Dog Intelligence and How it Influences Ability

This may seem a bit obvious, but I thought dog intelligence deserved a mention. Consider the vast abilities and talents dogs show when trained and given a chance demonstrate their innate intelligence.

The uses of dogs that capitalize on aspects of their instinctive intelligence have become more varied in today's world. A quick sampling of some of these contemporary dog "careers" would include the following:

1. seeing-eye dogs, who guide their blind masters around obstacles, warn them of approaching vehicles, and allow them to navigate independently, even in the complex urban environment;

2. Hearing-ear dogs, who alert their deaf masters to sounds, such as the ringing of a doorbell or telephone or the whistle of a teakettle;

3. Search and rescue dogs, who are used to track and find individuals who are lost or buried by debris in earthquakes or under snow in avalanches;

4. Water rescue dogs, who retrieve individuals and objects from the water, swim lines out to stranded boaters, and even drag small boats to waiting rescuers;

5. Drug and explosive-finding dogs, who use their scenting abilities to find contraband materials.

Likewise, there are dogs who sniff out truffles of this delicacy. Better that dogs do it as they don't natively like truffles. Pigs on the other hand, sniff them out as food and will eat them if not stopped by their truffle hunter owners. Dogs are actually better than the pigs. Dogs have a sharper sense of smell, to boot.

As intelligent as dogs are, it is a shame when we owners don't properly understand dog health care. You may not know it, but pancreatitis in dogs is a servere, life threatening disease common in dogs fed a low quality diet over a long period of time.

You can find more information on canine behavior at Puppy Behavior Problems.