1 THE COUCH IN THE KENNEL by Lewis E

THE COUCH IN THE KENNEL

Lewis E. Gibson, MD

Thirteen years ago my wife and I decided that we wanted a dog. We selected the breed

Labrador because we understood that they made good pets. We also thought that we might take

up duck hunting which is the Labrador's forte. We had read about the difficulties that are caused

by buying dogs at pet stores so we searched for a private breeder. We found that for a given

breed there is a grape vine among breeders that enables finding one with a pregnant bitch. We did

this and we were able to see the puppies soon after delivery. We thought we selected our dog at

about six weeks of age. Actually she selected us by seeming to be the most friendly. Before

taking the dog home we were given a folder of instructions. Breeders do not sell their dogs until

they are convinced they will receive proper care. We also got a copy of the pedigree. This did not

mean much to us then, but we later found that it was the most important information we

received.

We took our puppy, now called ÒBessÓ, to obedience school and later joined a hunt club to begin retriever training. The club sponsored hunt tests and we entered Bess in a Junior Hunter trial. This is an ingenious snare. To pass requires only three single land and three single water retrieves. The performance must be repeated in three subsequent tests to receive the AKC tittle of Ò Junior HunterÓ. Bess passed her first test and as she went on to acquire the tittle I decided that I was Gods gift to dog training. I was hooked.

Later our interest increased and we became involved in advanced hunt and field trials. We became more realistic about our dog training ability and enlisted the aid of a professional trainer. Field trails involve remembering where up to three birds fall at distances as great as four hundred yards and also being able to follow whistle and hand signals to find a bird the dog did not see fall at similar distances. We now had a new very enjoyable, though occasionally expensive, hobby.

From necessity we became interested in dog intelligence

Dog intelligence is the subject of this paper. Initially I thought this study would help me with learning and behavioral problems. Of course it does. This paperÕs tittle ÒThe Couch in the KennelÓ however implies giving dogs psychotherapy. Experience has taught me that the dogs have taught me as much or more than I have taught them. I am not sure whether the dog or I should be on the couch. The paper's scope is now more modestly dog intelligence.

To investigate dog intelligence both their biological evolution and the evolution of their relationship to man should be considered. Most authorities now believe that dogs are descended from wolves. Konrad Lorenz,however, believed that they are descended from jackals. He notes that jackals have round pupils as do dogs while in most wolves the pupils are oval and slightly oblique. This idea was not too popular with dog lovers since jackals are generally considered to be cowardly scavengers and carrion eaters. Recently wolves have gotten a much more favorable press. Kipling depicted wolves as having excellent family values, while Jack London and Farley Mowat described them as being brave and dignified hunters. Prior to this, it must be admitted, wolves were considered to be fierce and dangerous predators. In StokerÕs Dracula Count Dracula refers to the howling of wolves as ÒThe singing of my childrenÓ.

Literary opinion of canines is probably not as biologically accurate as the count of chromosomes. Wolves and dogs both have seventy eight. Other canines have different counts. For example jackals have seventy four and red foxes thirty eight. Dogs then are probably descended from wolves. This is important since the study of wolf behavior is used to understand much of dog behavior.

Mankind's association with dogs dates back at least fourteen thousand years. This is the fluoride dated age of a dogÕs jaw bone and some teeth found in Iraq. It was in a cave with a group of Paleolithic men. This dog was presumably domesticated and lived four thousand years before

there was any organized agriculture.

ManÕs first domestication of dogs probably occurred when men saw dogs acting as scavengers around their camps. It was easily noticed that the dogs were territorial and that they tended to bark. Their first job was probably to guard the camp done in exchange for scraps of meat. Certainly this is an old canine endeavor. The inscription Òcave canemÓ on ancient Roman ruins means Òbeware of the dogÓ.

I doubt however if the tittle ÒmanÕs best friendÓ was given to a guard dog. I think it was reserved until men discovered that dogs were helpful in getting supper. It is obvious that dogs can smell a great deal better than we can. For this reason they were, and still are, very helpful in finding and killing game.

Dog intelligence and human appreciation of it can be studied by examining menÕs religious beliefs concerning dogs. One very early belief I particularly like concerns the God Nagaicho of the Kato Indians of California. To make the earth this God first placed four great pillars at the earthÕs corners to hold up the sky and expose the new world. From the earth he made man and woman. Streams and rivers were made where he dragged his feet. Each animal was made and placed in its proper place - except the dog. The creation of the dog is not mentioned. Instead when Nagaicho started his walk he already had the dog with him. The Kato indians could not imagine a person or a God without a dog.

