Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Textcritic
In the case of "evaluating circumstances", perhaps seeing eye dogs are not depended upon so much for their decision making and problem solving abilities, as they are for their uncanny instinctive mechanisms which can detect unforseen dangers. There are dogs who can detect seizures and tumours, often without ANY training (I have had personal experience with such a case); are they to be classified as higher in intelligence as a result?
|
Guide dogs go through long training. I doubt the CNIB would trust to "uncanny instinctive mechanisms" when it comes to crossing the road, or any of ther other myriad number of tasks asked of a guide dog.
The seizure detection is an intriguing trait, but the breeds you view as 'intelligent', can they be trained for that purpose? I'm guessing not. I guess I would view animal intelligence as the ability to learn, and then apply that learning. Sure, a retriever may appear single-minded when given a command, but will he override that command if it violates some other tenant of his learning? If he has been taught not to go on the road, but you throw his ball over the road, what will he do? Or if he has been taught to heel, and yet you are about to walk in front of a passing car, what will he do? These circumstances require an intelligence to handle, and I believe Golden's are better suited to evaluate these than many other breeds.
I'm actually surprised CowPerson hasn't waded into the discussion of Goldens.