About Dog Intelligence Tests

Ever wonder just how smart your dog is? There are several websites that offer dog IQ tests.

Maestro and I tried one for fun. I figured he'd do pretty well, as terriers are pretty smart.

However, my concern with the dog quiz is that it  was extremely treat oriented. A dog who is treat trained is going to score extremely well. Conversely, a dog who couldn't care less about treats may not do as well.

Maestro is praise-oriented, so I used his favourite snacks for this exercise to get him going. However, he is used to hunting for snacks (Hide & Hunt), so any delay that was experienced was due to him thinking "Oh, she could have hid a treat here. Or here. She hid something over here last time. Or last, last time."

He scored 36 - genius level. It took him 5 seconds to answer most questions. Some of our funnier moments included the following:

• During the blanket over the shoulders test, Maestro didn't do anything initially. I suspect it's because I have sometimes placed a blanket over his head when we play Hide & Hunt (He has to sit and wait until all the treats are hidden). I had to encourage him to escape from the blanket. He backed himself up and out of the blanket in 8 seconds.

• For the long-term memory question, there was a slight delay because Maestro thought we were playing Hide & Hunt. He began to hunt but still managed to switch gears and find the treat in 6 seconds.

• Problem-solving: I put the treat in a dark spot under the bed. He whined a little until he scented the treat. It then took him 8 seconds to wiggle far enough to get the treat.

• Language Comprehension question: Maestro cocked his head and looked at me like I was an idiot for saying "Fridge" and "Movies". His expression really seemed to say, "You're not at the fridge. What do you mean?" and "What do you mean, "movies"? We're not at the kotatsu table."

• The final question: He did try to go around the cardstock on the right side. Then he tried to stick his nose underneath. Maestro's solution was to push the lap desk out of the way (to the left of the cardstock, on the floor) and paw at the barrier until it broke. See below:

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It took him 55 seconds to come up with his plan.

Here is a list of some dog intelligence quizzes that I found. We tried the first one:

• Dog IQ Test pets1st.ca - Resources for you and your pet

• NBC News - How Smart is Your Dog?

• Animal Attraction - Dog IQ Quiz