Which Dog Breed Is the Smartest?

In his 1994 book The Intelligence of Dogs, psychologist Stanley Coren ranked more than 100 breeds using surveys of obedience judges. The border collie came first, followed by the poodle, German shepherd, golden retriever and Doberman pinscher. Top-ranked breeds could often learn a new command in fewer than five repetitions and obey it at least 95 percent of the time. A border collie named Chaser learned the names of 1,022 different objects, as reported in a 2011 study. Border collies were bred on the Scottish-English border to herd sheep, a job that demands quick problem-solving.