The African people of Nayango believe that initially dogs and men were good friends. They hunted and talked together. Men even persuaded a dog Rakuba to steal fire from the Gods and bring it to them. Rakuba was so useful that men assigned many tasks to him, the last to be their messenger. The dog did not think too highly of this since it involved much running about. He preferred sleeping by the fire. After all he had provided it. Rakuba adopted a simple way out. He refused to talk. Dogs could still talk to us if they wanted to , but they prefer not to do so.

To some extent Jews have traditionally taken a dim view of dogs. For centuries Near Eastern cities have been surrounded by pariah dogs. These are strays who become scavengers, eating garbage and sometime human corpses. Occasionally they are rabid. For public health considerations they can justly be considered unclean. The fact that the ancient Egyptians worshiped dogs may also have contributed to the this tittle.

Dogs have, however, received some Jewish praise. They were allowed to eat ritually unclean food as their reward from God because they did not bark during the first night of the exodus from Egypt. In five AD a Jewish commentary on Biblical Scriptures noted that dogs recognize and acknowledge there owners, while cats do not. Other fables praise dogs fidelity.

Christianity has been kinder to dogs. When Christ was born in a manger shepherds came to see Him. Some believe they brought their dogs along. In Granada it is said that the dogs were named Cubilon, Lubina, and Melampo. There these names are still considered lucky and are still given to dogs.

Statues of Saint Margaret usually show a dog pulling at her skirt. When she was seventeen years old she was seduced by a young nobleman. She lived with him for nine years until he suddenly disappeared. The nobleman's faithful dog searched for him and found the murdered manÕs body. The dog then led Margaret to him presumably pulling on her skirt in the process. Heartbroken Margaret returned to her family who rejected her because of her sinful relationship. Margaret became a nun and because of her outstanding piety she was made a saint.

Early in his life Saint Patrick demonstrated his ability to handle fierce dogs since they recognized his holiness. Later his efforts to convert the Irish was helped when he arranged for the dog of a politically powerful Irish chieftain to go to heaven.

All Christians are not equally pro dog. Recently Bishop Spong, a very liberal

Episcopalian, refused to lead his congregation in the blessing of the hounds.

Moslems have followed the Jewish example in considering dogs to be unclean animals. Mohammed considered killing all the dogs in the holy city of Medina. He however reconsidered this because he realized that dogs are one of GodÕs creatures and that they were useful for scavenging, herding, and hunting. Still he stated that a bowl from which a dog has eaten must be washed seven times before a devout moslem may eat from it. Only stray dogs especially black ones should be killed. On a black dog a white patch neat the eyebrow is a sure sign of the devil.

Going from the spiritual to the secular, menÕs early opinions about dogs have generally been pragmatic. Aristotle thought that the intelligence of dogs and men differed primarily in degree. Both had mental abilities and both had emotions. In men they are simply better developed. Saint Thomas Aquinas believed human and animal intelligence differed quantitatively rather than qualitatively. This was the generally accepted view until the seventeenth century when RenŽ Descartes came forth with a very different opinion.

Descartes was interested in defining the soul. Since it had proved difficult to find a soul at autopsy Descartes decided that the soul must have something to do with reason and emotions. He thought that if animals had reason and/or emotions they would also have souls and be eligible for the life hereafter. Heaven then would be a very crowded place what with dogs, spiders, and such getting in.

Descartes considered animals to be biological machines. They lacked all consciousness and therefore were without thought or emotion. Their actions were really complex reflexes. Since it assumes that animals cannot feel pain these ideas have led to considerable cruelty.

His conclusions while never universally accepted, have persisted until the present. Efforts to explain animal behavior on the basis of thought or emotion are called ÒanthropomorphismÓ and by some are taken as proof of an unscientific person.

Behaviorism is in some respects an outgrowth of these ideas. Both human and animal actions are thought to be controlled by conditioning. Specific stimuli are linked to various responses. These ideas are popular in part because they postulate an almost total role of education in shaping human behavior. Some have gone as far as to say that with proper training anyone can become a university president!

Darwin did not agree with Descartes ideas concerning animals. In The Descent of Man he says that the only difference between the intelligence of men and that of lower mammals ÒIs one of degree and not of kind.Ó

Darwin's book The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals goes to great length to show that people in culturally and geographically totally distinct societies express emotions with similar actions and facial expressions. He also shows that other primates have similar manners of expression. Although this book was something of a best seller when it was written, the work has now been largely forgotten. The cause of this neglect is that his ideas were later found to directly contradict studies by Margaret Mead. She believed that the expression of emotion was quite different in different societies and was entirely dependent on the local culture. That is that nurture is everything and nature is unimportant!

