Nov 8, 2008 10:40 pm US/Eastern
Figuring Out Man's Best Friend's IQ
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
Americans love dogs. After all, they are man's best friend. But did you ever wonder how smart your furry friend really is? CBS-3's Jamie Smith shows you how to put your pup's brain to the test and figure out its IQ.
German Shepherd husky Jake and Goldendoodle Carly both have owners who believe their dog is the most intelligent pet since Scooby-Doo.
"She's the smartest dog out there," said Nicole Small, Carly's owner.
But Nicole's sister-in-law Cindy believes her dog Jake, tails no other in brain power.
"He's very well behaved, very well mannered and of course, he's smart," Cindy said.
So both women agreed to a challenge to put their dogs to the Pooch IQ test.
"We came up with quite a few different tests to see what was the most fun and also what were the most telling exercises," said Stacy Stubblefield, creator of Pooch IQ.
Stacy wrote the book on Pooch IQ, literally.
She says traditional research determining a dog's intelligence is based on one factor, obedience.
But she thinks reasoning skills are just as vital in determining a dog's IQ.
"We thought, what do they test for on a human IQ scale and how can we transfer that into sort of a dog language and with toys dogs can manipulate," Stacy added.
So after Jake and Carly get a little pep talk and their owners exchange a little trash talk, it was game on!
Exercise after exercise, the dogs' skills, patience and obedience were tested. They had to react to squeaky toys, sniff out hidden treats, acknowledge a familiar voice from under a blanket, and even recognize their owner in a ski mask.
The dogs earned points for how long it took to complete the task or whether they completed it at all.
After 15 exercises, we totaled up their points. Jake scored 109, and Carly 105.
But both those raw numbers translate to an IQ number in the Smarty Pants category. That's smarter than 91-percent of other dogs.
RELATED LINKS:
PoochIQ.com
Dog Breed Intelligence
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
2009 Celebrity Deaths
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
