OT: Amazing Golden Retriever
- Thread starter Me No Nemo
- Start date
joshalicialtjt
In Memoriam
not bad but your park is less than my yard so not really getting much exercise for my guy. I have to take him on rollerblades for miles a day to get him worn out even a little bit
Well, from what I've seen of Coren's methods of research for the results he published in his book, I'd question some of the conclusions he came to, especially about working/obedience intelligence (which looks to be the list above). Apparently his results were based on surveys he sent to obedience judges around the U.S. & Canada, asking them to rank the 74 most popular breeds based on how the judges felt they did in competition, what they perceive as their problem solving & learning abilities and asking them to rank the breeds they consider most and least intelligent. He then used this information to come up with a list that looks much like above. Here's a link I found that discussed his methodology: (of course, take this with a grain of salt, since I haven't seen the primary sources for his research/results)
http://www.heatherweb.com/writing/coren1.html
A few problems jump out at me from the start. The whole study is based on surveys of obedience judges. Their experience is primarily with the breeds most commonly seen in obedience competition. The judges were only surveyed about the most common breeds. Most obedience judges I know would never list a Jack Russel, or Siberian Husky as a top obedience candidate, and even though training methods are changing, many "traditional" trainers still insist that those 2 breeds are "stubborn and un-trainable" simply because the people don't have the tools/skills needed to work with the breeds. Unfortunately, those people are also commonly judges in the obedience ring. Their personal biases are going to skew the results.
Having trained and worked with many breeds who are considered "difficult" (I live with a Siberian husky who was in novice competition for a couple of years - no mean feat as anyone familiar with the breed can attest), I know first hand that the ability to compete and score well in the obedience ring does not necessarily correlate to "intelligence".
More likely, it correlates to the purpose for which a particular breed came about and often specifically, whether they were bred to work closely with humans and take direction from them. Retrievers, poodles, dobies, GSDs, and many other herding breeds are useless if they don't work well with & take guidance from humans. Those that aren't imminently trainable don't reproduce. Conversely, Sibes pulling sleds who wait around for human guidance and run the sled out on dangerous ice or over a drop off, or JRTs who wait for a human to tell them to kill vermin, don't reproduce. The goals and uses of the breeds are quite different, and scores in obedience competition can't accurately reflect their "working" intelligence. All obedience scores tell you is how readily the animal follows obedience cues. I know many highly intelligent people who don't take guidance well from others
regards,
Heather
Similar threads