Of course the nature versus nurture argument is still unsettled. Later as we consider instinct we will see that in dogs at least the question is meaningless.

To attempt to understand dog intelligence we must remember that the dogÕs senses are in some respects quite different from ours. Black and white movies enable us to understand the dogÕs visual world, but his sense of smell opens a world to him that is difficult for us to comprehend.

Touch is the first sense a puppy develops. At birth he is blind and deaf, but his sense of touch enables him to find his mother and her milk. This contact is essential. Dogs artificially fed from birth are very dysfunctional adults. Touch is still important to an adult dog. When his master strokes his dog the dogs pulse, blood pressure, and skin temperature all drop. Incidentally the same changes occur in the dogÕs master. Remember the question as to who should be on the couch?

The dogÕs sense of taste is not overly sensitive. The dog has seventeen hundred taste buds on his tongue while we have nine thousand. Dogs are indifferent to sweets though rabbits and horses can develop a sweet tooth. Dogs gulp their food as rapidly as possible. This may not be because they lack a gourmetÕs tongue. They probably inherit this from their wolf ancestors who in winter make infrequent large kills. The pack member who eats the fastest eats the most.

Dogs can hear noises about four times as far away as we can. They hear sounds up to forty thousand cycled per second while we only get up to twenty thousand. Presumable this is again due to their wolf relatives. In the summer many wolves subsist on mice and voles who make high pitched squeaks. Some dogs have mobile ears that allow accurate directional localization. Brain stem auditory evoked responses show that puppies are deaf until age two weeks. By seven weeks the hearing is normal. A dog can distinguish notes differing by only one eight of a tone and can distinguish the sound of his masterÕs car from that of others.

Dogs have good peripheral and night vision. Their near vision is inferior to ours because

their eyes are relatively flat and have a poor ability to focus. Depth perception is better in dogs

with medially placed eyes than in those whose eyes are more lateral. Generally dogs have about one fourth of their optic nerve fibers crossed while one half of ours cross. Dogs have good twilight vision because beneath their rods and cones there is a layer, the tapetum lucidum that reflects light. This causes dogs eyes to shine in a carÕs headlights. Dogs do have some cones so they have rudimentary color vision.

The dogs sense of smell is, compared to menÕs, truly remarkable. It should be. The dog has two hundred twenty million scent glands while we have five million. In the dog these glands are spread over a surface of seven square meters while ours occupy one half of a square meter.

When following a scent a dog sniffs in trains. There are frequently one to three trains between rests and three to seven sniffs per train. The sniff passes into a subethmoidal shelf, which we lack, and where it is mixed with other sniffs, but does not go on into the lungs. Scent molecules are dissolved in mucus of which the dog has a copious supply. Men have developed no mechanical instrument as sensitive as the dogÕs nose.

The dogÕs scent receptors, like ours, can become saturated. Hounds following a fox will bay when they are following a scent. This lasts about two minutes and then they will lift their heads and allow their receptors to recover while other dogs pick up the scent. Bloodhounds follow ground scent while collies and retrievers follow air trails. Labrador retrievers particularly have been used by the military to detect land minds and other explosives . Many Labradors were taken to Vietnam. It was a one way trip. The climate killed the dogs who did not die doing their work.

A dogs mental activities are the result of instinct, imprinting, learning, and innate problem solving ability. Instinct is extremely important. Donald McCaig said that ÒEvery human child must learn the universe fresh. Every stockdog pup carries the universe within him.

Humans have externalized wisdom, stored it in museums, libraries, the expertise of the learned. Dog wisdom is inside the blood and bones.Ó

Teaching a dog is frequently only encouraging the use of one facet of instinct. Therefore, as previously mentioned, the nature versus nurture argument becomes meaningless. The belief that dogs are descended from wolves, a pack animal, explains much of their instinctive behavior. A wolf pack requires the ability to choose and follow leaders and subordinates. Dogs have this ability and, if properly trained, will choose their human master as pack leader. After wolves kill and eat they may return to their cave and regurgitate food for their pups. This may be the instinctive basis for retrieving. One dog managing a herd of sheep consecutively plays the role of each wolf in a pack moving a herd of deer. Puppies point before they attack while pointers just point. Hounds instinctively hunt by sight and scent.

Konrad Lorenz developed the theory of imprinting in 1937. Subsequently this had been shown to be important in the development of animal minds. A mother initially licks her deaf and blind puppies both to stimulate urination and defecation and to imprint them with her saliva. They then know how their mother smells. The mother also licks her own nipples so that the puppy can find them. If her nipples are washed with soap and water the puppy has difficulty nursing.

At two weeks of age the puppies hearing and vision begin to develop. By four weeks they are sufficiently mature for socialization to begin. It develops with other dogs between four and six weeks and with people from four to twelve weeks. This period is vital. Puppies who do not play with other puppies during this time never relate well to dogs. Similarly lack of exposure to people leads to dogs that are very difficult to train.

The importance of this period is even shown anatomically. The brains of rats raised in a sensory rich environment actually weigh more than the brains of those raised in very simple

surroundings. Retrievers generally live at home with their owners for six months or more before beginning professional training. This is called socializing.

A negative imprint occurs when a young dog is suddenly exposed to loud noises such as gun fire. When training a hunting dog the animal should be exposed to the sound of distant shooting and then allowed to gradually come closer to the noise.

Dog training is dependent upon the ability to learn, This is partially inherited and varies with breed and pedigree. The ability to learn appears to improve with practice. The more a dog is taught the more he seems able to absorb. Training periods, however, should not be too long since dogs can become bored and cease learning. In training some submissiveness is helpful. A very aggressive dog is difficult to train.

A dog learns from both observation and demonstration. Rewards and punishments are used. Rewards may be food or praise. Praise is frequently more effective. Punishment may be verbal or physical. Electric collars are frequently used and unfortunately sometimes over used. Their great virtue is that they allow correction at a distance. A brief ÒnickÓ is useful without being really cruel. The dog must be taught that the nick indicates a mistake. This is called Òcollar conditionedÓ. The most important rule is to never correct a dog until you are sure he knows what he was supposed to have done.

Problem solving ability like learning ability is inherited. It involves more thinking than DescartesÕ disciples like to attribute to an animal. Any dog will give examples of problem solving. Without any teaching many dogs learn to bring their leash to their master when they want to go for a walk. It shows thought when a number of birds are shot and a retriever goes for the cripple that might swim away before he gets the dead birds. Various intelligence tests also involve problem solving.

Dog intelligence, like ours, involves various types. They also can excel in one type and be deficient in another.

Dog intelligence may be classified as follows.

1] Logical and mathematical

2] Spacial

3] Musical

4] Body kinesthetic

5] Intrapersonal

6] Interpersonal

7] Communicative

Canine logical or mathematical intelligence is limited. Sam Johnson asked ÒDid you never observe that dogs have not the power of comparing? A dog will take a small bit of meat as readily as a large when both are before him.Ó This may be true, but in field trails a dog is capable of remembering how many birds he must find up to three.

Spacial intelligence is the ability to visualize oneÕs position relate to oneÕs surroundings. Most house dogs have a good picture of their home including the location of the dog food, available water, and which furniture to avoid lying on when the adults are at home. Dogs generally know the nearby neighborhood, but their ability to avoid automobiles is frequently not dependable. When lost in the woods a GPS is more trustworthy than Fido.

Musical ability in dogs is generally absent though as mentioned their ability to distinguish between frequencies exceeds ours. Some dogs howl when country music is played so this group has some taste.

Dogs have body kinesthetic intelligence. For obedience trials dogs are taught to jump, climb ladders, and balance on a beam. Sam Johnson's equating a dogÕs walking on his hind legs with a womanÕs preaching is of course rank chauvinism.

A dogs intrapersonal intelligence allows him to know what he can and cannot do. A dog will refuse to jump over some higher barriers or climb too steep a hill. Dogs also know what and who they like or dislike. I knew a dog who watched happily as cars or pedestrians passed his house, but who barked furiously when a motorcycle came by.

Interpersonal skills are developed rapidly. They determine who is alpha in their group and where in the group they rank. There are frequent attempts at social climbing particularly in puppies. Sometimes these attempts result in injuries. Attempts to describe the interpersonal relationships of dogs with other dogs and with people may lead to being accused of anthropomorphism. It is hard to work with dogs, however, and not believe they are capable of love and loyalty. I am sure they can be jealous. I do not know if they understand death but I know they can become lonely.

The ability to communicate is a well developed type af canine intelligence. Dogs can utilize scent, vision, and voice to transmit information. The most utilized is probably scent. This occurs through chemicals called pheromones. These are present in saliva, feces, in vaginal and preputial secretions, and from perianal and dorsal tail gland secretions. Sniffing the anal region is for dogs rather like human hand shaking, except the sniffing can transmit considerably more information. Canine pheromones tell the power and authority of males and the reproductive status of females. Incidentally, female dogs secrete pheromones indicating estrus for ten days before estrus occurs. They want the males around before any action is possible. Pheromones in urine turn a fireplug into a veritable local newspaper.

We are unable to share communication by scent with dogs, but we can learn to share visual messages. Dominant dogs can stare down submissive dogs and we can stare down almost all dogs. A calm dog will have his ears and tail relaxed. When alert the tail and if possible the ears go up. To show aggression the hackles, tail, and rump go up and and the lips are pulled back.

To show even more aggression a dog snarls and shows his teeth. The stance becomes very erect. A frightened dogÕs ears are pulled back and made flat and the tail is between the legs. This dog may bite if approached past a critical distance. Abject submission is shown by lying flat on the back. Licking a face means greetings. It is said that ÒDogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails.Ó

Dogs make five basic sounds. Infantile sounds are crying, whimpers, or whines. Warning sounds are barks or growls. Eliciting sounds are either barks or howls and barks can signify threat, alarm, excitement or wanting attention. Withdrawal sounds are usually yelps. Finally pleasure may be indicated by a moan.

Dogs obviously cannot talk, but they can understand fifty or so words Commands are best when they are a single word. Dogs do not understand syntax. That is they cannot distinguish between a man eating dog and a dog eating man. Dogs can know more than the owners desire. Some people have to spell out ÒbathÓ and ÒveterinarianÓ. Dogs can learn to respond well to whistles. This is useful in herding sheep and blind retrieves.

Neither dogs or chimpanzees have the anatomical equipment necessary for speech. Chimpanzees, however, can be taught to sign and can use about fifty words. Dogs have the ability to learn a good bit about us from our tone of voice and body language. People who work with dogs in obedience say Ò The tension flows down the lead Ò.

Dogs come in many sizes and shapes with very different instincts and learning abilities. This has allowed selective breeding to produce the great variety of dogs we have today. An

incomplete list of jobs that dogs have been breed to do includes guarding, racing, hunting, herding,

hauling, smelling, helping the handicapped, and finally companionship.

Breeding can produce specialist.These sometimes are, and sometimes are not, accompanied by less desirable traits. Bloodhounds and beagles are breed to follow scent which they do amazingly well. They cannot, however, be trained to do much else.

Retrievers such as Labradors and Goldens are breed for a soft mouth and limited aggression. They are highly trainable as are pointers who are breed to hunt and not kill. Herding dogs such as collies are also highly trainable and have limited aggression. Dogs breed to both herd and protect such an the German Shepherd are highly trainable but are moderately aggressive. Dogs breed primarily as guard dogs such as the Great Dane, Mastiffs, and Irish Wolfhounds are independently aggressive and not easily trained. Hunting dogs generally are good at problem solving.

The American Pit Bull has been selectively breed to attack. Their ownership has been outlawed in some communities. A study of twenty human deaths caused by these dogs showed that ten were owned by males aged twenty to twenty five. Eleven owners had criminal records. Eleven of the dogs showed signs of abuse. Presumably the guilt does not lie entirely on the breed.

Most selective breeding is not for aggression. Generally people have wanted docile dogs and frequently those who are smaller than wolves. One result of this breeding is called ÒneotenyÓ. This refers to adult dogs with puppy like characteristics. Mentally they are arrested in adolescence. They are submissive and like to play. As the literary critic Samuel Butler said ÒThe greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.Ó Physically neoteny may be shown by small size, short muzzle, and floppy ears.

Stephen Jay Gould in The Mismeasure of Man had an interesting idea about neoteny. He thought that there is correlation between childhood wonder and adult creativity, and that our success as a species may be due to our retaining this juvenile characteristic. When we breed dogs we neotenized them also.

This idea may be carried even further and explain why, from all possible animals, we chose some breeds of wolves as our first companions. Possibly early men noticed that wolves perpetuate some juvenile behavior through adult life. Wolves play with their pups and with each other. Wolves play tag. They hide and jump out at each other for no apparent reason except to have fun. I suspect the domestication of the wolf had more to do with the wolfs ability to guard a cave rather than his playfulness. However the latter idea is interesting.

If a dog is to be trained for a specific purpose some idea of his intelligence is useful. We would like to know his instinctual characteristics, his aggressiveness, his trainability, and his problem solving ability. Unfortunately for an individual dog this information is not readily available. Probably the best one can do is to look at his pedigree. (I sometimes irritate my more liberal friends by saying that dogs are different from people in that in dogs intelligence is inherited.)

Stanley Coren in The Intelligence of Dogs describes a test of personality, not intelligence, that may be given to puppies about seven weeks old and which takes about twenty minutes. This is supposed to give information about submissiveness or their dominance and their ability to work with people. Unfortunately there is no data showing the reliability of the test and some authors consider it worthless.

Mr. Coren also describes an IQ test for dogs over one year of age which is more useful. The dogs must have lived with the tester for at least three months prior to the test. Information is obtained about the dogÕs problem solving ability, his attention and environmental learning, social learning, long and short term memory, language comprehension, and process learning. Results for any breed show great individual variations. Some breeds excel in learning, memory, and problem solving. These include Doberman pinschers, German shepherds, Norwegian elkhounds, poodles (both standard , miniature, and toy) and Shetland sheepdogs. Some breeds excel in some areas but not in others. Dogs good in learning and memory, but less good in problem solving include Belgian sheepdogs, Bernese mountain dogs, Welsh corgis (both Cardigan and Pembroke) , golden retrievers, and Labrador retrievers. Dogs particularly good at problem solving, but do less well in learning and memory include the terriers and working breeds. These terriers are the Australian, carin, fox (both smooth and wire haired), Kerry blue, and West Highland white. The working dogs good at problem solving include malamutes and Siberian huskies. The schnauzers (standard, giant and miniature) are also good problem solvers.

This test requires thirty minutes to an hour to administer and it would be prohibitively expensive to give it to enough of each of the one hundred thirty four breeds registered with the American Kennel Club to obtain meaningful results. As a substitute Mr. Coren sent questionnaires to AKC approved obedience trial judges asking them to rank the intelligence of each breed on which they could form an opinion. Of these judges two hundred eight, approximately half, replied with detailed ratings. The judges showed remarkable agreement.

Performance in an obedience test does not indicate all facets of a dogÕs intelligence. A valid criticism of this study is that rather dumb breeds would rarely be entered in obedience trials. Some trials, however, are for individual breeds. Also dog owners, like parents, tend to overrate

their loved ones, so dumb dogs are entered. Some data was available for each breed. The results appear in Mr. CorenÕs book. The breeds are divided into seventy nine rankings. I will mention only a few breeds.

The border collie is first. The Golden retriever is forth and the Labrador retriever is seventh. In field trials, incidentally the Golden rarely beats the Labrador. The Cocker spaniel is twentieth and the Chesapeake is twenty seventh. Generally hounds are low with the poor

beagles at seventy two. The Afghan hound is the bottom at seventy nine.

The owners of dogs in lower ranking breeds will probably believe their pet is an exception. Few of us want to admit our dog is not overly bright. Practically speaking, however, does one really want a smart dog? Not really if the dog is to be left alone in an apartment all day. He will be happier and less destructive if he has a lower IQ.

Companion dogs have little need for intellectual eminence and yet they make delightful and beneficial pets. One study showed that after a heart attack, dog owners were four times more likely to be alive after a year than others without dogs. A famous companion dog, the Cavalier King Charles, is very pretty and fairly dumb. The breed ranks forty fourth. King Charles II loved the breed so much that he made a law allowing these dogs to roam the palace at will and to attend meetings of the privy council. Recently an English gentleman brought his Cavalier King Charles into a British court. He was rebuked by the judge, but he pointed out that the charter given by Charles II had never been revoked and that it was illegal to turn these dogs away from any assembly operating under a mandate of the crown. The dog stayed in the court.

If a dog is wanted that will win obedience tests or field trials, or herd sheep, or assist the handicapped, a smart dog is needed. Hunting, hauling, guarding, or killing rats requires appropriate instincts. To follow a fox or lower the owners blood pressure a gentlemanÕs ÒCÓ is satisfactory.

This paper deals with differences, differences between breeds, different types of intelligence, and different individual variations. It must be remembered however that we are discussing one gene pool and one species. A poodle and a beagle have minor differences and major similarities. They are both dogs.

The study of dog intelligence is important in breeding and training dogs. Intelligence is not, however, the dogÕs most important characteristic. It is instead their great ability is to teach us about love and loyalty. In this respect it is definitely the man who is on the couch.