Similarities in dog and human intelligence
Dogs that were faster or more accurate in one task were more likely to be so in others.
New research suggests the structure of intelligence is similar in dogs and humans. Scientists found individual variation in cognitive ability among dogs of the same breed, with similar backgrounds; those that excelled at one task tended to excel at others too.
The findings, which are published in the journal Intelligence, could be important for understanding the link between IQ and health in humans.
Research has found that those with a high IQ are more likely to have good health and a greater life expectancy, but this could be affected by 'confounding' factors such as drinking alcohol or smoking. As dogs do neither, they may be able to generate more reliable findings.
Researchers studied 68 border collies from farms in Wales, giving each a set of cognitive tasks. The dogs completed four versions of a detour test and repeated trials of two choice tasks. All tests were food motivated and involved problem solving.
Dogs that were faster or more accurate in one task were more likely to be so in others, while those that performed poorly in one task tended to perform poorly in others. In humans, much of this individual variance is explained by the 'general intelligence factor' or 'g factor', which was first described by Charles Spearman in the early 1900s.
This suggests that the mechanisms underlying variation in intelligence could be similar in different species.
Researchers say they would like to see further work being done with larger samples and a broader range of problem solving tests.
The BSAVA has opened submissions for the BSAVA Clinical Research Abstracts 2026.
