Smartest to Dumbest Dog Breeds, Ranked by Science

Every dog owner thinks their dog is a genius.

Your Labrador knows exactly when you open the cheese drawer. Your Beagle can locate a dropped chicken nugget from three rooms away. And your Bulldog has somehow trained you to rearrange the couch cushions before he lies down.

But are some dog breeds actually smarter than others?

The answer is yes—with a fairly enormous asterisk.

Scientists don't measure canine intelligence with tiny SAT tests and No. 2 pencils. Dog intelligence includes several different abilities: problem-solving, memory, understanding human gestures, impulse control, learning from experience and the ability to learn and follow commands. Psychologist Stanley Coren famously divided canine intelligence into instinctive intelligence, adaptive intelligence and working/obedience intelligence. (American Kennel Club)

That last category—how quickly dogs learn from humans—is where our rankings come from.

Coren surveyed roughly 200 professional obedience judges in the United States and Canada and found remarkably consistent differences among breeds. His highest-ranking dogs could often learn a new command in fewer than five repetitions and respond correctly on the first command at least 95% of the time. (American Psychological Association)

So, without further ado…

The Top 10 Smartest Dog Breeds

1. Border Collie

The valedictorian nobody asked for.

Border Collies were bred to control livestock while responding to subtle signals from handlers, making attention, learning and problem-solving practically part of the job description.

And then there was Chaser, the Border Collie who learned the names of 1,022 individual objects and demonstrated an ability to distinguish object names from commands and even infer the names of unfamiliar objects. (ScienceDirect)

Basically, Chaser had a vocabulary larger than some toddlers.

2. Poodle

Yes, underneath the fancy haircut is apparently a small professor.

Poodles are highly trainable, excellent problem-solvers and historically were working retrievers rather than decorative couch accessories.

3. German Shepherd

There's a reason German Shepherds appear everywhere from police departments to military units and service work. They combine trainability, focus and strong working instincts.

4. Golden Retriever

Smart, cooperative and emotionally tuned into humans. Golden Retrievers aren't just capable learners—they generally seem delighted that you have assigned homework.

5. Doberman Pinscher

Quick-learning, alert and intensely focused. Dobermans were developed for protection work, where correctly reading a situation matters.

6. Shetland Sheepdog

Imagine shrinking a brilliant herding dog and giving it approximately 400% more enthusiasm.

Shelties excel in obedience and agility and are extremely responsive to human cues.

7. Labrador Retriever

Labs combine intelligence with one extraordinarily useful characteristic: they really want to work with you. That helps explain their enormous success as service, detection and assistance dogs.

8. Papillon

Proof that brain size jokes don't work.

The tiny Papillon consistently performs extremely well in obedience and agility and ranks above many much larger working breeds.

9. Rottweiler

Powerful, observant and highly trainable when properly handled, Rottweilers have historically performed guarding, herding and working roles.

10. Australian Cattle Dog

A dog specifically engineered to outthink livestock.

Australian Cattle Dogs are persistent problem-solvers with tremendous working drive—which is wonderful when you give them a job and occasionally less wonderful when they invent one themselves.

These ten breeds make up Coren's highest working-and-obedience tier. (ScienceAlert)

And Now…the 10 "Dumbest" Dog Breeds

Before anyone sends an angry email on behalf of their Basset Hound, we need to clarify something.

These aren't actually the dumbest dogs.

They're the breeds that ranked lowest in working and obedience intelligence. Dogs in Coren's lowest category generally required far more repetitions to learn commands and responded correctly to the first command less frequently. (WebMD)

In other words, some may simply be thinking:

I heard you. I have elected not to participate.

From lowest-ranked upward:

1. Afghan Hound

Beautiful. Elegant. Majestic.

Also apparently deeply unconcerned with your agenda.

Afghan Hounds were bred as independent hunting dogs, so waiting for detailed instructions from a human wasn't necessarily advantageous.

2. Basenji

An ancient hunting breed known for independence and famously not barking in the traditional way. The Basenji's relationship with obedience can best be described as "optional."

3. Bulldog

Bulldogs ranked poorly in obedience learning—but stubbornness and low motivation can look remarkably similar to low intelligence in a training test.

Ask a Bulldog to sit and he may simply need additional information regarding compensation.

4. Chow Chow

Independent, reserved and historically used for guarding and hunting. Chows were not developed to constantly ask humans, "What can I do for you today?"

5. Borzoi

Another independent sighthound. Borzois were bred to spot and pursue prey rather than wait for step-by-step instructions.

6. Bloodhound

Calling a Bloodhound dumb because he ignores you while tracking a scent is a little like calling Einstein dumb because he wasn't listening during spin class.

Their olfactory abilities are extraordinary. Human obedience just isn't their specialty.

7. Pekingese

Developed as companion dogs in imperial China, the Pekingese never had much evolutionary incentive to take orders.

Frankly, historically, people were taking orders from them.

8. Beagle (tied with Mastiff)

Anyone who has owned a Beagle understands this ranking.

A Beagle may completely ignore "COME!" while simultaneously analyzing a microscopic scent particle deposited by a rabbit four hours earlier.

That isn't necessarily stupidity. It's priorities.

8. Mastiff (tied with Beagle)

Calm, independent and not particularly famous for rapid-fire obedience training. Mastiffs tend to approach life with the energy of middle management on the Friday before a holiday weekend.

10. Basset Hound

The long ears may receive the command. Whether the command is forwarded to the appropriate department remains unclear.

Bassets are scent hounds bred to follow odor trails independently, which may explain why human instructions sometimes become a secondary consideration. (Dogster)

So Which Dogs Are Actually the Smartest?

Here is where modern research makes things more interesting.

A 2022 study involving 1,002 dogs from 13 breeds found significant breed differences in social cognition, impulse control, persistence and spatial problem-solving. But researchers found no significant breed differences in short-term memory or logical reasoning. (Nature)

Another large study examining thousands of dogs found plenty of variation among individual breeds but cautioned against assuming that entire breed groups share predictable problem-solving abilities. (ScienceDirect)

In other words, dog intelligence isn't one straight line from Border Collie to Afghan Hound.

A Border Collie may beat a Bloodhound in obedience.

Put them both on a week-old scent trail and suddenly the professor needs tutoring.

Selective breeding created dogs with very different cognitive specialties. Herding breeds needed to watch humans closely. Scent hounds needed to follow their noses independently. Retrievers needed cooperation. Livestock guardians often needed to make decisions without human direction.

So perhaps the real scientific ranking isn't smart dogs versus dumb dogs.

It's dogs that are brilliant at doing what humans ask—and dogs that are brilliant at doing exactly what humans originally bred them to do.

And then there are Bulldogs.

They're still considering the question.

Research & Sources

Stanley Coren, The Intelligence of Dogs: Canine Consciousness and Capabilities.

Pilley, J.W. & Reid, A.K. (2011). "Border collie comprehends object names as verbal referents." Behavioural Processes, 86(2), 184–195. (PubMed)

Junttila, S. et al. (2022). "Breed differences in social cognition, inhibitory control, and spatial problem-solving ability in the domestic dog." Scientific Reports, 12, 22529. (Nature)

American Psychological Association. "Canine researcher puts dogs' intelligence on par with 2-year-old human." (American Psychological Association)

American Kennel Club. "Measuring Canine Intelligence: Ranking the Smartest Dog Breeds." (American Kennel Club)