloodhound

“The males can get up to 110 pounds. But it’s not the size that concerns me, it’s their oily skin,” he explained. “That oily skin makes them stink like no other dog. I don’t care how many baths you give them; they just have a smell about them that’s hard to get rid of.”

3. Chihuahua

“If I needed a 3-pound demon from the underworld that served no other purpose than to sit on my lap and bite anything that comes within 3 feet range of me, then I would get a Chihuahua, but it’ll be a hard pass for me on that one,” Wing admitted.

Where did each dog breed come from?

No other mammal is as varied in size, shape, color and features as domestic dogs. If you put a Chihuahua and a Puli in front of an alien, they would never guess they were the same kind of animal. Seriously, how can a Dachshund, a Poodle and a Samoyed all be the same species?

Some dog breed origins are somewhat discernible by the location clues in their names, such as Newfoundlands, Labrador Retrievers, Alaskan Malamutes and Great Danes. Other names have recognizable regional language roots, like the Shih Tzu and Shiba Inu. We associate Poodles with the French and Huskies with the Arctic, but there are over 450 dog breeds the world over. Where did they all come from?

It could take hours to explore the vast history of dog breeds, but a video from BioArk offers a fascinating and entertaining overview in less than 20 minutes.


The story of domesticated dogs began more than 23,000 years ago when nomadic peoples started giving wolves table scraps. Since then, dogs have evolved alongside humans as our loyal companions, hunting helpers and protectors, but most modern dog breeds bear little resemblance to their wolf ancestors.

Some evolutionary change and adaptation are to be expected over thousands of years, of course, but that doesn't explain the enormous variety in dog breeds in a relatively short period of time. While dog breeds originated on basically every continent, a good percentage of the dogs we know today came from what's known as the Victorian Explosion, when intentional dog breeding intensified and expanded in the British Isles in the 19th century. Even so, as the video explains, each dog breed's unique history almost acts like a microcosm of the history of the culture it came from.

Check out BioArk's "Where Every Dog Breed Came From" for the full overview: